I cannot believe I’m talking about this film. There is quite honestly nothing good to talk about the Home Alone series after Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The first two films in the franchise were genuinely great entertainers; you loved Macaulay Culkin’s portrayal of Kevin McAllister, and the way the story unfolded right before your eyes. However, after that point, the franchise simply divulged into a series of repetitive stories that kept being made for no apparent reason whatsoever. However, it seems that things were yet to get worse, because as bad as Home Alone 3 was, there was something worse coming.
How to Download Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002)
You can download the film from a digital store. You can also stream it. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
It’s Kevin McCallister’s first Christmas following his parents’ divorce. His mother Kate, his two siblings, and he reside together. His father Peter wants the kids to spend time with Natalie, his wealthy girlfriend, who he intends to marry. Kevin first rejects even the thought of accepting Natalie, but he then chooses to slink away from his father after his brother’s violent tendencies begin to escalate.
The maid is Molly, and the butler is Prescott. The mansion is modern. Marv Merchants has discarded the Wet Bandits group and has begun planning a terrible scheme of his own together with his wife Vera. Together, the two intend to kidnap a visiting Prince. Kevin repeatedly repels them, but whenever he tells someone, no one believes him.
Home Alone 4, a sequel to Home Alone 1 and 2 but only ‘made for TV’ is quite unappealing. Kevin, as well as his siblings, had awful casting. The children appear younger, and even in the movie, Kevin claims to be 9 years old. However, this is a sequel, and Kevin even recognizes one of the burglars from the previous films! This time, Vera, played by French Stuart, is Marv’s new companion, and she isn’t much smarter than Marv. This movie is completely unnecessary. This has never held up; the original does. It attempts to not just mimic but also “modernize” many aspects of the original but falls short in capturing any of the enchantment.
The film is literally called Home Alone, and yet he is never alone at home in the whole film for even a moment. Only by name was Kevin the main character in this film. The original Kevin, who was a badass, was changed into a whiny little crybaby who kept consistently asking others for help instead of taking matters into his own hands. He was deeply distressed by the fact that his parents were currently going through a divorce. On that topic, since when did the Home Alone series ever become about divorce?
In essence, this movie is oddly made because Kevin sets virtually no traps. The only other interaction is a brief one at the start, where Kevin connects together two or three pots. What was the film’s production team thinking when they made it? I honestly didn’t think a Home Alone movie could be worse than Home Alone 3, because at least that kid caught some bandits.
Since this film was made for TV, they had to severely cut corners when it came to the visual presentation here. Horse, that leads to this film not only being bad in terms of the script but also looking completely ugly to the viewers’ eyes. Not only that, but this film also features an oddly recomposed rendition of the original Home Alone theme, which just doesn’t work here at all. So, this film fails not just in the writing, but also in the camera work and the music.
The Verdict
There isn’t a story that needs resolving here, nor a house full of traps, or even an emotional payoff. The short running time kills any chances of development for these characters, which are also lacking any sort of depth. The music in Home Alone 4 is incredibly uninteresting, the plot feels rushed beyond words, and the writing is incredibly lacking. The casting is undoubtedly poor, and the characters feel like they were thrown into the story without any real purpose. There is nothing to enjoy about it, not even the aesthetics.
