Home Alone (1990)

Now and forever a favorite among kids, this 1990 comedy written by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) and directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire) ushered Macaulay Culkin onto the screen as a troubled 8-year-old who doesn't comfortably mesh with his large family. He's forced to grow a little after being accidentally left behind when his folks and siblings fly off to Paris. A good-looking boy, Culkin lights up the screen during several funny sequences, the most famous of which finds him screaming for joy when he realizes he's unsupervised in his own house. A bit wooden with dialogue, the then-little star's voice could grate on the nerves (especially in long, wise-child passages of pure bromide), but he unquestionably carries the film. Billie Bird and John Candy show up as two of the interesting strangers Culkin's character meets. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are entertainingly cartoonish as thieves, but the ensuing violence once the little hero decides to keep them out of his house is over-the-top. Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has become the man of the house, overnight! Accidentally left behind when his family rushes off on a Christmas vacation, Kevin gets busy decorating the house for the holidays. But he's not decking the halls with tinsel and holly. Two bumbling burglars are trying to break in, and Kevin's rigging a bewildering battery of booby traps to welcome them! After a fight with his older brother, Buzz, over Little Nero's pizza, in front of the rest of the family results in him being sent up to the third floor for the night, Kevin McCallister (Culkin) wishes that his family would simply disappear. After a power line failure which neutralizes all the alarm clocks, the rest of the family rushes to leave to go on a Christmas vacation to Paris, France. During the confusion, Kevin is accidentally left at home by himself and experiences what it is like to be independent for the first time, but two prowlers, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), plan to break-into his house. But Kevin sets up traps out of household items. The intruders are caught, and Kevin is reunited by his family who came back.

Home Alone is a 1990 christmas film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris, France for their Christmas holiday. While initially relishing his time alone, he is later greeted by two house intruders. He eventually manages to outwit them with a series of booby traps.

The movie opens with the McCallister family rushing around their huge home preparing for their holiday to France. The audience is then introduced to eight-year-old Kevin McCallister who is constantly teased by his older siblings and believes he is mistreated by his family, to which he screams "I'm living alone!" whilst jumping up and down on the landing in temper. The audience are introduced to a policeman trying to get people's attention but is unsuccessful. The family does not know that he is an intruder who is trying to break into houses by obtaining as much information from them as possible about the security of their homes.

After a squabble with his bullying older brother, Buzz, who has eaten his pizza, Kevin ends up spilling milk and soda all over his family's passports and airplane tickets for their next day trip to Paris for Christmas vacation. As punishment, he is sent up to the third floor of his house for the night without a meal to compensate for his stolen pizza, while Buzz is not punished in any way for his cruelty. Disgusted by his family's unfair and neglectful treatment towards him (being "treated like scum", according to Kevin), he wishes that his family would simply disappear.

An electric power-failure occurs in the middle of the night that in turn neutralizes the alarm clocks to echo, and the family oversleeps. Consequently, this compels them to leave late for their vacation. Kevin ultimately ends up being left home alone when the eldest child, Heather, miscounts, due to a neighbor child being in the way. At first Kevin is pleased, and thinks that his wish has come true. He begins to commit things he would not have been permitted to do otherwise, such as jumping on his parents' bed, eating junk food, riding down the stairs on a sled, shooting action figures down the laundry chute with a toy rifle, and watching an R-rated gangster film called Angels with Filthy Souls. He calls out "MOM" as if he thinks the shooting in the movie he watched was real. Several hours later, Mrs. McCallister wakes up, realizing she forgot Kevin. He later notices the shadow of two men who are trying to break into his house, and scares them off by turning the lights on. He then hides, and when the Chicago Police Department try to investigate the house for him upon his parents' request, he refuses to answer the door. He also goes shopping with some money that he steals from Buzz's room, and unintentionally shoplifts a toothbrush after being scared away from the drugstore by Marley, a man that whom Kevin has been told rumors about him being a murderer (thanks to Buzz).

Kevin later finds out that two house intruders, Harry Lime (Joe Pesci), who was the policeman in the McCallister's home on the night before their flight, and Marv Merchants (Daniel Stern), have their eyes on the neighborhood, who think assuredly that the McCallisters are away. When Kevin gives Harry a surprised look when he sees that gold tooth, he runs away, and they watch to see what Kevin does. The intruders return that night, and are fooled by the life size figures that are being moved about by Kevin, which are actually mannequins and cut outs of basketball players. When the intruders return yet again, Kevin makes Marv think that somebody was shot dead inside the house by playing a scene from the old gangster movie at full volume. Meanwhile, in Paris, Kevin's mother is desperately trying to catch a flight back to Chicago. Eventually, she manages to swap her Rolex watch, $500, and some more jewelry for an economy seat back to Dallas, and then to Scranton.

Back at the house, Harry decides to check upon things, and looks through one of the first floor windows, where Kevin is mantling decorations on a Christmas tree. Kevin sees Harry through the glass of one of the ornaments, and tries to make it appear that he is not alone by calling for his father. Harry is fooled for a minute, but he later decides to break in at 9 PM and he then discovers that Kevin is all alone. Kevin later decides to visit the church, where he runs into Marley, and finds out that he is in fact a nice man, and that all the terrible rumors about him are false. He tells Kevin about an argument he had with his son years ago, and how they have not spoken since then. Kevin suggests he should get in contact with him anyway.

He runs home to set up a series of traps around the house. The two intruders eventually fall for every single trap that has been set. Though these traps are successful in knocking out the intruders back, one must note that both Harry and Marv get stronger when they are hurt. Eventually, Marv & Harry, battered and bruised by all of Kevin's traps, are able to capture Kevin. Just as they are planning to take revenge, Marley appears and knocks them out with his snow shovel. He then returns Kevin home safely. The police arrive, and arrest both intruders.

The following morning, Christmas Day, a van full of polka musicians drives Kevin's mother home. She enters the house, then finds and hugs Kevin. Only a few seconds later, the rest of the family arrives home, having caught the flight his mother refused to wait for. Kevin does not tell the family about his encounter with the intruders, but he does impress them by telling them that he went shopping. In the final scene, Kevin sees that Marley has been reunited with his son and granddaughter. The family returns back and they spend Christmas together.

"Home Alone" Official Movie Soundtrack

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