Home Alone 3: Refried hash browns without Macaulay Culkin

Unrelated sequels are a thing found not only in video games, but movies as well. Need an example? How about Home Alone 3? You know, the one with the new kid in it. Former king of the hill, Macaulay Culkin has officially retired from the series due to one of 2 possible reasons. He was either too old or too busy picking up girls at the local high school ( snicker! ), so guess who’s taking his place? Ever heard of Alex D. Linz? Alex who? Err…nevermind, lets get on with the review.

Home Alone 3 is in many ways similar to the first 2. Firstly, its built around the same plot that had put its aforementioned predecessors on the map & secondly the new bad guys are just about as stupid as the previous duo who had given Macaulay Culkin so much to worry about. But this time, the crooks, though equally stupid, have an edge over their previously ill-fated counterparts with some high-tech gadgetry borrowed from the set of Mission Impossible. Still, a pox-stricken 8-year-old should constitute the least of their problems compared to a missing 10 million dollar computer chip.

From the title of the movie alone, anyone should be able to tell that this chip would somehow end up in the capable hands of our young protagonist. What happens next is pretty much expected in a Home Alone flick. History repeats itself with the baddies being subjected to all sorts of cruel punishment that would scare off even someone like Wile E. Coyote. Obviously the bad guys had let all that desperation get the better of them in neglecting to activate their thinking caps before attempting to retrieve the stolen chip. It's believable how an 8 year old had previously been able to defeat the 2 idiots from HA 1 & 2, but a gang of international crooks armed with PDAs & radar? Awww...come on!

As a longtime fan of such movies, I have not much to complain about this third installment, aside from the fact that the bad guys were made to look too stupid for their own good. For a band of high-tech swindlers, I would have expected them to possess more of what we’d call IQ compared to a certain Gumpy fellow played by Tom Hanks. I took them to be European from the slight accents, German perhaps, except for the chick whose last name indicates otherwise. Oh well, if they can’t make decent baddies out of the local boys, why not take the ‘Die Hard’ route by picking on the Europeans, right? But even with all that expensive equipment, the bungling crooks were still not much of a challenge for our resident whiz kid.

I mean, what idiot would be stupid enough to climb through the inside of an open window without even looking down on what he’ll be stepping on? There could have very well been a 50 foot drop on the other side but fortunately, all this moronic baddie got was a foot stuck some tubs of glue. The others weren’t so lucky. Getting electrocuted or soaked in tar can be one hell of a sucky experience but being dropped on the head with a lawn mower is a whole new different ball game. It’s a good thing Wile E. Coyote didn’t have to put up with such punishment or he would have given up road runner for chicken.

Fans of the series will find the often painful mishaps wickedly entertaining, despite the concept’s obvious signs of age. Though unrelated, the third installment does however manages to live up to its prequels and some might even think of it to be the best in the trilogy. Personally, I didn’t find it any much better than the previous 2 but still, for some unexplained reason, this film had somehow made its way into my favorites list alongside such oaters as Ferris Bueller, UHF & Phantasm 3. Overall Grade: B+