Home Alone (1990)

Home Alone (1990)

8/10

Starring

Macaulay Culkin

Joe Pesci

Daniel Stern

Catherine O’Hara

 

Directed by Chris Columbus

 

What was the 90s without Kevin McCallister? I don’t know anyone who grew up in the 90s who didn’t have a VHS tape of Home Alone. At my young age, it was the perfect Christmas movie and the staple dessert after you had your rice and chicken. This was one of those movies that made many of us who were born in Africa (and grew up there) wish we lived in the U.S. We always thought life must have been really cool to be able to mess up your home, talk back to your mother, and cause havoc during dinner time without getting beaten the hell up.

Home Alone, for what it is, is one of the best things that John Hughes ever produced and wrote. His name was the one I looked for when I went to the video store in the 90s to borrow a film. And it is because of him that all those 80s and early 90s classics are just stamped in my mind. Macaulay Culkin became the dream dude for all of us, and how he became a hero to stop bad guys turned him into a child star. One more amazing thing about this film is the musical score by John Williams; the only word to describe that score is—epic.

The movie is about a large family, composed of cousins, aunties, uncles, moms, and dads, who all planned to spend Christmas together in Paris. Young Kevin always felt he did not fit into the family, and he always seemed to be at the end of a lot of things going wrong. After an accident that ruined dinner for everyone (as they all stayed together for that night to leave for the airport together), his mother sent him to sleep in the attic.

The next morning, his parents overslept and woke up to find out they were about to miss their flight. So, the whole family was in a rush to get ready to go. They rushed out of the house, and after a count, they believed they had everyone. An officer, Harry (Joe Pesci), saw the family rush out and came to say his hellos.

They made it just in time, and the huge family got on the plane for Paris. While on the plane, Kate (Kevin’s mother – Catherine O’Hara) kept having this feeling that she forgot something. Then it finally hit her—she forgot her son, whom she punished by making him sleep in the attic.

We soon discover that Harry, the officer, is actually a thief posing as an officer to be able to scope out homes. Harry, along with his partner Marv (Daniel Stern), robs homes when families go on vacation. Since he saw the McCallisters leave, their home was his next target.

Now poor Kevin is still at home and gets carried away with the idea that he has to defend his home from these burglars, while Kate is doing everything she can—getting on planes, taking bus rides—to make sure she gets back home to her son.

There is no way this movie will fade away soon, but I do hope Disney gives up on the idea of a remake.