792. Home Alone (1990)

Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern

Director: Chris Columbus

Running Time: 103 mins

Home Alone is an American film about an 8-year-old boy who is left alone in his house after his family forget him when leaving on holiday in a panic, and his battle against two incompetent neighbourhood burglars in order to defend his house.

Yes, this is a fun family Christmas classic, but to be honest, it’s one of the slowest-starting films I’ve ever seen. It’s a fun idea to have this kid left home alone, but apart from his initial reaction to that, nothing particularly entertaining happens until we actually get a change in the story, so it’s a tough slog for the the first two-thirds of the film.

I’ll start with the main positive about the first part of this film, which is the fact that the initial shock of this kid, Kevin, being left home alone is quite funny. Whilst the build-up to that isn’t particularly interesting, it’s a lot of fun to see Kevin messing around in his house alone, something that everyone would love to do, and for the first ten minutes or so of his time stuck at home, it’s really entertaining.

However, the problem with this film then comes in what lies within the following 50 minutes. During this, there are three stories. 1: Kevin’s still running around his house doing the same thing over and over again, which really isn’t funny and becomes hugely boring. 2: Two burglars are eyeing up Kevin’s house to break into, but just keep driving past it every day and don’t do anything. 3: Kevin’s family is trying to get back to him once they remember they left him, but that’s a real boring and pointless slog within the story, because they just seemed so uncaring before they left him, and then randomly turn to loving him, so again, it’s boring and annoying.

So, that rant is over, and I can move on to talking about the best part of this film, which is the final 20 minutes, where Kevin is battling against the burglars to defend his house. I absolutely loved every minute of this stage of the story, because it’s full of brilliant slapstick, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are absolutely hilarious, it’s exciting and it’s full of surprises, something totally lacking earlier on in the film.

Despite that, the fun doesn’t last long enough, and it’s over before you know it, so because of that, and the film’s implausible plot and boring pacing, I’ll give this a 6.9.