Classic Christmas Review #8: Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Available on Disney+

Perhaps, in some alternative universe, there is a gritty, uber-realistic version of the Home Alone films where the unusually resourceful Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) murders or, at the very least, disables Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern’s hapless robbers. Thankfully, the cuts we have of both Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York are altogether more innocent affairs which continue to provide laughs aplenty throughout the holiday season.

Of the two, the original best captures the ingenuity of John Hughes’ original premise, in which the aforementioned Kevin must think of weird and wonderful ways to defend both his home and himself from Pesci and Stern’s ne'er-do-wells, all while his incredibly forgetful/awful family holiday without him. Its successor does have the benefit of Tim Curry’s addition to the supporting cast as the world’s most nosy maître d, but is mostly a safe rehash of what comes before it.

Whatever your preference, it’s hard to deny the charm of these first two instalments in the Home Alone franchise, nor the rare prowess of a fledgling Culkin, whose talents have sadly since gone untapped.