Home Alone 3

This may come across as strange, but I actually would like to recommend the 1997 sequel, “Home Alone 3,” although not to grownups unless they are in a silly mood. Yes, I know, it does follow the same formula as the first two, but it’s still funny and gentle, has a real charmer as our main character, and provides impressive wish fulfillment and entertainment for kids in the lower grades in Elementary school.

There is even a better reason as to why the child is left home alone. Played by a newcomer named Alex D. Linz, and Roger Ebert says, “Who seems almost too small for a middle initial” and he gets the chickenpox. His dad, played by Kevin Kilner, is out of town on business, his mom, played by Haviland Morris, has a serious urgency at her office, and his brother and sister (played by Seth Smith and Scarlett Johansson) are at school. That is why Alex is left home alone with a beeper number, fax number, cell phone number, and the number of Mrs. Hess across the street, played by Marian Seldes, and dialing 911 as a fallback position.

The subplot has already been set into play. A spy ring has stolen a computer chip, and because of confusion at the airport baggage claim with identical bags, the toy truck that has the chip ends up at Mrs. Hess’ house. Four spies (Olek Krupa, Rya Kihlstedt, Lenny Von Dohlen, and David Thornton) fly to Chicago on the same plane as Mrs. Hess and have four hours to board to find the bag, but being the stupid spies that they are, they fail to find it and end up deciding to break into every house in the same neighborhood as Alex.

This means a lot of more trouble on the way. They use walkie-talkies, computer programs, surveillance vans, a fake baby buggy and other props in order to be wasteful and noticeable as possible, and of course Alex, using his telescope from his attic window, spots them. Don’t even think about asking why the four spies never spot him up there. After he calls the cops twice but they escape before the cops get there, Alex decides to handle the spies himself. He sets up intricate traps, just like in the first two, and the last 45 minutes consist of nonstop wreck as the bad guys fall for every trap. Ebert says about these traps, “these are the kinds of traps that any 8-year-old could devise, if he had a budget of tens of thousands of dollars and the assistance of a crew of movie special-effects people.” It’s still funny though.

Ebert says, “So, OK. I know the formula, and so does the movie (written, like the first two, by John Hughes). Forewarned and forearmed as I was, why did I actually like “Home Alone 3”? It was partly because of little Alex Linz, who has a genuinely sweet smile on his face as he watches his traps demolish the bad guys. I don't know if he'll have a career like his predecessor, Macaulay Culkin (for his sake I sort of hope not), but he has the same glint in his eye.”

Also, the booby traps, even though they are painful, are funnier this time. Sure, people do fall down dumbwaiters and through floors, and get hit on the head with dumbbells and flower pots, and get frozen in the swimming pool, but Raja Gosnell’s direction avoids the painful after effects and makes it OK. The stunts at the end are more slapstick and less special effect. End result: Either more entertaining than the first two or I was just in a silly mood when I saw this.

I do acknowledge that this film has problems since the cast that we all knew and loved from the first two movies are not in this, but as a film that is trying to go into a new direction, I give it credit for at least trying. My rating would probably be a 7 as I think if you have kids, they’ll love it and you will if you are having a silly day.

How do the other sequels turn out? Find out tomorrow when I continue my 25 days of Christmas movie reviews on the “Home Alone series.”