Home Sweet Home Alone (2021).
“Never as good as the originals.”
Directed by Dan Mazer
Written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell
Starring Archie Yates, Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, and Aisling Bea
The Setup.
A kid is left home alone when his parents go on vacation. Across town, a family is going to be forced to sell their house because they can no longer afford it. All of them cross paths because of a doll with an upside-down head.
The Review.
There’s a moment in Home Sweet Home Alone when a completely unnecessary side character exclaims, “Uh, this is garbage. I don't know why they are always trying to remake the classics. Never as good as the originals.” as he watches what we can only assume is an in-film sci-fi remake of the original film’s film within a film, “Angels with Filthy Souls”. He says it with a wink to the audience, but jokes like that only really work if the film is good…and Home Sweet Home Alone isn’t good. In fact, it’s terrible.
I’d love to see the original script for this, because it feels like there was a pretty decent premise originally that later morphed into what we saw on screen. My theory is that the film started as kind of an anti-Home Alone, with antagonists that you kind of like and a rich kid who you really dislike, but what we got was a film that wanted us to like both the antagonists and the kid because of a misunderstanding, and I ended up just hating everyone. It just kind of tries to be a remake of the original with added empathy for the villains, and that doesn’t work.
The gist of this one is that there’s an extremely unlikeable kid named Max and his rich family goes to Japan for Christmas for some reason, but they leave him behind. The day before, he was at an open house and eyed a doll, which the owners, Pam and Jeff, later find out is worth nearly a quarter of a million bucks. This money would really help them out, because Jeff is out of work and their house is reluctantly on the market…but after Max leaves, the doll is missing. They think Max stole it, which pits them head to head with the little shit and a bunch of violent as fuck traps as they try to get their doll back.
In any remake, especially a remake of a film with as much reverence as Home Alone, there are going to be moments of what they call ‘fan service’ - callbacks to the original that tell you, “Hey, we like the old movie, and we’re guessing you do too, so here’s something to make you hit the person next to you and say, “Hey, remember in the original when they did that too?” They ape a lot of the original here but it just feels weird, less like the filmmakers are nudging fans of the original, and more like, “Something like this happened in the original, so I guess we need to put it in this one.” The worst example of this happens when a kid named Ollie (who was just the worst) at the end of the movie does the good ol’ Kevin McAllister face that felt absolutely fucking painful. Or the fact that McAllister Security is their security company, as if nearly getting murdered twice as a child while fending bad guys off with flame throwers and Hot Wheels somehow translated into becoming a competitor to ADT.
In order for this film to work, they needed to have a villain, and it should have been the kid. Make him a dick. Make him a thief. Give the McKenzies a reason to get into the house to get what they need and make them work to avoid the traps instead of falling for every single one.
The End.
Me, the whole time I was watching this movie.
This film just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. This feels like a blatant cash grab with no heart and no soul and it’s just not fun. When it’s over, the film’s message is essentially, “As long as you have money, everything will be fine and you’ll be happy!”, which is a lot different when contrasted against the previous film I watched, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. It’s fails as a remake and bombs as an homage. It’s the worst of both worlds, and I cannot recommend this to anyone, especially fans of the original Home Alone and it’s first sequel.
I’ll end with a quote from Chris Columbus, director of the first Home Alone film who was never contacted about this one, because I cannot agree more. He said, “It's a waste of time as far as I'm concerned. What's the point? I'm a firm believer that you don't remake films that have had the longevity of Home Alone. You're not going to create lightning in a bottle again.” Lightning in a bottle? More like shit in a bottle.
