New home alone
John Hughes wrote some truly great movies in the 80s, but this is obviously not one of his best.
#NEW HOME ALONE MOVIE#
That's not to say that I can't enjoy a film like this, as in something lighter in tone, I obviously have, but I don't think this movie has enough material to justify its own existence.
It was never made to please critics or people like me, who appreciate well-written movies with strong character development. Though, if we're being honest, this movie was never meant to be more than a crowd-pleaser. But I digress, maybe this movie wasn't even good in the 90s, but I don't think time has been super kind to this. Actually now that I think about it, it was Santa Claus since, later in the film after his family has left for Paris, he goes to one of Santa's 'representative' for him to tell Santa that all he wants for Christmas is his family back. I don't know who Kevin was asking for when he asked for this, but let's say it was Santa Claus. Like I said, there's certain some elements associated with the 'genre', like when Kevin, after an incident where he gets grounded after a fight with his brother and ruins the family dinner, wishes for his family to disappear. And, really, this movie is one of those holiday movies that takes place during the holidays, but isn't really completely centered on the holiday itself. They just happen to take place during the Christmas season and they certainly have some themes associated with the season, but they're not completely centered around Christmas with a, sort-of, tunnel vision where nothing else can come in. There's films like Bad Santa and Uncle Nick that try to subvert this genre with darker stories, but, even then, the end goal of the film isn't really about Christmas. You can only go a couple of ways with these films and, usually, filmmakers go for the sweet, sappy and corny. Christmas is, really, such a limiting concept. And I really think that that's the problem with a lot of these films. Some of the best holiday/Christmas movies are those movies that, really, have very little to do with Christmas.