Home Alone Review- By Michael Carlisle

 Title: Home Alone
Year: 1990
Director: Chris Columbus
Country: US
Language: English

When Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert decided to review Chris Columbus' Home Alone when it hit theaters they were initially disappointed; thinking the film was frivolous, too goofy and just not entertaining enough to succeed. They wondered why John Hughes, director of Sixteen Candles and Breakfast Club, could write such a bad flick. However they eventually admitted they were wrong when it became the highest grossing comedy of all time and a Christmas classic.

This picture is about An 8-year-old boy named Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) who is accidentally left behind while his family flies to France for Christmas and must defend his home against two idiotic burglars.

One appeal the film has is the incredible use of slapstick comedy. Slapstick is humor involving exaggerated physical activity which exceeds the boundaries of common sense; it has entertained film-goers for as long as there has been film. The slapstick is most prominent when Kevin McCallister is foiling the baddies (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) plot to rob his home. He lays plenty of traps; ornaments, buckets, fire and a rusty nail among others. The "wet bandits" fall into them and their pain adds to the humor of the picture.

Home Alone taps into the consciousness of both parent and child. Most young children's main fear is being home alone, having no parents to ensure your safety. Most parents' main fear is losing your child halfway across the world. Writer John Hughes exploits those fears and then abolishes them. Parent has no need to worry because their children are very smart and can foil the bad guys' plot, children have no need to worry because being home alone is fun. It involves eating ice-cream, sledding down the stairs and screaming in a mirror after putting on aftershave. In addition it's a Christmas flick with plenty of non-religious holiday music that is designed to appeal to the vast majority of the North American public.

In conclusion, though it's a family affair, Home Alone is fun to watch regardless of what age you are. Its themes are relevant, however in post 9/11 era an airport would be much trickier to get through and Kevin's mom would surely be interrogated for 7 hours after screaming "KEVIN!" in the middle of a flight from Chicago to Paris. If you're going to watch any Christmas movie during the holidays, then this should be one of them. 
Praise it! 4/5