Holiday Movie With the Usual Touch of Violence And Christmas Cheer

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2002)

This movie is part of our staple of movies to watch at Christmas time. It is a OK movie, with enough holiday themes and scenery to keep me satisfied it is a holiday movie. McCauley Culkin does a good job playing off two bumbling, and really dumb burglars. It helps to have a mansion as the backdrop to foiling Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. Some of the scenes where the 2 bumbling burglars try to eneter the house are charmingly funny. It is annoying that the script could not come up more clever ways for Pesci and Stern to react other than "Ow!' or "frism-frasm". And the kid delivers enough hits that would kill a normal person. But today's movies must add violence as one of the ingredients to a successful movie. Audiences have developed a "taste" for it, even if this was made to be a holiday movie to be seen by millions of kids. But, I did enjoy the Christmas touches and the various personality conflicts from the large family. Home Alone 2 is the companion movie of part 1 and follows the same pattern.