Home Sweet Home Alone
After being left at home by himself for the holidays, 10-year-old Max Mercer must work to defend his home from a married couple who tries to steal back a valuable heirloom.
- Released: 2021-11-12
- Runtime: 93 minutes
- Genre: Action, Comedy, Family
- Stars: Archie Yates, Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Pete Holmes, Aisling Bea, Jayne Eastwood, Cara Ricketts, Catherine Cohen, Devin Ratray, Mikey Day, Kenan Thompson, Ally Maki, Chris Parnell, Timothy Simons, Katie Beth Hall, Max Ivutin, Andrew Daly, Maddie Holliday, Jordan Carlos, Tristan D. Lalla, Nick Allan, Claudio S. Capri, Phyllis Gooden, Esther Povitsky, Marty Adams, Jim Rash, Amy Okuda, Bronwen Mantel, Peter Schoelier, Nancy Helms, Gayle Garfinkle, Jane Gilchrist, Hazel Gorin
- Director: Dan Mazer
Comments
- jboothmillard - 31 December 2023
Home Sweet Home Alone
The three cinema releases starring Macaulay Culkin and Alex D. Linz are the good films (especially the original obviously), and the made-for-TV sequels starring Mike Weinberg and Christian Martyn are terrible, I was surprised to see Disney (after acquiring 21st Century Fox) making this sixth entry. Basically, the McKenzies, Jeff (Rob Delaney) and Pam (Ellie Kemper), are trying to sell their house, but have not told their children, Abby (Katie Beth Hall) and Chris (Max Ivutin). Jeff lost his job and Pam's salary is not enough to keep their home. But things get worse when Jeff's obnoxious and successful brother Hunter (Timothy Simons), his wife Mei (Ally Maki), and their son Ollie (twins Aiden and Allan Wang) arrive at the house wanting to stay over during Christmas. British twelve-year-old Max Mercer (Archie Yates) and his mother Carol (Aisling Bea) happen to be driving past Jeff and Pam's home as they are holding an open house. Max is desperate to use the restroom, so they stop, and he has a brief exchange with Jeff. Max sees Jeff has a collection of old dolls, including an unusual one with its head upside down. Carol also sees the dolls and says that ones with unusual deformities are rare and worth a lot of money. After they have left, Abby and Chris walk in on their parents with real estate agent Gavin Washington (Kenan & Kel's Kenan Thompson), but they lie and tell them that he is Jeff's exercise training coach. As Max and Carol return home, the whole family is preparing to travel to Tokyo, Japan the following day during the Christmas holidays; Carol intends to leave earlier than the rest. Max is annoyed by the commotion all over the house and goes outside getting into the car parked in the garage which is soundproofed to watch cartoons until he falls asleep. Unfortunately, Max's family are unaware he is there, and he is left behind, with the others assuming he is with Carol in another vehicle. Concerned about losing their home, Jeff looks the malformed doll up on the internet and sees it valued for thousands of dollars, but when he goes to get it, he finds it missing. Remembering his encounter with Max, he believes it has been stolen. He locates the Mercer household the next day hoping to get the doll, but he finds the whole family hastily leaving. During the commotion, he overhears the security code and sees where the house key is hidden. He tells Pam about the doll and its value, during a Christmas bell-ringing choir performance, and they agree to go back to the house that night to get it back. Meanwhile, Max wakes up and finds the house completely empty. With the whole family gone, he takes advantage and has fun, including playing video games and eating junk food, making toy car racetracks down the staircase, reading the diary of his sister Katie (Maddie Holliday), building Lego models, dressing up (including a spoof of Scarface with a pile of M&Ms), and riding a scooter on a moving treadmill. Soon however he becomes bored and misses his family. Meanwhile, Jeff and Pam arrive at the Mercer's and get inside. Max overhears them talking about getting an "ugly little boy", he wrongly assumes they are talking about kidnapping and selling him. He manages to scare them away by calling the police. Officer Buzz McCallister (Home Aline's Devin Ratray) arrives following the call, but Max fears his mother will be arrested if the police discover he is home alone, so he allows the officer to leave without alerting him. In Japan, Carol discovers Max was left behind and makes her way back to the airport to fly back home. The McKenzies go to church the next day, Gavin is there and tells them there is a buyer, but they are pressured as they must decide by the end of the year. Max goes to the church and unknowingly talks to Jeff and Pam's son Chris about being home alone, and Chris sympathetically gives him his water gun. Jeff sees Max talking with an elderly lady in the church and assumes she is his grandmother. He and Pam decide to leave the church and go back to the Mercer house. Jeff and Pam sneak around the back but end up in the neighbour's backyard instead. Max overhears them again, with Jeff saying he will dress as Santa Claus to fool him into entering the house. Max responds by booby-trapping the house to cause difficulty and prevent them from getting to him. It is Christmas Eve, Jeff and Pam are injured and covered in mess by the various traps, including an icy road, cola bottles with mints that explode, firing billiard balls, Lego pieces across the floor, flour bags launched, and firing Nerf guns. When the couple is cornered by the child and they talk to him, they realise he did not steal the doll, only a can of soda. They all calm down as the misunderstanding is cleared up and the couple learn Max is home alone, so they decide to let him stay with them until his mother returns. As they explain the whole situation to their family, it turns out that Ollie stole the doll, which is returned, so the McKenzies can sell it and keep their home. Carol arrives to pick up Max. Carol makes friends with McKenzies and thanks them for looking after Max. A year later, Jeff has a new job, and he gives Max a can of soda. Also starring Pete Holmes as Uncle Blake, Chris Parnell as Uncle Stu, Andy Daly as Mike Mercer, Mikey Day as Priest, Jordan Carlos as Clem Breckin, Esther Povitsky as Daisy Breckin, Marty Adams as Annoying Passenger, and Jim Rash as Bell Choir Leader. Yates is fairly likeable as the kid who goes against some desperate grown-ups, Delaney and Kemper do a good job being unintentional anti-villains who you almost root for to get the heirloom, and Bea does a slightly awkward English accent and is fine. It is different from the previous films, mainly with the kid being English not American, it is not a straightforward attempted robbery and the kid fighting back against crooks, and there are obvious throwbacks to the original film. I will admit that I found myself giggling a few times, especially when the crucial trap sequences, so it did a good job in that regard, it is fairly predictable otherwise but it's not bad, a silly but not all terrible seasonal comedy. Adequate! - bgcchowan - 8 December 2023
Hilariously funny 😂
I really enjoyed this movie,the comedy and spoofs from Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney had me laughing until my stomach ached. The movie starts off with you uncertain of what to expect but as soon as you recognize the plot, that's when things really pick up. I stumbled on this movie by chance and never had heard of it with this title, however I will definitely be posting about it on my social media accounts. Great job to the producers, director and actors. This movie really made my night! I read some other reviews where some gave the movie low ratings, however this movie is really funny if you're looking for a good laugh! - miraclel-17376 - 5 June 2023
Bad, yet not the worst
Let's get the good stuff out of the way. Actually, there s nothing really good.
This movie is bad, but not terrible. There is almost nothing decent about it and it is the most pointless and dumbest adaption. This movie kinda sucks. Please don't watch it. The first two are amazing, the third one is decent, the fourth one is also decent, but the fifth is terrible and the sixth is bad.
Bad acting, bad characters, bad stuff.
Certainly not the worst movie ever. But it is not that far off, really.
I'm just waiting to end the review, I'm getting very sick of writing for this movie. Oh finally!!!! - allmoviesfan - 22 December 2022
Home Sweet Home Alone
I watched this with an eight-year-old a week out from Christmas and can happily report that she enjoyed every minute of it. Look, this isn't Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (my favourite) or the original or even the unfairly-maligned Home Alone 3, but it isn't quite as terrible as some of the reviews I've read would suggest. Yes, the premise has been done before and better, and there's an English kid in Chicago and the quote-unquote bad guys are different to any of the franchise's bad guys before, but there are still some enjoyable scenes in this movie, including Kevin's brother Buzz in a cameo scene as a local police officer. Hearing the opening strains of 'Somewhere in my Memory' never fails to provoke Christmas nostalgia, too. - nmillernm - 23 November 2022
Awful movie - 0 stars
The kid is super annoying and the plot is terrible. The main character, is so obnoxious that you're actually rooting against the kid. The "bad guys" aren't even bad. I feel bad that those two actors subjected themselves to such bad roles. They just want what was already theirs in the movie. I watched the first twenty minutes of this atrocious movie and couldn't handle any more. I already had low expectations for this movie and somehow it was worse than I thought it would be. If I could give this movie 0 stars, I would. Just stick to the first 2 Home Alone movies - the classics. Heck even Home Alone 3 was 10 times better than this one. - mccaugheycatherinea - 17 April 2022
Painful
Holy mother of god that was so painful to watch. No good actors, rubbish story line. How about we just keep the originals as they are. Don't see the need to try and remake classic Christmas movies. - Morgoth_Melkor - 31 January 2022
I really wanted to watch a bad movie.
Some events happend and they were all so forgetful. They tried but no way near those two originals. The kid and the adults tried so hard to create that practical pranks funny but they were all so cringy. The whole thing was just displeasing.
