‘Home Sweet Home Alone‘ is a Christmas family film directed by Dan Mazer and streamed to Disney Plus. It is part of the “Home Alone” franchise but features a new cast.

Jeff (Rob Delaney) and Pam McKenzie (Ellie Kemper) are holding an open house as they prepare to sell their beloved home after he loses his job. Carol Mercer (Aisling Bea) brings her son Max (Archie Yates) there so he can use the bathroom where he steals a valuable doll. When Max arrives back home, his house is in chaos as his whole extended family is planning on spending Christmas in Japan. Max wishes that he could have the house to himself and when he wakes up, he finds himself home alone. When Jeff figures out where Max lives, he and Pam decide to break in so they can get the doll back and sell it to save their house.

Okay, where to begin? This movie is bad. It is a poorly written imitation of such a great Chris Columbus classic. The best way to describe it is a shameless cash grab now that Disney has access to the 20th Century Fox library. It is clear the remakes will never stop at this rate.

The humor was completely flat and cringe. They tried to spruce it up with a cameo from the original, but it was a fail. The weaving between Jeff and Max felt more like a chore to get through. They had no character development, so I did not know why I cared about any of the characters. Especially Max’s family. In the original one, the general chaos of Christmas helped foster the family chaos, but here, his family is just kind of selfish. Oh yes, they squeezed in a fart joke. Keep it classy, Disney.

The pranks that Kevin played on the two thieves in the original were all unique, but this one, they told the same joke over and over again. Jeff and Pam fall down the stairs at least twice each. There were three times Max hit them with stuff from the kitchen. The ONLY time I laughed was watching Kemper step through a maze of Legos.

They did this weird thing where they turned Max into a spoiled British kid. I do not know why this decision was made. All it did was make the kid more annoying. This Hollywood “let’s slap an accent on it so it is different” was fine in the early 2000s, but let us move past it.

Comparing Max to Kevin might feel unfair, but I have to point out a few things. Kevin might have been a little jerk, but he grows over time and endears us to him as the original Home Alone proceeds. With Max, he stays the same the whole time so him missing his family felt disingenuous and more selfish than self-reflective.

Bottom line, Home Sweet Home Alone is a holiday cringe film that has none of the charm, humor, or inspiration that made its predecessors so funny.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Comic violence, Rude humor

FAVORITE QUOTE: I will shave someone’s head! That is real!

Check out the trailer below:

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