The name Christopher Columbus doesn’t just belong to the man who discovered an entirely different continent, but also someone else who created a lot of our most treasured childhood memories. Mrs. Doubtfire, Bicentennial Man, the original two Harry Potter films (Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), and of course; Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York were his creations. Obviously, when this man was not attached to the third film in the Home Alone franchise, fans became frustrated and unsure about what kind of film this would turn out to be. As it turns out, their fears were very valid as Home Alone 3 was one of the most disappointing entries in the franchise.
How to Download Home Alone 3
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The Movie Review
The whole premise of this film is exaggeratingly ridiculous and not in a good way. For starters, the film revolves around a top-secret computer chip that the home invaders have hidden into the main protagonist Alex’s toy car, and they need it to aid ‘terrorists’ in something.
That just makes the stakes so much higher in this film, and that takes away from the Christmas charm of a Home Alone film into more mature territories. Second off, there’s no sense of urgency to the plot. The characters are dilly-dallying and taking their time, I couldn’t care for the characters due to the pointless sequences that added nothing to the film.
Raja Gosnell makes a film that is devoid of laughter. This is incredibly ironic because the first two films were genuinely hilarious, and both of the films had an entirely different story arc going on for the main protagonist Kevin. This one is just a remake of Home Alone, with a different character in the lead and much higher stakes that don’t match well with the childish and comedic theme of the overarching storyline.
Terrorism in film is usually never funny unless Sacha Baron Cohen has something to say about it.
The other aspect of this film that is hilariously horrible is the acting. Each and every actor in this film gives a terrible performance. From the child actors to the adult actors, none of them are even slightly convincing in their roles and it just feels odd watching them on screen with no chemistry.
Scarlett Johansson was in this film, and even she did not give a good performance here. Aled D. Linz as Alex Pruitt and Rya Kihlstedt as Alice Ribbons were the only semi-okay actors but that wasn’t due to their performances. It was rather due to the fact that they were completely unhinged in this film and did everything to be as evil as they could. Though in Alex’s case that was justified. For Alice? Not so much.
It suffers from the same cookie-cutter cinematography and camera work techniques that were being used back in the 90s for almost all children’s films. There’s no sense of personality to it and you couldn’t identify which film it is by looking at it. You would need to know that this is Home Alone 3 playing in order to be sure what you’re watching because it looks so bland and lackluster that it just feels generic to watch.
The Soundtrack
The music is a bit better in this regard, although it is mostly just revitalized versions of the original Home Alone soundtrack, it’s still something that works for the film’s strengths. The film is not even remotely close to being enjoyable without this soundtrack, as it adds a lot of flavors to whatever is happening on screen. Alex’s shenanigans would be completely wasted without it.
The Verdict
It doesn’t really make much sense in any way. Not thematically, nor with its story. It’s just uninteresting when an overpowered young child who is suffering from chicken pox defeats four secret operatives searching for a microchip.
I won’t waste time criticizing this movie; I’ll just say that in every way, it falls short of Home Alone’s appeal. It’s a harmless sequel to the franchise, just not particularly intriguing or good in any way. It’s not something that I could recommend for most people, but if you’ve got kids, then I guess it would still be entertaining to them.
