Why Home Alone Couldn't Survive Without Macaulay Culkin

foreign don't get scared now this is home alone and it is an absolute holiday classic no turning back another Christmas in the trenches This is Home Alone 2 lost in New York and it's slightly less of a holiday classic and then there's Home Alone 3 4 the Holiday Heist and home sweet home alone and they might as well not even exist so what happened here how did this once box office Juggernaut fall off a cliff and into this abysmal run of totally forgettable straight to video releases that missed the mark by nearly every metric this is my house I have to defend it the first Home Alone film was a critical and Commercial Success the film had a unique and original premise that effectively took the excitement of a big budget action film and distilled it into a family-friendly comedy about a child protecting his home from two burglars home alone is a great movie it seamlessly Blends humor and heartwarming emotions together with low budget action set pieces all while telling an endearing story about the importance of family and home that is accessible to pretty much any viewer of any age this translated to Home Alone generate reading 476.7 million dollars at the box office if you adjust that number for inflation it'd be the same as grossing over one billion dollars by today's box office standards these are not numbers that get ignored so of course a sequel was greenlit almost immediately keep the change you filthy animal Home Alone 2 lost in New York was released in 1992 and once again audiences lined up for another holiday Adventure in hopes of it capturing the same magic as the original film where's Kevin 14. it's a good thing I have my own ticket just in case you guys try to ditch me for the most part Home Alone 2 does a pretty decent job of holding up next to its predecessor some might argue that Home Alone 2 is a bit of an unrealistic retread of the original film but thanks to Macaulay Culkin's magnetically likable personality and uncanny comedic timing he's able to carry this film to similar Heights of success Merry Christmas you filthy animal and a happy New Year sure the film relies a bit too heavily on recycling old bits to varying degrees of success but it seems to follow the model of if it isn't broken there's no need to fix it where the first film spins the inaugural 20 minutes setting up family Dynamics defining relationships and cementing thematic elements Home Alone 2 sets up plot devices and gimmicks while serving up second beats of jokes we have already seen and heightening characters we already know Home Alone 2 sidesteps too many necessary components to make it a great film The McAllister's learned nothing from Forgetting their child in the first film and lose them again in an airport Kevin learns nothing about the appropriate thing for a miner to do when separated from his family and Harry and Marv learn nothing about Kevin McAllister's superhuman understanding of Applied Physics since nobody has learned anything we aren't necessarily as invested as we need to be as the film's story plays out despite all of its flaws Home Alone 2 lost in New York was another home run at the box office and was able to generate a sizable return of about 358 million dollars in 1992 so of course the studios went right back to work on Home Alone 3. you got guys give up or you're thirsty for more Macaulay Culkin wasn't returning for a third foray into the world of makeshift home security systems and the studio had to seek out a child performer who could effectively film Macaulay Culkin's shoes something that just isn't possible what John McLean is to Die Hard Kevin McAllister is to home alone and not having him involved in a home alone film doesn't make sense look what you did you little jerk Home Alone 3 is a standalone film and it's wholly unrelated to the first two films there isn't even a nod to them it's just an entirely new film that uses the same formula but it fails on almost every front it seems like the intent behind making it was just to get to the hijinks as fast as possible without laying any of the necessary groundwork to tell us why we should care the plot just focuses primarily on injuring four criminals who are about as threatening as a bowl of cereal in wild and outlandish ways there's no heart there's no charm and there's certainly no Macaulay Culkin Alex D Lins is a cute kid but it really starts and stops there it's not that he's necessarily a bad performer he just doesn't have that gravitational charm that's present in Macaulay Culkin's performance are you here all by yourself bam I'm eight years old you think I'd be here alone I don't think so Home Alone 4 struggled with almost the exact same problems as Home Alone 3 but it adds insult to injury by attempting to effectively reboot the franchise this film never even hit theaters it was released as a made-for-tv movie and it feels lackluster even by those standards the plot is a convoluted mess Kevin's family is going through a divorce his dad has a new girlfriend who is Rich Marv is the primary antagonist but they recast him with French Stewart hello Marv long time no see and it was an even bigger mistake to think that another performer could have stepped into the role of Kevin McAllister there's none of that Sly impish wit that we all came to love from Macaulay Culkin's performance I was making ornaments out of Fish Hooks my new fish hooks I can't make ornaments out of the old ones with dry worm guts stuck on them you would think that after two colossal failures that Home Alone would finally rest in peace but in 2012 Disney tried to Breathe new life into the franchise with Home Alone the Holiday Heist another made for TV movie and not even the somewhat startling inclusion of a classically trained actor like Malcolm McDowell could save it a bunch of two-bit Bandits I'm not gonna be stymied by a slippery walkway again this film runs into the same problem it tries to take a cute kid criminals and pranks and make a movie without doing any labor whatsoever and telling us why we should care the most recent attempt to revive home alone came last year with home sweet home alone releasing as a Disney plus original film this film ignores the latter three films in the series and instead serves as a sequel to the original films this is evidently supported by the inclusion of Buzz McAllister who has gone on to become a police officer and several homes in the area are protected by McAllister home security so the film at the very least extends within the same world when I was a kid my family went on vacation we forgot my little brother Kevin twice home sweet home alone is better than the latter three installments but that isn't saying much the villains are an improvement Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney bring some established comedic chops into play and Archie Yates is an incredibly endearing performer who comes into the franchise after a breakout performance in Taiko watiti's JoJo rabbit in this film The Narrative gets flipped on its head instead of burglars coming in to steal from a family it's actually the protagonist who steals from the burglars they're trying to retrieve their stolen property while there are definitely some fun moments in the film it plays out more like a highlight reel rather than a cohesive film but the structure is there oh that did not sound right home alone was built upon the foundation of thematic elements of togetherness individuality and what it means to be part of a family and instead of embracing those themes the franchise centered on the elaborate hijinks in comedy to grab the viewer's attention no offense it seems like sort of a dumb thing to do this is you are a six-year-old but it doesn't create a viewing experience that everyone can necessarily enjoy there's nothing for us to latch onto emotionally and thus we have no reason to actually care and without a charismatic performer like Macaulay Culkin in the driver's seat of a primary protagonist these lackluster scripts never deliver enough charm to keep an ever-evolving movie-going audience engaged without a true sequel featuring an adult Kevin McAllister played by Macaulay Culkin the franchise will continue to run into the same problems and over fist that's it for this one folks be sure to like And subscribe if you haven't done so already you might see some links floating around in the player window here feel free to click on those if you haven't done so already and thanks for watching nerdstalgic [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Nerdstalgic

Views: 97,374

Keywords: Home Alone, Home Alone 2 Lost in New York, Home Alone Sequels, Home Alone Downfall, Home Alone Macaulay Culkin, Nerdstalgic, Home Alone Disney+, Home Alone 3, Home Alone Pranks, Home Alone Wet Bandits, Home Alone Joe Pesci, Home Alone BTS, Home Alone Chris Columbus, Home Alone Christmas, Home Alone Kevin McCallister, Home Alone Face Slap, Home Sweet Home Alone, Holiday Movies, Christmas Movies, Home Alone Franchise, New Rockstars, Corridor Crew, Screen Crush, IGN, Nerdist

Id: BBKNSbC5FNE

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2023