Home Alone

One Christmas, while they're all gathering ready to go on holiday in the morning, 8 year old Kevin and the rest of his family come to loggerheads, and Kevin is banished to the third floor bedroom as a bedtime punishment... and in his anger, he makes a wish that they'd all just disappear. He's bullied by his older siblings and feels he is put on by his parents and never listened to...

... and the whole family sleeps in the following day, so they panic and rush out to catch their airplane to their holiday destination... forgetting that Kevin was in the third floor bedroom.

Kevin wakes up to find the house deserted and at first thinks it's a joke but realises his wish came true, they all disappeared... but danger lurks around the corner as Kevin realises that two burglars are eyeing up the empty houses on his block and his home is next.
It's time for Kev to pull himself out from hiding under the bed...

... and become the man of the house.

What an incredibly OTT and original movie.
I remember watching the movie as a kid and thinking it was one of the best things I'd ever seen.
Watching it these days though, it has aged slightly, and isn't quite as funny as it was when I was 8 years old...

... still though, it's a thoroughly entertaining romp about life lessons, cartoonish stunts, lots of slapstick and some really very subtle adult humour and cleverly put together comedy on behalf of some of the adult cast.

The screenplay is also wonderfully pieced together. The premise of leaving a child behind might seem completely impossible but the way the movie delivers the plot and screenplay makes it actually work brilliantly.

There are some cheesie and doughy scenes toward the end after the main actiony scenes but they're kept to a minimum.
Still though, the movie is actually really well balanced in terms of tone from one scene to the next.

The acting is really good as well.
Macaulay Culkin as Kevin... now, not only is this the film that catapulted Culkin into the limelight, it's also his best role to date. He's funny, carries the more perilous scenes well and seems to have had a great time during production.
Joe Pesci is a real surprise though... his comedic timing is perfect and really shines as the leader of the two baddies. Some of his one liners are hilarious too.

Daniel Stern is the stand out role for me though as Pesci's partner. He's immensly funny and gives the impression that every take was different. The guy really stands out among the main cast.

Back up comes from Roberts Blossom, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Devin Ratray and a very young Kieran Culkin (brother of Macaulay).

The action and slapstick scenes though are what the movie really makes the most of.
They're highly inventive, incredible cringeworthy (in a good way) and are full of gratuitously painful and sadistic humour.
It's also highly comicbook as well though the film doesn't try to be serious with it all, which makes it work even better.

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All in all, an absolute Christmas classic... even though it's not really a 'Festive' movie exactly.
Not as funny as I remember it being and will appeal to younger kids more, but it's still capable of raising a few smiles in an older audience with the playful element of the humour and occasional doughy scene at the end.

My rating: 87%