As a kid Home Alone one and two were absolutely iconic classics, and I knew that they went ahead and butchered it with two unrelated sequels. It was two am, my fiancé and I were tired and bored and we were hanging out and suddenly the movie started and fifteen minutes later we were smiling, and a half hour later we were chuckling at the sheer stupidity and craziness and silliness. Maybe this review will be biased by the late hour but while Home Alone 3 doesn't hold a candle to the original films for its key demographic which is likely young, young kids...eight to ten perhaps I think it hits its mark. With virtually no big names in the film it has to rely on the other aspect of the Home Alone franchise which is slapstick comedy, kiddie hi-jinks and ridiculously painful pranks that are taken like Wile Coyote. This film has plenty of that. Ironically the amazing late John Hughes did indeed pen the script for this film as silly as it is. The plot is barely that but Home Alone never relied heavily on any sort of plot. You watch it to see the above listed things. Home Alone 3 is sillier, kiddier, but still entertaining.
Alex Linz headlines the cast as the vivacious youngster with ideal traps and toys. Linz is probably the perfect hero for the younger crowd. He doesn't exactly have enormous chemistry but he's cute and does a good job as the antagonist to the bad guys. Character actor Olek Krupa takes the role of head bad guy from the likes of Joe Pesci and the character is not entirely different. He is kind of a quiet dark brooding bad guy, seems out of place in a light fluff piece like this but maybe that makes his role work. He pulls off the silly comedy very well. Rya Kihlstedt does a good job playing the only lady baddie. She probably gets some of the best pranks and traps played on her. Lenny von Dohlen is the half witted bad guy and fills the shoes of Daniel Stern but loosely because something all three bad guys have in common Krupa, Kihlstedt, and Dohlen have very little character or plot. At least Pesci and Stern were fun characters with a story. This is just entirely about torturing the silly bad guys because kids don't care if the bad guys are people with a story. They are adults that are trying to ruin a kid's fun.
This was directors Raja Gosnell's first entry into directing and he seems to be doing well currently having directed some solid family films and hopefully will exceed expectations at bringing The Smurfs to the big screen. He focuses on the comedy though I think and not necessary character development which works better for kiddie comedies than actual mainstream films. Still if you want to watch a silly movie with your kids you could do worse than Home Alone 3 but whatever you do, don't even begin to hold this in the same breath as either of the first Home Alone films which became a holiday comedy classic. This one is just cute. 6/10
Alex Linz headlines the cast as the vivacious youngster with ideal traps and toys. Linz is probably the perfect hero for the younger crowd. He doesn't exactly have enormous chemistry but he's cute and does a good job as the antagonist to the bad guys. Character actor Olek Krupa takes the role of head bad guy from the likes of Joe Pesci and the character is not entirely different. He is kind of a quiet dark brooding bad guy, seems out of place in a light fluff piece like this but maybe that makes his role work. He pulls off the silly comedy very well. Rya Kihlstedt does a good job playing the only lady baddie. She probably gets some of the best pranks and traps played on her. Lenny von Dohlen is the half witted bad guy and fills the shoes of Daniel Stern but loosely because something all three bad guys have in common Krupa, Kihlstedt, and Dohlen have very little character or plot. At least Pesci and Stern were fun characters with a story. This is just entirely about torturing the silly bad guys because kids don't care if the bad guys are people with a story. They are adults that are trying to ruin a kid's fun.
This was directors Raja Gosnell's first entry into directing and he seems to be doing well currently having directed some solid family films and hopefully will exceed expectations at bringing The Smurfs to the big screen. He focuses on the comedy though I think and not necessary character development which works better for kiddie comedies than actual mainstream films. Still if you want to watch a silly movie with your kids you could do worse than Home Alone 3 but whatever you do, don't even begin to hold this in the same breath as either of the first Home Alone films which became a holiday comedy classic. This one is just cute. 6/10