Christmas on TV: Home Alone, the Holiday Heist

ABC Family's first addition to the made-for-TV Christmas genre this year is a not-needed addition to the Home Alone franchise. My first reaction to that news looked kind of like this:

I think most people can agree that this series should have stopped after Macaulay Culkin was no longer attached, but  I will put in a good word for Home Alone 3: I remember liking it when I saw it as a child in the theater, the writers managed to come up with a new reason for the kid being left home alone that wasn't too contrived, and it features a super young Scarlett Johansson.

Home Alone 4, made directly for TV, is where the franchise really took a wrong turn. They tried to make some unknown kid into the new Kevin McCallister who is trying to reunite his divorcing parents, also not played by the same people. It takes a special kind of kid to be a smart aleck the audience can root for--Macaulay Culkin had it; the new Kevin did not.

After watching Home Alone: The Holiday Heist with my little brother who is 11 and probably a member of the target audience, I can say that it was definitely better than Home Alone 4, about on par with Home Alone 3, and clearly a knock-off of the first two.

The smart aleck main character this time actually wasn't that much of a smart aleck, which made him a more watchable lead. His main hang-up is his unhealthy attachment to video games, but that reminds me of the original Kevin's attachment to his cassette recorder in Home Alone 2, so I didn't find it a problem. And to be honest, in fifteen years people will still be playing video games but I don't know anyone who still uses cassette tapes, let alone cassette recorders.

As far as the other elements of the movie, the trio of art thieves breaking into the home were okay and the hijinks they faced were creative if unbelievable as always. The parent and the teenage sister didn't add much to the story, but the next door neighbor in the snowman hat was funny. And Ed Asner is looking older and older. It makes me want to go back to 1970 when he was simply Mr. Grant, boss to everyone's favorite young, single professional gal, Mary Tyler Moore.

All in all, I think ABC Family made a pretty good move with Home Alone: The Holiday Heist, a surprising result since I thought this movie would be one of this season's worst. All I have to say is, if they ever make a sixth one (which I don't think they should), let a girl be the one to defend her house this time. Give girls a chance.