Let’s be honest right up front. Home Alone was an entertaining film but there never should have been any sequels, never mind three of them. It isn’t surprising that Home Alone 4 made in 2002, some 12 years after the original, is the worst one in the whole wretched series.
The first immediate thing that is completely crazy is that they reintroduce the character of Kevin McCallister, played now by Mike Weinberg and not Macauley Culkin. The decision in Home Alone 3 to have a different character was the right thing to do. He isn’t very good here.
They resurrect the baddie of Marv, now played by French Stewart (of 3rd Rock from the Sun fame) instead of Daniel Stern. I think French Stewart was very funny in 3rd Rock but he is woeful here with just horrible dialogue with his baddie wife, Vera, played by Missi Pyle.
You know the score, baddies try and get into the house, and Kevin lays all kinds of traps to stop them. I am all for homages in films, but don’t just steal the traps from the other films.
The whole thing is turgid, and they paint the new girlfriend of his dad as a bad person when she is shown to be trying to be nice, so the script makes no sense and is just all around bad.
I believe they are rebooting the Home Alone franchise – I really wish they would just leave it alone!
For Streaming Out Loud! 