The saga of the Christmas films is old, but even today, households celebrating the festival have a tradition of watching some Christmas classics. The advent of long-form content with their Christmas special episodes has not hindered the audience from enjoying certain classics like ‘Miracle on 34th Street’, ‘A Christmas Story’, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, and others that have been religiously watched. But, in 1990, the Macaulay Culkin-starrer ‘Home Alone’ became a favorite.
While the other Christmas classics provided us with a slice-of-life drama, romance, tragedy, or a loving lore of hope, ‘Home Alone’ was different. The Chris Columbus film was different from the other films. Firstly, it launched the career of Macaulay Culkin, who recently received a star on Hollywood’s ‘Walk of Fame’. It also made the Canadian actress, Catherine O’Hara, a household name in the US. ‘Home Alone’ broke away from the formulaic trope and took the risk of leaving a child alone on Christmas only to fight burglars. Later, many renditions of the film came along sans the original stars.
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6) Home Alone 4: Taking Back The House
Released in 2002, almost a decade after the first ‘Home Alone’, the fourth installment was a dud attempt to recreate the magic of the original film. They continued the trope of the McCallister house but recast Kevin. Mike Weinberg played the character of Kevin, who takes on the responsibility of fighting the kidnappers.
Kevin is living with his rich dad, Peter McCallister, and his girlfriend, Natalie Kalban. The kidnapper, Marv, is back, but this time, he is on a mission to abduct a royal heir with the help of his wife, Vera Murchins. However, Kevin goes against his parents’ wish to stop the kidnappers from executing their plans.
5) Home Alone: The Holiday Heist
In 2012, a decade after the fourth installment, another TV installment of ‘Home Alone’ was released on ABC Family. It was less of a Christmas film and more of a Halloween film. There was not a single hint of any of the predecessors.
The film revolves around the Baxter family, who have moved into a new house, where Finn Baxter, played by Christian Martyn, gets a bad feeling from the house, as if it were haunted. So, Finn sets a trap to catch the ghost in the house, only to find out that three thieves want to steal an $85 million Edvard Munch painting while the family goes shopping. The film lacks the violent yet funny touch that the two films had.
4) Home Sweet Home Alone
Again, after almost one decade, there was not a perfect, but an experimental installment titled ‘Home Sweet Home Alone’ came out during the pandemic in 2021. In the film, a married couple, Pam McKenzie and Jeff McKenzie, are planning to sell their house as they are going broke amid Christmas.
During an open house, Jeff meets Max Mercer, who sees his doll collection, and his mother, Carol, tells Jeff about Schneider Kinder, a one-of-a-kind, rare doll. Max decides to steal the doll and keep it to himself. After googling about the doll, Jeff finds out that the doll is worth millions.
So, when he finds out that Max stole it, he goes on a quest with his wife.
Mercers goes on a holiday to Tokyo, leaving Max at home alone. So, there is a quite simplistic quest for the couple to find the doll, while Max sets traps for them not to come near him as he thinks that they want to sell him instead of the doll. There is a sweet tribute to the original film, as Kevin’s bully brother, Buzz, is cast as a cop in the film.
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3) Home Alone 3
In 1997, five years after the best ‘Home Alone’ film, the third installment of the film was released. It did not follow the story of the first two installments. The film raised the stakes of the heist by involving the US Air Force. Raja Gosnell directed the film, with Alex Linz playing Alex Pruitt. It also starred Scarlett Johansson as Alex’s sister. The film does not exactly happen on Christmas day, but it follows through that week.
In ‘Home Alone 3’, Alex catches chicken pox. It is the same night that his neighbor, Mrs. Hess, gives him a gift that has an important chip that the North Korean government is after. They recruit four crooks to keep it safe, but it gets exchanged at the airport. As Alex gets bedridden, he keeps an eye on the neighborhood and spots burglars entering Mrs. Hess’ house.
After multiple attempts to catch them by calling the cops, Alex takes it upon himself to trap the burglars after he comes to know that the crooks are after a chip. The traps are very wisely planned and comically tickling. Rya Kihlstedt and Aleksander Krupa play suave crooks, but they are also not saved from the elaborate traps of Alex until the cops catch them and reward the kid with a six-figure sum.
2) Home Alone
It is the first installment where America’s new Christmas obsession began. The 1990s ‘Home Alone’ did not have any over-the-top tropes to catch the criminals, Marv Murchins and Harry Lyme. It gave wings to the career of Catherine O’Hara, who plays Kate McCallister, Kevin McCallister’s mother. Macaulay Culkin plays Kevin McCallister, the sweet, obnoxious child.
The story revolves around the McCallisters, who are leaving for the Christmas holiday in Paris. The house is in a chaotic state, with Kevin being stubborn. His brother, Buzz, tells him about Harry Lime, a man who hits people with a shovel. The family, in the chaos, sets the alarm off and grounds Kevin in the upper storage room.
The next day, the entire McCallister family gets up and only knows that they are late. In the morning shenanigans, they forget Kevin at home. But there is a looming fear of two burglars breaking into their home, calling themselves ‘Wet Bandits’.
When Kevin gets to know about their plan, he sets an elaborate trap to catch them, which gives us memorable laughs with an edge-of-the-seat thriller experience. Chris also utilizes the bond that Kevin and Robert Blossom’s Man Marley form as Macaulay’s character gives him advice to not hold back from calling his estranged son.
1) Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
In the latest ‘Home Sweet Home Alone’, Timothy Simons’ character says that they should leave the classics alone. But the second installment of ‘Home Alone’ is an exception to this theory. The film follows the same trope: Kevin McCallister is left alone to fight the thieves who run away from prison.
In ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’, McCallisters again run late to the airport as they plan to go to Florida to celebrate Christmas. This time, they do not forget Kevin. However, Kevin gets lost in the airport crowd and boards a plane to New York while his family flies to Florida. The stakes are raised in this installment, as Kevin is not alone at home but in a big city.
Kevin McCallister checks in at the luxurious Plaza Hotel, where he attracts foes who want his money. But the problems increase for him as the ‘Wet Bandits’ come to New York after breaking the prison.
In New York, Kevin goes to Duncan’s Toy Chest to buy himself some toys, where he meets Mr. Duncan, who tells him about a charity that the store is running. The thieves are aiming to loot the store, and Kevin, in his classic traps, saves the store from getting looted. It has become the fan-favorite installment from the ‘Home Alone’ series.
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