HOME ALONE 3 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
I :-( but it ain't feel like Christmas
Cast: Alex D. Linz, Olek Krupa, David Thornton, Lenny von Dohlen, Rya Kihlstedt, Haviland Morris, Marian Seldes, Scarlett Johansson, Seth Smith, Kevin Kilner Director: Raja Gosnell Screenplay: John Hughes
I dislike HOME ALONE and the mention of the name McCauley Culkin, will result in a shrill scream of displeasure. However, HOME ALONE without Culkin, is like having Christmas without the Christmas tree. In the first episode I sympathised with the neighbourhood burglars (Joe Peschi and Daniel Stern), and wished the house would collapse on the overly cute Culkin - who deserves a taste of his own medicine. The second episode LOST IN NEW YORK, overly wallowed in sentimentality, which is much the same as wading in your own puke.
Despite my intense dislike for these movies, when I think of HOME ALONE, I also think of a White Christmas. In the latest instalment of HA 3, it's Christmas again, but the warm fuzzy feeling of stockings above the fireplace isn't there anymore. Maybe it's because the kid, alone at home with pox (Alex Linz), is more bratty than cute. One of Macaulay Culkin's greatest assets was getting away with blue murder and retaining the charm of a cherub. Unfortunately, Alex Linz just looks like a kid who enjoys playing pranks on people.
John Hugues, the brains behind the successful first two episodes, has decided not to stray far from the formula that made HOME ALONE a success. The minor variations come in the form of four international spies (Olek Krupa, David Thornton, Lenny von Dohlen, and Rya Kihlstedt), trying to recover a computer chip that ends up in the Pruitt household. This sets up the once-done-too-often final scene, where the kid has a field day bodily injuring and mocking the intelligence of adults. With a variety of diabolical contraptions, likely to have originated from a Nazi torture chamber, Alex punishes the four spies for invading his turf. If you like to watch ball breaking, head cracking, fart smelling, bum aching, electrocuting humour, then you have found it in HOME ALONE 3.
This movie does not compare well with the original HOME ALONE. If you didn't like the original to begin, then there is no room for this movie in your life. In HA3, the plot seems slower, the action sequences laboured and the plot contrived - as if writer John Hugues were fishing for trout in a dry stream.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au Movie Archives http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Tim+Voon Hugues Bouclier's Movies in Melbourne http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~bouclier/week/movies.html
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