Leave this unfunny, unnecessary ‘Home Sweet Home’ alone
Leave it to the evil elves at Disney to take the John Hughes-scripted 1990 smash hit, slapstick comedy “Home Alone” and repackage it as an unfunny, unpleasant 94 minutes on Disney+. Rescripted by “SNL” writers Streeter Seidell and Mikey Day and directed by “Dirty Grandpa” helmer Dan Mazer, “Home Sweet Home Alone,” a 20th Century Studios production, replaces the original’s 8-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) with a 10-year-old British boy named Max (Archie Yates, “Jojo Rabbit”), presumably so that people can refer to him (hilariously, right?) as Harry Potter over and over.
Max and his mother Carol (Aisling Bea) stop at the open house of Pam (Ellie Kemper) and Jeff (Rob Delaney, TV’s “Catastrophe”) and their real estate agent Gavin (a mirthless Kenan Thompson). Jeff shows Max a vintage doll with an upside down head. Later, Jeff, who has lost his job, making it necessary for him and Pam to sell their house and uproot their children, realizes that the doll is worth a small fortune. But it’s gone, and he suspects Max of stealing it. He and Pam plan to steal it back.
At the same time, Max is left behind when his mother and her family fly separately to Tokyo (because that’s where families go for Christmas, right?). Max, who lives in a wealthy neighborhood, realizes what Jeff and Pam plan to do and sets booby traps for them all over the lavish home. This makes Kemper and Delaney this film’s Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. The booby traps include ice all over the driveway, Legos to fall and step upon with (conveniently) bare feet, exploding bottles of soda, a puddle of lighter fluid with which to set humans on fire and an air gun firing billiard balls. Did I mention that Jeff will be dressed as Santa Claus while suffering the physical punishment of repeatedly falling down stairs and smashing face first into a wall unit while wearing virtual reality goggles?
For some reason, everyone makes faces at the camera while speaking the horribly stilted and unfunny dialogue, beginning with a bit about deviled eggs and the toilet. Just when you’re thinking — Wait, was that a gay joke? — Carol realizes that her family has left Max behind and books her return flight, on which she will be tormented by an overweight man beside her who offers to share his blanket.
Meanwhile, Jeff and Pam are performing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” with hand bells at a senior facility, where the writers throw in a joke about dementia. There is also a shot of an old woman removing her dentures. I can’t tell you how funny I found that. Seriously, I can’t.
Devin Ratray, who played Kevin’s oldest brother Buzz in the original, returns as a clueless police officer and fast-food enthusiast. Buzz’s funny bit is talking with his mouth full. Kemper (“Bridesmaids”) and Delaney are at a loss to make any of the dialogue or action amusing. Shouting does not make any of this material any less dreadful. The original film has already spawned four sequels, the final two TV movies. This one will go down in film history as yet another unnecessary and uninspired attempt to cash in on a famous title without bothering to pay it any respect.