Home Alone (1990)

Review Date: November 30th, 2022

Hi everyone. To kickstart off of the Christmas Season this year, this will be my 1st Christmas Movie Review. It’s 1 of my Favorite Christmas Movies ever. So let’s get down to the review for today.

CAST:

Macaulay Culkin - Kevin McCallister

Joe Pesci - Harry

Daniel Stern - Marv

John Heard - Peter McCallister

Catherine O’Hara - Kate McCallister

John Candy - Gus Polinski

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!

⚠️

The McCallister family is preparing to spend Christmas Vacation in Paris, gathering at Peter & Kate's home in a Chicago suburb on the night before their departure. Peter & Kate's youngest son named…

Kevin McCallister

is the subject of ridicule by his older siblings & cousins. Kevin accidentally ruins the family dinner after getting into some beef with his oldest brother Buzz, resulting in Kate sending him up to the attic. Then, Kevin lashes out on his mother for allowing the rest of the family to pick on him, & wishes that his family would disappear.

At midnight, heavy winds create a power outage, disabling the alarm clocks & causing the family to oversleep. In the confusion & rush to get to the airport, Kevin is accidentally left behind.

Elsewhere, Kevin wakes up to find that his family disappeared. Thinking that his wish has come true, he becomes overjoyed with his newfound freedom. Later, Kevin becomes scared of his next door neighbor named…

Old Man Marley

who is rumored by the local children to be a serial killer who murdered his own family.

The McCallister home is soon terrorized by the…

Wet Bandits (Harry & Marv); a pair of burglars who have been breaking into other vacant houses in the neighborhood.

Then, Kevin tricks them into thinking that his family is still home, forcing them to postpone their plans to rob the McCallister house.

Elsewhere, Kate realizes during mid-flight that Kevin was left behind, & upon arrival in Paris, the family discovers that all flights for the next 2 days are booked, & that the phone lines are still down back home in Chicago. Peter & the rest of the family stay in his brother's apartment in Paris, while Kate manages to get a flight back to Scranton, Pennsylvania. She tries to find a flight to Chicago. But all the flights are booked. Kate is overheard by Gus Polinski, the lead member of a traveling polka band, who offers to let her travel with them to Chicago in a moving van.

Meanwhile, Harry & Marv finally realize that Kevin is the only family member in the McCallister home, & on Christmas Eve, Kevin overhears them discussing plans to break into the house that night. Then, Kevin starts to miss his family, & asks the local Santa Claus impersonator if he could bring his family back for Christmas.

He goes to church, & watches a choir perform, & encounters Marley, who proves to him that the rumors about him are false. Marley points out his granddaughter in the choir, & mentions that he does not otherwise get to see her, since she is the daughter of his estranged son. Kevin suggests to Marley that he should reconcile with his son.

Kevin returns home, & fills the house with booby traps. Harry and Marv break in, spring the traps, & suffer various injuries. During the film’s production, Joe Pesci had trouble controlling his swearing. So he spoke lots of gibberish words instead. Here’s a video of some of the traps that was used in the 1st movie:

While Harry & Marv pursue Kevin around the house, he calls the police & lures the 2 into a neighboring house which they had previously broke into. Then, Harry & Marv ambush Kevin, & prepare to get their revenge. But Marley intervenes, & knocks both of them out unconscious with his snow shovel. Shortly after, the police arrive, & arrest Harry & Marv, having identified all the houses that they broke into due to Marv's destructive habit of flooding them.

On Christmas Day, Kevin is initially disappointed to find that his family is still gone, although Kate arrives home, & they reconcile. The rest of the family soon return after waiting in Paris until they could obtain a direct flight to Chicago. But Kevin is mute about his encounter with Harry & Marv, although Peter finds Harry's knocked-out gold tooth. Finally, Kevin watches Marley reuniting with his son, daughter-in-law, & granddaughter. Marley notices Kevin, & they wave to eachother.

THE END

Home Alone (1990) is 1 of my Favorite Christmas Movies ever. I 1st watched this film on VHS many years ago. It was the VHS from 1991. But it had the teaser trailer for FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), the American Airlines commercial, & the Pepsi commercial as well.

OVERALL: 9.5/10 | End of Review

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