Sometimes funny, but how it turned out to be such an incredibly high grossing film is beyond me

Rating: 6/10 (10 February 2009)

I was a preschooler when this movie came into theatres and turned out to be a massive box office success, but I never saw it in my childhood. I saw a bit of what I guess was the 1992 sequel, "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York", when I was a kid, and was familiar with the "Screaming Kevin" doll (a toy which I was never was a big fan of, based on the main character in the first two "Home Alone" films, played by Macaulay Culkin), from a very early age. However, believe it or not, it took me a little over eighteen years after the theatrical release of the original "Home Alone" for me to get around to seeing it! Yes, this movie is up there on the highest grossing movies of all time lists, but now that I've seen it, I don't know exactly what that was all about.
Kevin McCallister is an eight year old boy in Chicago whose family is preparing for their Christmas vacation in France. On the night before the trip, he is picked on by his siblings, and after a dispute with one of them, he is sent to sleep on the third floor, wishing his family would disappear. The next day, the family leaves in a hurry and Kevin is accidentally left behind! He wakes up to find that his family actually has disappeared, and his parents don't realize they've forgotten their son back at home until one point during their flight! At first, Kevin is happy that the family is gone, but eventually finds that being home alone isn't all that easy. While his mother, Kate, tries desperately to get back home as quickly as possible, which doesn't turn out to be easy, Kevin becomes aware of two burglars who intend to rob the McCallister house!
For a while, early in the film, I didn't find it very funny at all. Before the trip, there's a joke about armpit shaving (jokes like this, along with some language, are the obvious reasons for the PG rating), and one of the McCallister siblings throws up. I did not care for these, and some of the sibling rivalry and insults I found to be a bit much. For a while after Kevin first finds himself home alone, I found the film rather dull, but fortunately, funnier parts come. There are some humorous moments involving Kevin without his family, such as the character at the store, with the question he asks about a certain toothbrush, and I laughed hard during the scenes where he uses the movie to communicate with people at the door, convincing them there are adults inside (they're probably the funniest parts). The McCallister mother can also be somewhat amusing during her attempts to quickly get back home. Casting comedienne Catherine O'Hara in this role definitely helped. The climax can be funny, but gets a little tiresome.
I've definitely seen much worse comedies than this hit holiday film from 1990, and this one is funnier than 1994's "The Santa Clause", another PG rated family Christmas movie from the 90's, which I seemed to enjoy as a kid, but not during my last viewing many years later. Despite the absurd plot, "Home Alone" does have some good humour, as well as a rather poignant moment in the church which eventually comes, but still, the film is not all it's cracked up to be. It may be slightly above average family fare, and it has appeal, but it's still a little strange, the fact it's among the tops in box office history. I'm sure there are so many movies which have been much more deserving of the success that "Home Alone" had at the box office, but unfortunately didn't even come close.