By: Sophia Elmstrom and Lily Sheldon

*Warning: this review contains spoilers

‘Home Alone’ is an American holiday comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and was made in 1990. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, and the cast features Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard and Catherine O’Hara. This film is also the 1st movie out of 4, along with 2 other versions. The film grossed $476.7 million worldwide, becoming the second highest grossing film of 1990. This movie was a big hit, but before we share our thoughts here is a rundown of the plot.

The movie starts with Kevin and his huge family getting ready to spend Christmas in Paris. Everyone is staying at Kevin’s house the night before they leave. Kevin’s siblings and cousins are running around the house preparing for this vacation. No one in the family will help Kevin pack his bag which results in Kevin eventually getting sent up to the attic after ruining the family dinner when arguing with his cousin. Kevin is very upset and is sick of his family picking on him. When he is up in the attic Kevin wishes that his family would disappear.

That night, there is a power outage due to snow, and all the alarm clocks in the house were reset. This causes everyone in the house to oversleep, and they have to rush to get to the airport in the morning. While Kevin’s family is rushing to get to the airport in the morning, Kevin accidentally gets left behind. Kevin wakes up to the house being empty, and is very happy that his wish to not have a family came true. Kevin loves having the house to himself, and is taking advantage of that. Kevin’s house then becomes watched by the “Wet Bandits”, Harry and Marv who are neighborhood burglars. Kevin tricks Harry and Marv into thinking that his family is still home. This makes them hold off on their plans to rob Kevin’s house.

Kevin’s mom, Kate, realizes on her flight that Kevin was left at home. When they get to Paris, Kate tries to get on a flight home. Kate makes it to Pennsylvania, but cannot get on a flight back home to Chicago because all the flights are booked and the phone lines are still down in Chicago. Kate meets a guy named Gus at the airport, and Gus offers to let her travel with them to Chicago in a moving van with his band.

On Christmas Eve, Harry and Marv realize that Kevin is the only one inside his house. Kevin hears them discussing plans to break into his house that night. Kevin sets up his whole house with traps. When Harry and Marv break in, they set off all of the traps in the house, making them regret the robbery. Kevin calls the police and Harry and Marv get arrested.

Kevin is disappointed that his family is still gone on Christmas Day. Kevin’s mom finally makes it home and surprises Kevin. The rest of Kevin’s family comes home shortly after. Kevin is glad that his family is home.

‘Home Alone’ received a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.7/10 from IMDb. Overall, the audience rating summary was a 4.8 with many people saying it was a classic Christmas movie with a nostalgic feeling.

We agree with this rating of the audience but we believe that Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb should have given it a higher rating as it is a very good movie. We both watch this Christmas movie every year with our family and it brings us lots of Christmas memories. We overall rate this a 9/10 because it has that nostalgic Christmas feeling and reminds us of our childhood.

You can watch ‘Home Alone’ on Disney Plus.