HOME ALONE 3

US, 1997, 102 minutes, Colour.
Alex D. Linz, Olek Krupa, Lenny von Dohlen, David Thornton, Haviland Morris, Kevin Kilner, Marian Seldes, Scarlett Johanssen, Christopher Curry.
Directed by Raja Gosnell.

Home Alone 3 came rather late in the day. It was written original writer-director John Hughes. This version was directed by editor Raja Gosnel (Never Been Kissed, The Scooby Doo films, Yours, Mine and Ours).

While the cast has changed, and there is some more exotic background to the film, it basically remains the same story.

This time Alex D. Linz (One Fine Day, voice of young Tarzan) is left at home. However, the film has an esoteric background – four thieves getting a ten-million-dollar secret computer chip from Hong Kong and hiding it in a remote-controlled toy car. As will happen in this kind of film, the thieves take the wrong package. Mrs Hess (Marian Seldes) takes the package and gives the car to her young neighbour. The thieves track them down – and the young boy films their pursuing of Mrs Hess with a camcorder. He develops chicken pox, is at home, the thieves try to recover the car – and thus begins all the slapstick of the various attempts to physically stop them getting in. All ends well – and with the thieves getting chicken pox.

1.The popularity of the original Home Alone films? The focus on the young boy? Fending for himself? Fending against attack?

2.The exotic Hong Kong opening? Airport sequences? Back to suburbia? The homes, the streets? A realistic setting for the implausible action? The musical score?

3.The thieves, the chip, the car, the mistake at the airport, following Mrs Hess? Scouting out the house? The discovery of the truth? Their attempts to get into the house? The confrontations with Alex? His outdoing them, the slapstick comedy, the slapstick villains? The final comeuppance with chicken pox?

4.Alex, his age, at home, the neighbour, Mrs Hess and the gift? His playing with the car? Watching the criminals? The chicken pox, his being confined? Photographing the criminals? The attacks, his sturdy defence, using his wits? The physical nature of his attack on the thieves? The happy ending?

5.Mrs Hess, the mistake, her gift? The criminals pursuing her?

6.The family – absent? The happy ending?

7.The police, the agents, tracking down the thieves?

8.A family film – with literal knockabout comedy?