Home Alone: 30 Years Later. Do you consider it a classic?

No. I didn’t care for the film myself.

No. Saw it in 1990...and never again. Not even the extra crappy sequels.

I LOVE the house and neighborhood. Where was it shot?

Hard to believe that most of the movie was shot in a high school gym

Winnetka IL

I think it is a classic, but I never have enjoyed it as much as the first time. Novelty often goes a long way.

It's still very comforting to watch today. I watch every year in December. The sequel too.

It IS a classic

I have some level of nostalgia for it, but I think that's because it came out when I was the same age as Culkin's character.

R8, blaaaaah. You don't know the classics, chump!

No ive never seen it even

I thought the first sequel was better. It's basically the exact same story, but bigger and in New York so the stakes are higher. After the events of this movie, I really hope that kid called child protective services on his dumb ass, neglectful parents.

That said, the scenes where Catherine O'Hara shows back up at the end make me cry. There's something about a mother finding the child she thought she lost that turns me into a big ol' Mary.

I never understood why O'Hara's character was such a steely bitch to John Candy and the polka crew who offered her a free ride.

Agreed, R12. I was born in 1987, so HA2:LiNY was right in my childhood sweet spot. Someone bought it for a Christmas gift for me in 1993 (maybe) and I watched it endlessly. I can still recite every line, even the ones I only learned phonetically lol. Plus it started my obsession with John Williams and his scores that shaped my childhood and drive me to be a musician.

I saw the first film a few times as a young kid, but it actually scared me a bit (mostly the beginning), and just never stuck, until I was an older teen. Of course it’s great to hear the original score and the other amazing music in the first film. Plus it’s a tad grittier and less glossy than HA2. And R12 is right about the ending scene in HA1. It’s amazing and IMO blows the Rockefeller Center scene in HA2 out of the water.

I refuse to acknowledge any later films in the franchise.

R13, maybe some resentment from their SCTV days?

Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty and Christmas Vacation are all must see Christmas movies for me.

It's no "A Christmas Story".

And Ralphie grew up to be sexier than McCaulley.

The first film is better but O'Hara's dykey hair from the sequel was definitely an improvement over the bland soccer mom do she had in the first one.

Yes.

Nope, not a great movie. I get that for a generation of kids, it was their favorite and they're nostalgic about it, as no doubt am I about some movies from my childhood. But viewed objectively, it's just not a very good movie.

Yes, i consider Home Alone a classic. I prefer the first movie. But Tim Curry is great in the sequel.

I have never watched this film.

I was traveling in Paris when the sequel came out and I remember seeing ads for it on all of the buses. It cracks me up that the title they used for the French audience is "Mama, I Missed the Plane....Again!"

There hasn't been a hugely popular, likable child movie star like Mac since his heyday. I wonder why.

R3, here is a good rundown of where all the filming places were:

[quote]That said, the scenes where Catherine O'Hara shows back up at the end make me cry. There's something about a mother finding the child she thought she lost that turns me into a big ol' Mary.

Same. See also: the scene with the elderly neighbor in the church, and the later scene with the neighbor and his family. They make me teary every single time.

Loved the first two. They bring me right back to my childhood, and remember going to see the sequel when it came out. If anything I prefer the second film, it really made me want to see NY (still never been, I’m a Brit). The sequels after Home Alone 2 do not exist for me.

No. I went to see it when it opened (friend's idea) and the rest of the audience clearly loved it, but I thought it played like a mediocre sitcom.

Then it became an enormous hit... broke box office records. I stupidly went to see it a second time, thinking I just was in a crappy mood the first time. Nope, second time was just as meh as the first, and on top of it I felt really dumb for having been so convinced it was my fault that I didn't like it that I wasted money and time on a second viewing.

R26 = but saw Titanic over 10 times in 1997-98

It was my first introduction to the idea that some Christmas choir music can be rather frightening.

One of my favorite Christmas movies...

Nope. I can never get past the fact that the family flies off without the kid and for hours, they don’t notice. I get it, I get it but beyond that, it doesn’t feel like a classic. Too obvious.

I did rather enjoy Pesci and Daniel Stern as the two hapless goons in this.

....

It was about as funny as sitting on a knife.

I can think of more insufferable John Hughes films.

The ending of the first one with the old man reuniting with his family makes me fall apart like a baby, but I do prefer the sequel. Plus, you have Tim Curry hamming it up. I think it's one of his best and funniest performances. My family and I still quote all his lines to this day. That man can make anything better simply by showing up.

2 was so ridiculous. Makes the first one look like it has no plot holes. But I still watch it.

Always bothered me Kevin was able to order a pizza but no one could call him.

And that when he rides the slide down the stairs, he would have just run into the wall since the front door was centered and the stairs weren't.

More of a pleasant diversion, if nothing else is on, than a classic.

What is the last great Christmas movie?

Christmas Vacation

I love Home Alone. I'm not sure how much nostalgia plays a role. I tried watching A Christmas Story for the first time as an adult and was bored to tears.

I saw this four times in the theater. Don’t think I would ever break that record.

Mac Culkin was amusing on Will & Grace.

Awful. Awful. Awful movie.

There really isn't a franchise here. Home Alone 1 and 2 were done by the same creative team and cast. HA3 was a cheap knockoff to make a little bit in theaters and do home video business and then there was a TV movie.

I remember I was babysitting my 10-year-old nephew on the night Home Alone opened. We drove to the movie theater (next to a now-dead mall). We thought about seeing Rocky V, which also opened that day, but we ultimately chose Home Alone. Never saw Rocky V. Oh yeah, a movie ticket for an evening show was $3.75, which I thought was a rip-off. LOL.

Popular does not equal classic.

It is most definitely a contemporary classic among people of a certain age. I grew up in the '90s and loved it as a kid—I still think it holds up today.

R41, I'm right there with you. A Christmas Story was boring as hell. But you can't tell anyone else that because they will scratch your eyes out.

Elf is a classic and we religiously watch the MST3K version of “Santa Claus” - a bizarre, surreal and unforgettable film from Mexico.

Classic? No, and I agree with you OP. Williams' score is the best part...superior (in my opinion) only to Catherine O'Hara's performance. I collect film scores, and this is always on my playlist, but I haven't actually seen the film in decades.

I hated it the first time around and I hate it now.

No, I was a kid when this came out and I don't consider this a classic. This is no "A Christmas Store" or "Christmas Vacation". If someone wanted I'd totally watch it again, but it's not a movie I'd ever choose to see.

I've never seen "A Christmas Store" Is it about Macy's? Gimbels? Is it streaming?

I do believe this is a film enjoyed mainly by kids of a certain era. It had all of the right stuff -- kid gets to live in a big house by himself, no parents, do whatever he wants, eat what he wants, and gets to outsmart all of the adults with booby traps and hijinks. Had I seen it as an adult, I can imagine just being annoyed by this smart-alecky brat.

[Quote] Mac Culkin was amusing on Will & Grace.

He was recently on a show called Dollface and played a creep. But that's nothing new.

I've managed to avoid seeing it, with only intermittent minimal exposure (it playing on the television in some room I was passing through; seemingly thousands of commercial excerpts). I still have no plans to see it, ever.

R57, sit on it!

R58, I didn't watch them, either.

I like The Ref much better.

Also Home For The Holidays, even though it's about Thanksgiving.

Saw someone on Twitter say "Is that film you like really an unappreciated classic or did you just see it when you were 12?" and thought immediately of Home Alone.

R60, The Ref is a masterpiece and probably my favorite Christmas movie.

R60 Agreed.

The two bumbling fools made me laugh.

R65, Daniel Stern, especially, showed some real physical comedy chops here. Not as easy as it looks.

The best scream queen, by far!

Did he officiate a wedding just before a fan died? I don't think so R66.

I loved the slapstick scenes with Stern and Pesci although watching them now I think OMG they are gonna need months of PT to recover, thoughts I didn’t have as a kid viewer. Catherine O’Hara was the true heart of the movie, she managed to leave her son at home while flying to Paris, but she still convinced me she really loved her kid.

For those who couldn’t buy the premise, I hear yea, but the original audience grew up in the 70s & 80s, families were still largish, more mothers worked, kids were more free range. Most families I knew, had a classic often told family story of leaving a kid behind somewhere and driving home. We left my brother playing video games in a pizza restaurant.

I guess because it's mostly on Disney+ this year, I miss seeing this on TV during the holidays.

I saw it at the theater. Never was interested in watching it again. You rewatch classics.

Loved this movie and watch it several times every Christmas. Perfectly cast. Love those "polka bums" who help mom home.

[quote] I guess because it's mostly on Disney+ this year, I miss seeing this on TV during the holidays.

Buy the DVD ya cheapskate.

I've always found Home Alone a shrill, violent movie without any real sense of fun, or charm, just nastiness.

I'm surprised it has lingered with the public.

The interior of the house was lovely.

R73 = Peter Billingsley

The NY one is pretty good. Quite stupid and you don't have to watch it but it creates a cheery sound in a room.

Home Alone 2 really pissed me off. Pigeons can’t see at night. They sleep. They don’t hang around in flocks in Central Park after dark, flying around& socializing. They're not bats. And the idea that this bird lady could climb up a into an attic Carnegie Hall is trash.

Since Trump appeared in one of the sequels, the movie suffers from Trump taint.

Not to be confused with Trumps taint--which also cause suffering to anyone who's seen it.

It's like a mummy's curse sort of situation.

Trump must get a pretty big laugh at the losers who can't ever think of anything without him included.

I always thought John Hughes movies were very contrived but since he only wrote and produced this one...it's still contrived. Still I saw it once and enjoyed it.

I thought it was great back then & it's held up pretty well now. We just watched it the other day. A week before that, we watched The Christmas Chronicles 2. Both directed by Chris Columbus. CC2 was unbelievably bad. The directing was incredibly awkward and not paced well at all. Cringey.

I was 13 when it came out and loved it, but I haven't seen it in ages. If I watched it now I probably wouldn't care for it very much. Lots of movies from a person's childhood/teen years are views quite differently when you see them many years later as an adult.

"Trump must get a pretty big laugh at the losers who can't ever think of anything without him included."

So he must be laughing at himself pretty hard right now. I mean, he's obviously a loser. A poor one at that.

And he can't think of anything without himself included.

But he would never laugh at himself. His fragile ego wouldn't allow it.

So, after all this time, you're still wrong about Trump.

That's to be expected, god bless.

I watched the Blu-Ray tonight and watched the deleted scenes. I had never seen them before.

There was one very odd one where Uncle Frank yanks down Kevin's pants, revealing his underwear. Bizarre.

Most of them were wisely dropped, but there was a good one with Joe Pesci as Harry lamenting that people didn't know the true meaning of Christmas anymore, that instead of spending it with families, they go to Hawaii or Paris, and that this was leading to the moral decay of society. Then Marv responds, "Which house do you want to hit first?"

There's also scenes of Peter's brother's family in Paris, and also a few scenes of the family discussing Kevin being at home.

I’ve watched it a few times when it’s on TV and it’s a good movie, but not one of my favorite Christmas movies or on my Christmas nostalgia watchlist.

Fuck this racist piece of shit. The clean-cut, decent, honest WASP family represents "good" while the Italian and the Jew are the crooks who rob decent people's homes.

The writing reeks of WASP privilege. Problematic on so many levels. Not to mention the complete erasure of people of color and LGBTQ+ characters.

Old man Marley was gay. So was Buzz. Fuller is trans.

R86, the pizza delivery guy was queen waiting to burst out and there was a black person ice skating. So STFU.

I think it’s a great holiday film. The physical comedy is hilarious, the music is excellent and the final scene where Kevin sees the old man reunited with his son gets me misty eyed.

I like it but it's not a classic like Planes, Trains and Automobiles although both have Mr. John Candy in them.

It’s comfort viewing. The perfect movie to have on in the background during holiday prep.

r91 - cradling her mug with one hand and finger banging her snatch to Andrea Bocelli with the other.

R86 you sound fun at parties

[quote] There was one very odd one where Uncle Frank yanks down Kevin's pants, revealing his underwear. Bizarre.

Special request from MJ?

Michael Jackson became OBSESSED with Macauley Culkin after this film came out. They were together constantly.

There's actually a deleted scene set in the supermarket where a Black female shopper asks if Kevin is pushing the cart for his mother for r86.

If you have Netflix, check out The Movies That Made Us from last year. One of the episodes is devoted to Home Alone and how it was made. The interior shots of the house were actually filmed inside the gym at New Trier Township High School.

Why did the pizza delivery guy never call the police after he was shot at with a machine gun for just doing his job. It would have made the news. He would have told his boss and the police would have shown up at Kevin’s house to investigate and make arrests.

He could've formed a lynch mob with the stationery store people.

[quote] families were still largish, more mothers worked, kids were more free range.

The late '80s/1990 also presented darker cinematic fare involving kids than all of the cartoon/Disney CGI saccharine overload of today. They were films that captured the time.

I used to love this as a kid. I’m watching it on Disney + now and I’m finding Culkin almost unbearably annoying. I’m not even halfway through it. I’m going to keep watching but it seems the luster has worn off.

Yeah, the children’s movies of the 80s and 90s like Child’s Play, The Witches, Matilda, and New Nightmare were definitely darker.

Much better with Owlkitty.