Not since Ghostbusters (2016) has a trailer been met with such derision, as was the trailer for this reboot (cum sequel) to Chris Columbus’ holiday classic. But does Home Sweet Home Alone deserve it?
The Disney+ exclusive sees young lad Max (Jojo Rabbit’s Archie Yates) feel lost in the melee of his own home but when the family go on a Tokyo trip, Max gets left – you guessed it – home alone? Only this time, there is more going on with the home invaders, whom Max ends up rebelling against in the most extreme and creative of ways.
Home Sweet Home Alone is not actually the worst entry in this “series”, but that is very little considering everything after the sweet Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and underrated Home Alone 3 was as disastrously downhill as a cart of exploding paint cans. We call it a series but wonder if anyone realises this is actually the sixth Home Alone film they have made?
Home Sweet Home Alone is as utterly forgettable as it gets. There may be some surprising references and home trap sequences, as well as an attempt to spin the franchise formula but the film is totally misjudged on all fronts. Not to give too much away but this new offering makes the intruders not quite all they seem but it completely de-stabilises the story, resulting in an ill-judged film with no real villains or heroes, or at least ones that are in the wrong roles and places, and have the wrong audience sympathies.
The cast give it a good go mind, especially Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper, but the film cannot help but feel inferior and even on its own merits indistinguishable from the thousands of other Christmas films of this ilk you can see playing from seemingly earlier and earlier every year on those gaudy festive movie channels.
The many references to the 1990 original and multiple modernised tweaks only really serve to make us remember how much better the the original was and how much of the magic (not to mention the edge) has been well and truly lost in this rather crushingly sad transition from big screen festive family classic, to stream screen ‘slap it on if there’s nothing else’ background noise. Don’t just take our word for it, the script itself even at one point acknowledges its own franchise’s fall from grace, and this offerings own desperation.
Unnecessary is putting it very lightly. Less Home Alone, more ‘Leave it Alone’!
Home Sweet Home Alone is showing now, exclusively on Disney+.
