Hello everyone, and this time last year, I wrote something about the first two Home Alones. Those are two movies I hold close to my heart and anything after the second one for me just isn’t good. So when I saw that Disney was going to try and milk another franchise I was slightly pessimistic to say the least. I had seen what Disney has done with other films and shows and I thought it was going to be a money grab. After watching the trailer, I was slightly underwhelmed, but the new Kevin was British so I convinced myself to watch it. Before I get started I would just like to say, my thoughts are my own and they won’t be the most sunshine and rainbows, however, to the best of my ability I will try to look at this movie objectively.
Just to give a little run down of the movie to refresh your memory (assuming you have watched it). We start off the movie at an open house event, the house is being sold by our movie's kinda-antagonists but kinda not, Jeff and Pam. They are struggling to provide for their family and the reason I threw that in there is to let you know these people are going to be tortured by a sadistic British boy. Anyhow, we finally meet our protagonist, Max Mercer, (which I’d argue to be the antagonist) and we find out he is just a rude lippy 10-year-old. He needs the toilet for the convenience of the plot and they end up at the open house event. There is a little back and forth between Max and Jeff until Max’s mum points out that Jeff owns this movie's Macguffin, the German porcelain doll. Max’s mum says he can’t have a McDonalds because of his rudeness and this causes him to hate his family. The next day, Jeff is considering selling the doll to be able to buy the house. He goes to look for the doll and can’t find it so he is convinced Max took it (which fair enough, don’t blame him). Jeff goes to the house to see if the doll is there, he gets completely ignored, someone conveniently shouts out the security code for the house, Jeff breaks and enters, gets scared off by the alarm. An hour of filler passes, during which we get a cameo from Buzz McCallister which was a cheap attempt and nostalgia and it worked. Anyway it gets to the heist, long story short, Max thinks he is being kidnapped and Jeff and Pam just want to provide for their kids, and because of that they got tortured. At the end, they realise the misunderstanding and happy times.
Now after my amazing synopsis of the movie there are a couple of things that I would like to bring up. Firstly is the kid, Max Mercer. Before I start I do want to clear up, I think the actor is brillant (Archie Yates). He was in JoJo Rabbit and did a spectacular job. The problem I have is the writing of the kid. In HA1 and HA2 is Kevin, despite being a little lippy here and there, he was misunderstood by his family around him, you felt bad when he was being ignored and neglected by his family. Also when he is torturing the Wet Bandits, you were rooting for him and his sadistic traps. Though, in this film, it is flipped, I find myself rooting for Jeff and Pam instead of the kid. They did this to subvert expectations but they went the wrong way around it. Also I think the British accent makes him a little more evil than he already is. This leads me on to my next point.
Jeff and Pam for me were one of the best played characters of the entire film. You could sympathise with them, you can understand when they do break in and I’m sure parents watching it can understand even more. So the fact they make the most relatable characters the one subject of pain. This doesn’t help even more when you pair it with the fact of the kid being a brat. Throughout the movie you are aware of their struggles. Half way through the movie Jeff’s brother shows up with flashy presents, giving Jeff’s children better things than they can give themselves. It just makes you feel a bit bad.
The last thing I wanted to clear up that really got to me was this one scene. It seems really stupid for me to complain at this but at the same time I really have to rant about this. There is a scene where someone is watching a remake of Angels with Filthy Souls. This is the film where the “Merry Christmas you filthy animal” comes from. Back to the point, the guy says something along the lines of, why do they always remake films, they are never as good as the classics. This is an obvious joke about the nature of the film and it really bugs me because they are aware the movie isn’t that good. Anyway, I just wanted that out in the world even though I have made much ado about nothing.
Overall, the movie is mediocre and I’d rather stick with the first two. The movie had some pretty good ideas and some good characters but the way they stitched it together wasn’t the greatest. If you somehow got to the end of my Home Sweet Home Alone rant, I applaud you and hope you enjoyed it.
By Rylie King
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