Blog Archives
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone (1990)
Home Alone is the first movie that I could quote in its entirety line for line and I was maybe 6 years old at the time. I watched the movie for the first time on VHS when I was 5 years old.
The film is the first holiday tradition that I ever had. Christmas just doesn’t seem like Christmas without watching Home Alone at some point.
It’s the movie that boosted Macauley Culkin to superstardom while simultaneously dooming his acting career. Forever, he will always be known as Kevin McCallister, the little boy whose family forgot about him and left him home alone. Thanks to Home Alone, Culkin is the most famous child actor ever. However, Home Alone was the peak of his career and he was only 10 years old at the time. He could never, and will never top that movie, no matter how hard he tries.
Home Alone was touted as the family comedy without the family and it was exactly that. I don’t know if I have ever met anybody who has not seen the film. That is how popular it is. Everybody has seen it.
So, for all of the newborns out there who weren’t in their mother’s womb over Christmastime, the movie is about Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin), an 8-year-old boy who gets left at home when his big family goes on a trip to Paris for the holidays. He is left to fend for himself and forced to defend his home against two stupid criminals.
The film was written by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The rest of the noteworthy cast includes Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, Roberts Blossom, John Candy, Devin Ratray, Larry Hankin, Gerry Bamman, and Keiran Culkin.
Home Alone has been one of my favorite movies ever since my childhood. It’s festive, heartfelt and hysterical. It’s everything that a family comedy should be.
Macauley Culkin did an excellent job for his age. Pesci and Stern gave priceless performances as the knuckleheads who insist on trying to rob the McCallister’s residence, even after knowing a little kid is home.
It’s a John Hughes classic that never gets old, no matter how many times you watch it. Trust me, I know. I’ve seen this movie more times that I could ever count.
I rate this movie a 10 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you enjoyed Home Alone than you will most likely enjoy:
R.I.P.D. (2013)
R.I.P.D. (2013)
To me, this film appeared like it would have a lot of similarities to Men in Black (1997). Instead of a police force that protects the earth from aliens, R.I.P.D. has a police force that protects the earth from the dead. The dead people in R.I.P.D. wear human body suits and hide out among the living, sort of like the aliens in MIB. Interestingly enough, the dead people in R.I.P.D. and the aliens in MIB are monsters that appear very much alike. The futuristic guns in each film look like they are all part of the same family. Each movie has old grumpy veterans of the force that are tasked with training the new recruit. Hollywood continues to recycle the same ideas. They twist them around a bit and feed them back to us again on the silver screen.
R.I.P.D. is a buddy-cop comedy with a twist. Instead of simply just trying to protect and serve, Roy (Jeff Bridges) and Nick (Ryan Reynolds) are deceased cops who try to protect the living from the dead as part of the Rest in Peace Department. After 15 years on the force, Boston cop Nick is tragically murdered in the line of duty. Instead of going to heaven, he gets stopped along the way and recruited to become a member of the R.I.P.D. He gets paired with Roy, an R.I.P.D. veteran. Roy shows Nick the ropes, but Nick is only interested in investigating his own murder.
The film is directed by Robert Schwentke and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak, Marisa Miller, James Hong, Devin Ratray, and Robert Knepper.
Even with the thought of basically already seeing this movie 3 times before, I expected it to be funnier than it actually was. Reynolds humor is usually pretty sarcastically witty. Pairing him with Bridges in a cowboy-like character, I thought that I might die laughing. This was not the case however. There was a touch of cleverness that caused a little bit of deserved laughter, but the comedy was mostly just not there.
All of the actors were likable, but the film was desperately lacking originality. The story was highly predictable and very convenient. I felt like there was not enough of a back story to the Rest in Peace Department itself and why the dead were trying to invade the earth. It was hardly explained why the department existed and why the dead were able to come back to earth. There were just tons of holes in the storyline that were completely overlooked by the characters. Apparently the viewers were also supposed to overlook these flaws and just go with it. I did that, but it made the film less enjoyable.
Overall, you can expect a few laughs and a bit of entertainment. It’s also pretty funny and sad to see what Buzz (Devin Ratray) from Home Alone (1990) has become.
I rate this movie a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
Trailer for R.I.P.D. (2013)
R.I.P.D. (2013) (Click on the title for my full review.)
R.I.P.D. looks like a cross between Beetlejuice (1988) and Men in Black (1997).
The movie is directed by Robert Schwentke and stars Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Robert Knepper, James Hong, Mike O’Malley, Stephanie Szostak, Devin Ratray, Larry Joe Campbell, Marisa Miller, Josh Sussman, Alexandra East, and Tobias Segal.
This action comedy looks like it will be right up my alley.
The film is set to release on 7/19/13.
brockingmovies 