Another modern classic, this one is a behemoth, a box office force to be reckoned with. Home Alone out-slapsticks the great National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and launched one of the most bankable kid stars of all time.
When looking back, it’s hard to imagine a better time I ever had at a movie theater than Home Alone. As a wee lad of five years old when I saw it in theaters, Home Alone tapped into the fantastical mind of an adolescent child. While Kevin may not have imagined what happened in the film, when we were kids, we could imagine ourselves in his shoes, getting the better of two bumbling adults.
We open the movie with the McAllister residence in utter turmoil. A house of fifteen people is scrambling, making sure all loose ends are tied up before a two-week trip to Paris. The runt of the litter is Kevin, who feels out of place as one of the younger ones that can’t seem to get anyone’s attention. Even Fuller is more ingrained into the family and he wets the bed! After a fight with his brother Buzz, Kevin is sent to his room until the next morning, but is forgotten about when the entire family oversleeps and has to rush to get to the airport.
I don’t really want to spend much more time than that in terms of plot; you know the story. I will quickly say that the final act of the film, when Harry and Marv finally try to break in, is some of the finest comedy we’ve seen in a long time. Daniel Stern shows how great of a physical comedian he could actually be and it has me wondering where he went to after all these years. He steals the show with his screams of pain alone and his performance puts the film onto another level.
On an unrelated note, before writing this article, I decided that it wasn’t enough to write a review of Home Alone. I decided to tweet a completely bogus theory of the movie that I made up as I went along. I leave it here for your enjoyment.
The Main Damie 