Home Alone: The Holiday Heist

What can I really say about this film? The kid is stupid (he didn't even know he had to pay at a hardware store) and annoying, the entire plot revolves around ghosts (?) and overall the film was pretty much painful to watch. Luckily I had friends there so we could play MST3K and ridicule the film's stupidity. This film is only really fun if you are drunk or prepared to laugh at it. I would go into a rant about how awful this flick is, but it's so forgettable and ridiculous that I don't have much to say. What I will say, though, is that it at least is a better effort than 4, but it's still a God-awful movie and one that deserves to be quickly forgotten and buried in an unmarked grave.

...Stick with the first three.

The Home Alone franchise pumps out a fifth attempt at recapturing what the first two managed to achieve. In this sequel, the Baxter family moves into a creepy old house in which people believe may be haunted. The young Baxter child named Finn is left home alone (with his sister...) while his parents go off to some fancy Christmas party. Meanwhile, there are three thieves who want to break in to the house and try to retrieve a very expensive painting. Finn discovers their plan, and in true Home Alone fashion, sets up numerous booby traps that will no doubt lead to some bruised and battered bad guys.

Home Alone 5 does a few things well. I liked the location shots of the creepy old house, and I really liked the villains in this film. In fact, I found the most enjoyable parts where when the three thieves were on- screen. Malcolm McDowell, Debi Mazar and Eddie Steeples are terrific as the bumbling criminals. Everything other than that is a failure. The boy is never REALLY home alone. His sister is locked in the basement downstairs after trapping herself in the walk in vault where the expensive painting is. I did not like some of the acting from the family, and I did not like the direction they took with some of the characters. The mother is written as just some over-hyper super bitch, who doesn't seem to give a damn about her kids most of the time. It was a weird dynamic between her and the rest of the family. Oh and like every other who tried to match him, The child actor in this one is no where close to Macaulay Culkin and his performance in the original films. He isn't bad, but with these sequels you can't help but compare to the best of the best.

Home Alone: The Holiday Heist does try, a lot more than the dreadful Home Alone 4 did. However it just isn't a great movie nor does it add ANYTHING to the Home Alone franchise. I always appreciated the third film because it branched off a bit from the usual cookie-cutter plot of the previous two Home Alone films, but this one stuck to simplicity.

4/10

Back when Home Alone 4 came out, for some insane reason, I gave it an above-lukewarm review, which is a million times what it deserved as it was utterly terrible. Now, 10 years later, Fox have went back to Home Alone for a new Xmas TV movie special. It's watchable, but it ain't no classic.

Finn Baxter (and his haircut from 1994) moves into an old house in New England with his parents and older sister. He's addicted to video games and she's addicted to staring at her cell phone. Since most kids are like this nowadays I would have the preferred the unrealistic, healthy, proactive types. Kevin McCallister was a misfit, not a stereotype. Finn is a sorry reflection of today's youth.

Hidden in the basement is a prohibition era hooch bar with a priceless painting hanging on the wall. Three bumbling thieves, including Malcolm "I'll do anything for a paycheck" McDowell and the unusually attractive Debi Mazar, want to get their hands on it and plan a robbery while the parents are at some Xmas party in the mountains. Kevin...I mean Finn, defends the house with booby traps while his sister is trapped in the hooch bar.

Harry and Marv were the kind of idiots who made for good comedy when getting tortured. But the thieves in this movie are not really that bad, and I kinda felt that they deserved to get the painting. Why should I root for a shut-in child and his torn-faced sister? John Williams gets a 'themes by' credit but approximately 1% of his famous Home Alone score is used, and on top of that it's a bit too loud and overbearing. And since the parents are loud, reactionary idiots I saw no point in wishing for them to reunite with their kids.

Saying it is better than 4 is like saying that AIDS is better than cancer, but it makes for a pleasant, one-off addition to your Xmas movie list.

"Home Alone: The Holiday Heist" is a Comedy - Family movie in which we watch a young child creating some traps in order to catch a ghost at his new home. Soon enough will find himself protecting both his home and his sister from three art thieves.

I did not enjoy this movie because it used the title "Home Alone" in order to gain reputation but failed to keep it up. The plot was simple and boring without any surprises or something new that we have not watched yet. The direction which was made by Peter Hewitt was not the best and he did not succeed on creating a nice, festive atmosphere in the movie in order to make the audience feel the feeling of Christmas. In addition to this, the use of "Home Alone" was not the best choice as it was compared with the previous movies of the "Home Alone" franchise. All in all, I have to say that "Home Alone: The Holiday Heist" is a below the average comedy movie and I do not recommend it to anyone.

my problem with this film is that the bad guys were not bad people. He was a treasure hunter at best and cared for nothing but a painting. and the other two were dumb, but nice the entire movie,

even in the car scene, "sit down and put on your seat belt"

The reason the first 3 were so great is because we rooted for the kid to win, he is the underdog against dirty, ruthless criminals. Not the case for this movie. I found myself feeling bad for the criminals being attacked, and the attack were so so, i understand there budget isn't there but with todays technology. you can do better Hollywood! everything was so much more well done and real looking in the originals.

I saw the hidden meaning, that kids are isolated with video games/cell phones and should get back to real life, but every-time i watched the kid.. His character to very bratty, cocky and not charming.

Im sure kids will love it, not a bad movie, just lacked and didn't feel "real life" enough.

2.5/5