The original is a Christmas classic, while the follow-up Lost in New York is good fun, but when it came to making the third film, Macaulay Culkin was interested, so the makers made a standalone sequel with a new leading youngster, written and produced by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, Miracle on 34th Street), directed by Raja Gosnell (Never Been Kissed, Big Momma's House, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs 2). Basically, Peter Beaupre (Olek Krupa), Earl Unger (David Thornton), Burton Jernigan (Lenny von Dohlen), and Alice Ribbons (Rya Kihlstedt) are most-wanted criminals are working for an international terrorist organisation. In Silicon Valley, California, they steal a $10 million microchip to be used for a missile that cannot be detected by radar. The chip is hidden inside the battery compartment of a remote-control toy car to sneak it past security at San Francisco International Airport. But there is a mix-up at luggage security when elderly passenger Mrs. Hess (Marian Seldes) picks up the wrong bag, identical to hers, which contains the toy car. After the other criminals look around the airport terminal and find nothing, Mr. Beaupre deduces the car is on a plane, determining it is heading to Chicago from a departures announcement. Landing in Chicago, Alice spots the toy car and Mr. Jernigan photographs the taxi picking Mrs. Hess up. They get the address from the taxi driver (Men in Black's Richard Hamilton) and arrive at a suburban neighbourhood on Washington Street. Unable to recognise the house from the description given, they move into a house up for sale, kidnap a neighbour's dog, and plan to systematically search every house to find the car and the chip. Eight-year-old Alex Pruitt (One Fine Day's Alex D. Linz) is given the remote-control car as payment by Mrs. Hess as payment for shovelling the snow from her driveway. Returning home, Alex discovers that he has chickenpox and must stay home from school. The next day, Alex is forced to be home alone while his brother Stan (Seth Smith) and sister Molly (young Scarlett Johansson) go to school, his mother Karen (Haviland Morris) is called to the office, and his father Jack (Kevin Kilner) is working. At home, Alex happens to be looking through his telescope when he sees Beaupre in the Stephans' house, so he calls the police. But by the time the police arrive, the criminals have already left, and there is no evidence of a break-in, and Karen is angry with him. The following day, Alex is alone again, he again sees Beaupre, this time in Mrs. Hess's house, but he is unaware she no longer has the toy car. Alex again calls the police; the criminals are close to being apprehended but evade the authorities. A police officer talks to Alex about the seriousness of calling the police and his siblings tease him that the police will never respond to future calls. Alex works out that the criminals are going from house to house looking for something and determines that the next house will be the Alcotts. The next day, after Karen has left, Alex tapes a camcorder to the top of the toy car and drives it into the Alcott property. He captures Beaupre there intending to implicate him for robbery, but the criminal sees the toy car and chases after it. The criminals realise someone is on to them, but through a series of mishaps, they fail to keep hold of the toy car as Alex drives it away back to his home. Alex finds the criminals managed to take the tape from the camcorder so has no evidence, but he finds the microchip after investigating the toy car. He calls a local U. S. Air Force Recruitment Center to report his findings, he agrees to pass on the information to the right authorities. The criminals watch the footage from the camcorder and realise that Alex, after not being believed by police, is taking matters into his own hands. The criminals call the Pruitt house and Karen confirms Alex has a toy car, but she does not believe him when he says that the person calling is not a neighbour she knows. Alex decides to defend himself and starts setting up booby traps around the house. Alice tries to enter the Pruitt house the following day, but Alex stops her by having the dog trip her and drag her away, and he frees the dog. Meanwhile, the FBI are given information about the chip reported by Alex and travel to Chicago. The following day, after Karen leaves, Alex finishes setting up traps in the garden and the rest of the house. The criminals hold Mrs. Hess hostage before trying to get into the house, all triggering the traps and getting injured in doing so. There is an electrocuted fence and metal chair, marbles placed under a mat, and trunks and a set of weights are dropped on them. Beaupre is spray painted in the eyes and a triggered punching glove goes between his legs, Jernigan is sprayed with a water hose and has a lawnmower go across his head, Alice goes through a muddy pathway and gets hit on the head by plant pots, and Unger is hit by a slingshot with flour and water and his feet end up rolling buckets filled in highly sticky liquid. While the criminals regroup and manage to enter the house, Alex receives a call from Karen that she will be coming home, but he tells her to go and pick up Stan and Molly instead. At school, FBI agents and Chicago PD inform Karen about the danger Alex is in. The criminals run into further tricks, including encounters with Alex's pet rat Doris and Stan's loud-mouthed parrot (voiced by Darren T. Knaus). Alex manages to get out using the dumb waiter, Jernigan and Unger go out the window, falling through the trampoline into the swimming pool below, while Alice falls down the dumb waiter. Alex finds Mrs. Hess tied up with the door left open to let in the cold. Before he can free, Beaupre confronts Alex to give him the microchip, but Alex tricks him into believing he has stolen his gun and frightens him away. Alex's family brings the agents and the police to their house, where Alex returns the chip, and Alice, Jernigan, and Unger are arrested. Beaupre is later found and arrested after being in a snow fort in the backyard and the parrot lighting a series of fireworks inside. Later, the Pruitts, Mrs. Hess, and the authorities celebrate, with Jack returning from his business trip, and he gives Alex a new remote-control car. At the police department, the thieves are having their mugshots taken, and they have caught Alex's chickenpox. Also starring Christopher Curry as Agent Stuckey, Baxter Harris as Police Captain, James Saito as Chinese Mob Boss, Freeman Coffey as Recruiting Officer, and Pat Healy as Agent Rogers. Linz proves himself resourceful and cute as the new kid going against the bad guys, while Krupa, Thornton, von Dohlen and Kihlstedt do alright as the villains, and eleven-year-old Johansson in her first major role is memorable. It sticks to roughly the same formula as the first two films, with the child defeating the crooks with household traps, no family forgetting the child and slightly less Tom and Jerry cartoon violence, and an espionage subplot, the toy car stuff is genuinely funny, I think is a watchable and fun comedy. It was nominated the Razzie for Worst Remake or Sequel (I completely disagree!). Good!
Review of Home Alone 3
