Home Sweet Home Alone

Home Sweet Home Alone

By James Davidson

“Home Sweet Home Alone” is the next installment in the “Home Alone” series that started in 1990 with “Home Alone”. This installment focuses on Max Mercer (played by Archie Yates) , a young child who is unintentionally left home alone when his family takes a holiday trip to Tokyo. Jeff McKenzie (Rob Delaney) and his wife Pam (Ellie Kemper) are the “villains” of the film. Jeff and Pam are being forced to sell their home because Jeff has lost his job. Jeff discovers that a doll left to him by a relative is worth a lot of money and could solve their financial issues without having to sell their family’s home. When the couple discovers that the doll is missing, they immediately think that Max has stolen it, and concoct a plan to break into his home and steal it back. It was released on November 12th of 2021 and is available on the Disney+ streaming service.

While I enjoy the original “Home Alone”, I don’t think that it is a great movie. It is a Holiday classic, but I don’t think that it needed all of the sequels that it produced. I wasn’t excited to watch this film, I thought it was unnecessary and just a cash grab by Disney. Unfortunately my worries were well founded and I was unimpressed by this movie.

My main issue with this movie is that, while there are a few good laughs, most of the humor and plot were recycled from the original film. This was almost an exact remake of the first film, with the exception of the filmmakers’ lackluster attempt to make the villains more relatable. The writers attempted to make the thieves relatable because they had money issues and they had a “good reason” to break into the kids house to steal back something that was rightfully theirs. Unfortunately this didn’t resonate with me at all. I felt like the entire fiasco could have been avoided with a call to the child’s mother, or to the police by either party.

The humor also fell short for me as well. While there were one or two times I chuckled, most of the jokes were exactly the same as the original. Most of the humor was based on the booby traps laid by Max to surprise the thieving couple breaking into his house. Unfortunately almost all of the traps were first laid by Kevin McCalister in the first movie. Almost all of the jokes were recycled from the first couple “Home Alone” films. I would have liked to see more original jokes, or, call me crazy, an original plot.

The most confusing thing about the film though, is that after this couple tries to break into this childs house. Almost harming him multiple times in the process. When they find out that he is alone, they suddenly change gears and feel sorry for him. They even have Max stay with them until his mother comes back. This is the most unbelievable part of the movie to me.

This movie is rated PG for slapstick violence, rude material, and some language. There isn’t anything offensive in this movie and it is marketed towards young children as it’s core audience. However, I would suggest just watching the original “Home Alone” and skipping this one entirely. The first one is actually original and much funnier.

“Home Sweet Home Alone” is a unnecessary film that lacks any kind of originality, has no good acting, and is just mind bogglingly idiotic. I can’t recommend this cash grab attempt by Disney for anyone. Just skip this movie entirely and watch the original classic, at least it’s a classic. This film earns 1.5 out of 5 stars.