Film Friday: Home Alone

Home Alone
Release Year: 1990
Running Time: 1 hour 55 minutes

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For the month of December I’m going to be highlighting my four favorite x-mas movies. These are films that I watch every year around Christmas to help get me in the spirit of the holiday.

Home Alone is an extremely nostalgic movie for me. It was the first film I can remember seeing in theaters and, for a certain time period, it seemed to be everywhere.

The plot goes thusly, the McCallister family is overrun with extended relatives as everyone prepares for a large trip to Paris for Christmas. After oversleeping, the family rushes to the airport. Mistakenly leaving young Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) behind.

People cannot run through airports like this anymore.

With the house all to himself, Kevin lives out every fantasy most kids have of what they’d do if they were left all to themselves. Kevin’s shenanigans are interrupted when two burglars (Joe Pesci and  Daniel Stern) try to rob the house. With everyone gone, Kevin takes it upon himself to defend the homestead.

The paint-can scenes were the most memorable for me.

This is a fun movie that has held up fairly well in the 25 years since it was first released. As a kid, I always loved everything that Kevin does the minute he discovers his family is gone. The snooping through his siblings things, eating junk food and messing with his parents stuff is something I think everyone can relate to wanting to do without consequences growing up. Add in Kevin’s slap stick booby traps to defend the house against robbers and this is a really fun movie that lets kids bask in the fantasy of being independent and playing the hero.

Even though the furnace scene always scared the bejeebus out of me as a kid.

Watching this again as an adult, I still find a lot to enjoy about it.  It’s a great nostalgic watch that doesn’t talk down to its main audience. It’s also currently on Netflix, so stream away if you have a subscription.

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