The fake trailer for Home Alone 3 starring Macaulay Culkin made fans excited to hear that iconic scream again. But here's the thing: there is already a Home Alone 3. There are also the fourth and fifth. There's even a sixth, a rebooted film that premiered during the pandemic, a bit like the first Home Alone.
Due to the combination of big-screen projects, TV movies, and streaming jams, Home Alone is bigger than you might think. Let's face it, though: it has never been better than OG, with Culkin playing Kevin McAllister, Joe Percy and Daniel Stern playing the lovable fools Harry and Marv, and an excellent soundtrack from John Williams. If you want to catch up on the others, or just watch the first one over and over again, they're all streaming for your Merry Christmas on Disney+ right now.
It's a season of giving, so we're giving you a ranking of each Home Alone movie, from worst to best:
6. Home Alone 4 (2002)
This mockery commits a big sin, replacing Culkin's signature performance with a performance by other children. Mike Weinberg plays Kevin, who is invited to the mansion where his divorced father and his new rich girlfriend live. The 9-year-old enjoys a life of luxury, but breaks the trap when the groom (French Stewart, who succeeds Stern) and his wife's close friend Vera (Missy Pyle) try to break in. It's steaming garbage to avoid no matter what.
5. Home Alone: Holiday Thieves (2012)
The fifth is one of the few to venture out of the McAllister family. Christian Martyn and Jodelle Ferland are two young men who move with their parents to a supposedly haunted house, and when their parents leave them alone at home for a gala, a group of thieves (including Malcolm McDowell and two played by Debbie Mazar) come looking for a precious painting by Edvard Munch. Of course, you can watch McDowell being attacked by Christmas wrappers and viscose, or just watch his better A Clockwork Orange.
4. Home Alone 3 (1997)
In another non-McAllister story, Alex D. Linz honestly wasn't as bad as Alex Pruitt. Pruitt was an 8-year-old in Chicago when a neighbor gave him a remote-controlled toy car. As it turned out, the car contained a high-tech microchip worth ten million dollars and was wanted by four international thieves. As a result, Alex happily inflicts a lot of damage on the invading villains. (This Home Alone is also noteworthy because it was one of Scarlett Johansson's early roles, playing Alex's sister Molly.) )
3. "Home Alone" (2021)
This good sixth film basically follows the template of "Home", with plenty of easter eggs for longtime fans, but takes its own path of happiness in the manner of Archee Yates, the breakout of "Jojo Rabbit". The chubby young Englishman plays Max in the film, and after a large family flies to Tokyo, he is left alone in his palatial home. This time, the enemies have their own story: Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney, a desperate couple desperate to keep their house, break into Max's home to retrieve a precious family heirloom. But they were unprepared for the little penguin's plan to fight back.
2. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
In the first sequel, Culkin's Kevin takes a detour to New York, while his family eventually settles in Florida. The boy has his dad's credit card, so he stays at the Plaza Hotel and meets Harry and Marf, who have just come out of prison and want to get revenge on the kid. Aside from the cameos of several future presidents who will be criminally indicted, the film is not bad, and it's always a treat to see the legendary Tim Curry, who plays a sycophant, hostile hotel porter.
1. 《小鬼当家》(Home Alone, 1990)
In the original version of this holiday comedy, Culkin always maintained a precocious personality. In the film, Kevin's family forgets to take him on vacation, and Kevin's mother (Catherine O'Hara) only realizes this on the way to Paris, and Kevin is left at home. Before Harry and Malve's visit makes his vacation more fun, Kevin enjoys his freedom. It's nice to watch an 8-year-old thwart a pair of ignorant adult thieves and viciously torture them in a creative way. What is often forgotten in farce, however, is the importance of family that the film wants to convey.