Firstly, I should say, that I’m not against remakes and reboots. They’re nothing new in Hollywood, and I’m sure they will continue to be for decades to come. You just have to look at 2018’s A Star is Born - the third adaption of the 1937 original - to see that if the creative team behind it have a clear vision they can create something new, and something that reflects the cultural zeitgeist.

Home Sweet Home Alone… does not do this. There is no clear vision behind it, and the entire film feels dated in a way that the Chris Columbus original still doesn’t

There are a number of reasons for this, but generally, the reason Home Sweet Home Alone doesn’t work, can be summed up by its violence.

What made the violence in the original films work, was that Harry and Marv were deserving of everything that happened to them. We can laugh at the cartoonish brutality inflicted upon them, because we know that they will inflict worse on Kevin should they catch him.

Even Home Alone’s three and four managed to get this aspect right.

In Home Sweet Home Alone the characters that are shot and stabbed and set fire to, are the only two decent characters in the entire film, and because of this Max Mercer, the supposed hero of the film, actually starts to feel liken the villain of the piece, in a way that Kevin McCallister never did.

There is also a total lack of imagine in the final acts set pieces, the majority of which are just modern updates of least memorable aspects of the first two films. 

The original had Kevin throwing paint cans down the stairs. Home Sweet Home Alone has almost the exact same scene, however Max uses flour and sugar instead. Home Alone has Marv impaling his foot on a nail. Home Sweet Home Alone has Jeff stabbing his finger on a thumb tack. Home Alone has Kevin freezing water on some steps so the burglars slip and fall down them. Home Sweet Home Alone has Max… doing the exact same thing.

And it does feel slightly harsh to keep judging Home Sweet Home Alone in comparison to the obviously superior originals, but it’s difficult not to, when the film itself references its forebears at every turn. John Williams wonderful 1990 score is shoehorned in time and time again, lines of dialogue are shamelessly lifted, and Devin Ratray turns up in an entirely needless cameo. There’s even a remake of Angels with Filthy Souls, which a character in the film complains about, saying remakes are never as good as the originals. Which I am sure the writing team intended to be a tongue in cheek joke for the adults, but which actually leaves you wishing more than ever that you were watching the original.

It feels at times like Home Sweet Home Alone is trying to hypnotise us into thinking we’re watching good, by constantly reminding us of something better. 

The attitude of the lead character is also a huge issue.

For all he lived in a huge house, and seemingly had everything, and more, that a young boy could want, Kevin McCallister never came across as privileged. His acting out stemming from a desire for attention, in a household full of people who openly disliked him. 

Max Mercer, however, is the opposite. Within two minutes of him being on screen we see him being rude to his mum (played by Aisling Bea) and to Rob Delaney’s Jeff, and later going to a church and taking a toy meant for disadvantaged children, without even realising he’s doing anything wrong.

Privilege oozes out of him, and this causes further narrative issues. Pam and Jeff are motivated by a desire to save their family home. They are a struggling one income family who are trying to recover the one thing that can pull them out of the financial mess in which they’ve found themselves, so when you put them up against the Home Alone version of We Need to Talk About Kevin the lines of who we’re supposed to root for get blurred.

In fact there were times, as Home Sweet Home Alone trudged towards its climax, I found myself wishing that the Wet Bandits would turn up and take out all of their anti-McCallister frustrations on everyone involved in this travesty.

The message of the film appears to be that poor people are inherently bad, and that the wealthy can do whatever the hell they want to them without facing any repercussions. And while the second aspect of that might actually be reflected in society, it perhaps isn’t something that should be being glamourised in a family Christmas comedy.

I say comedy, it isn’t actually funny. Where 1990’s Home Alone and it’s 1992 sequel, have a timeless quality to them, Home Sweet Home Alone subjects us to jokes about Uber, and Elf on the Shelf, and internet parental controls, which already feel five years out of date. 

In the entirety of its 90 minute run time I only laughed once. At a fart gag. It wasn’t even a particularly good fart gag, it was just the only aspect of the film that attempted to subvert expectations. For the rest of the film every set up felt forced, and every punchline felt easy, and for a film starring two well regarded comedians in Aisling Bea and Rob Delaney I expected more. 

But… Maybe… Am I being too hard on what is, essentially, a piece of family Christmas fluff? 

… Well, no. 

Home Sweet Home Alone is the worst of the Home Alone films, and if you can’t be better than the terrible Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House you deserve every piece of criticism that you get.