Home Alone

Synopsis of Movie

Hey kids, are your parents out of the room? Good, then it’s time to be honest: violence is funny. It probably shouldn’t be, but it is. Slipping on ice is funny. Tumbling down stairs is funny. Okay, searing a guy’s head with an acetylene torch is pushing it, but slipping on ice is funny. It’s awful, it should never happen to anyone (even the bad guys), but it’s still funny, and nobody knows this better than kids. You can let your parents back in the room now.

Who would’ve thought a suburban family film would go on to become the most successful comedy of all time? Home Alone not only made producer/writer John Hughes a very wealthy man, it made a star out of young Macaulay Culkin, the precocious eleven-year-old star of the show.

Culkin plays Kevin, the picked-on runt of the McCallister clan. It’s Christmas time, and the extended family (fifteen members in all) is planning a jaunt to Paris. When Kevin gets blamed for a little sibling rivalry, his punishment is a night upstairs in the attic. After a series of delays and mix-ups, the youngster accidentally gets left (you guessed it) home alone while his family makes the frantic trip to the airport. Not until the plane is in the air does Mrs. McCallister realize her boy got left behind, sending her off on a frantic and problem-filled journey home.

Meanwhile, thinking he’s made his family disappear, Kevin uses his newfound freedom to do everything he shouldn’t—watch trashy movies, eat junk food, sled down the staircase, etc. When the novelty wears off, Kevin realizes he’s now the young man of the house and dutifully tends to the cooking, cleaning and shopping. This new sense of responsibility is put to the ultimate test when a pair of bumbling crooks make an assault on the McCallister home, with only Kevin’s ingenuity and an arsenal of booby traps as a defense.

Home Alone was a Christmas story for the 90’s—slapstick but sentimental, sassy but sweet. Surprising all involved, the movie became one of the top-grossing films to that date. The inevitable sequel followed in 1992, with most of the original cast reprising their roles. A third Home Alone arrived in 1997, with Alex D. Linz as the new adorable abandonee.

Movie Release History

1990 - Home Alone
1992 - Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
1997 - Home Alone 3

Movie Sub Categories

live-action
comedy

Movie Studio

20th Century Fox

Cast

Kevin McCallister Macaulay Culkin
Harry Joe Pesci
Marv Daniel Stern
Peter McCallister John Heard
Marley Roberts Blossom
Kate McCallister Catherine O'Hara
Linnie McCallister Angela Goethals
Buzz McCallister Devin Ratray
Uncle Frank Gerry Bamman
Megan McCallister Hillary Wolf
Gus Polinski John Candy
Officer Balzak Larry Hankin
Jeff McCallister Michael C. Maronna
Heather Kristin Minter
Sandra Daiana Campeanu

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