That Face Helped Make This A Big Hit

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2006)

This an absurd storyline. Hollywood loves to show movies in which kids are smarter than adults, for some reason. Also, we are expected to believe a big family can go all the way to the airport and then fly to France before finding out one of their kids was left at home??! I don't think so. I know a lot of big families and this would never-in-a-million years happen.
However, it's just a movie, and it isn't real and you can't take any of it seriously. Thus, the idea is to go along with the wild premise and enjoy the antics that follow....and there are plenty of those!
A share of the credit for the big success of this film should go to God, who made Maccaulay Culkin's face. Without it, I doubt this would have been anywhere near the hit is was, but Culkin's "cuteness" helps makes you root for him and his facial expressions provide a lot of laughs. He turned out to be a fine child actor.
The two guys (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) that play incompetent crooks are funny and some of the humor is clever, although slapstick "rules" in this film.
There are some really nice messages in here, such as "families suck," says the kid. Oh, well, some think this film did, too. I am not a big fan of it, but I did enjoy it along with most other people. I thought the sequel was better, though.