Home Alone

     It is officially Christmas day and that means that it is time to watch the ultimate Christmas classic about a psychologically troubled child that tortures some criminals with questionable intelligence and stars America’s former sweetheart, and Joe Pesci doing his absolute best to try not to cuss. Seriously though, this is the epitome of a Christmas classic, and its reputation is very well earned. Not only is this film funny, it has a lot of great messages of family, acceptance, conquering your fears, friendship, and to not get on Macaulay Culkin’s bad side.

            I am not going to get into too much about what the film is about, because at this point, I believe we all know what the film is about. Family plans a trip, child gets left behind, Joe Pesci tries not to cuss, Daniel Stern screams hilariously, and Macaulay Culkin tortures people. These are all things that we know and love, and they are things that really drive this film deep into our memory banks as being one of our childhood favorites. The cast was excellently chosen, and Chris Columbus was the perfect director for this film. As I have stated before, he directs young actors well and really allows Culkin to shine in his role as Kevin McCallister. At the time that this was released, Culkin was America’s golden boy, so he was the obvious choice for this role. His infectious smile, terrific charisma, and knack for comedy really helps him make the character memorable. There are several moments that he has in this film that people always remember, like his terrific scream when applying the aftershave, which still to this day does not make sense, but is funny, nonetheless. His connection that he has with Catherine O’Hara is also wonderful. They play a great mother-son duo. The true stars of this film though are Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. It takes a bit to get used to seeing Pesci in such a family film considering we are all used to seeing him as a wise guy, but he pulls off bumbling criminal well. Daniel Stern is also perfect in his role as the much more bumbling criminal that suffers tremendous amounts of pain and gives us some of the greatest screams in cinema history.

            The film has a decent screenplay, but it is one of those things that is not the focus. The focus here is just about the shenanigans involved between Culkin and the bandits, and that is primarily what you will remember. This is a film that is directed well, performed well, executed well, and is overall a solid film that does not do more than is needed of it. It is not one of those films that is amazing in any single way, but it does everything it needs to do effectively. It is a Christmas classic for a reason, and one that spawned a great sequel. I feel like there is not much more that needs to be said about this considering everyone has essentially seen it, so I will leave you with this, Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals, and a Happy New Year. Official Rating: 3.5 Stars.

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