The movie that made Macaulay Culkin a household name is No. 10 in the Disc Dish countdown of the 25 best Christmas movies. 1990 comedy Home Alone stars Culkin as 8-year-old Kevin McCallister who accidentally gets left behind when his family goes to France for Christmas. In a big house alone, he must defend his home against idiotic burglars.
Culkin appeared alongside a heap of funny actors: Joe Pesci (Raging Bull) and Daniel Stern (City Slickers) as Harry and Marv, the bumbling thieves who think they can get the better of Kevin; John Heard (Big) and Catherine O’Hara (Killers) as his loving if forgetful parents, and even the late John Candy (Uncle Buck) in a cameo.
Plus, the movie has the pedigree of being written by comedy genius John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) and family film guru Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone). It was even nominated for two Academy Awards, for score and song “Somewhere in My Memory.”
A bonafide hit at the box office, Home Alone grossed $264.7 million and spawned a videogame and three sequels: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (basically the same movie, with Culkin’s Kevin again defeating Harry and Marv while hanging out in the Big Apple), Home Alone 3 (with 9-year-old Alex Pruitt, played by Alex D. Linz, battling thieves in Chicago who are after a top secret chip the the boy’s toy car) and TV movie Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (in which Kevin’s back, but played by Michael Weinberg, and he’s spending Christmas with his now-divorced father and his rich girlfriend — and again he has to defeat Marv, now played by French Stewart).
But it’s the original Home Alone, with the zoom-in on Culkin’s face, mouth wide open and hands on each cheek, that’s the best.
Home Alone is available on DVD
Check out the rest of Disc Dish‘s Christmas Movie Advent Calendar.
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