Home Sweet Home Alone (2021) - Movie Review

Image Credit: image created by the author on Canva using photo from GregoryButler from Pixabay.com

The Sixth Home Alone

On November 12, 2021, “Home Sweet Home Alone,” the sixth movie in the Home Alone franchise was released on the Disney Plus streaming service. It was directed by Dan Mazer and written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell. Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, which owns the Home Alone franchise, so that clears up why all the Home Alone movies are only available on Disney Plus. Spoiler alert: if you don’t have Disney Plus, worry not! You are not missing much, particularly when it comes to this movie. The reviews were overwhelmingly negative, so, naturally, I felt a burning need to watch the movie and review it also!

You have a choice when it comes to holiday movies, my friends! More than 100 holiday movies have come out in 2021, which proves that, as a society, we have lost our collective mind. It would be more than a full-time job if one person wanted to review all the holiday movies that came out in this year alone. That is surely insanity. However, it means that if you want to watch a bad holiday movie, full of empty clichés and schmaltz, you are going to be absolutely spoiled for choice this year even more than usual!

Why would I want to watch a movie that has so many negative reviews? Part of the reason is nostalgia. The first “Home Alone” movie came out in 1990, and, initially, I did not like it. However, it sort of grew on me over time. The sequel was bad. I think I watched the third movie, but I am not sure. I was surprised to find out that the movie “Home Sweet Home Alone” was the sixth movie. I somehow missed the fourth and fifth movies.

Plot Summary and Critique

Spoiler Alert: I strongly recommend that you do not watch this movie as it would be a complete waste of your time. However, if you plan to disregard my advice, this section contains spoilers, so do not read.

The plot is ridiculous. Wow. I could pretty much stop my plot summary right there, and it would be accurate although not very informative.

Jeff and Pam McKenzie (played by Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper) are in financial trouble because Jeff lost his job and his skills are obsolete, and they cannot survive on Pam’s salary alone, so they need to sell their house. Coincidentally, young Max Mercer (Archie Yates) and his mother Carol (Aisling Bea) happen to be driving by when Max has an overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom, and, of course, it only makes sense to use the bathroom at Jeff and Pam’s open house.

While Max and Carol are there, they just happen to see an old box of dolls Jeff inherited from his mother including one very weird-looking one which is a boy doll which has been made with its face upside down. Carol says that she thinks she saw the same doll sell on Antiques Roadshow for $5000.

Max and Carol return home to a very hectic and full house with the extended family getting ready to go to Japan for Christmas. They are rebooked at the last minute on two separate flights. Max gets annoyed with the extended family taking over the house and hides out in the garage in the family SUV, watching a DVD. Can you actually watch a DVD without turning on the vehicle or having the keys in the ignition? I suppose it’s a good thing he isn’t stupid enough to turn on the SUV with the garage door closed because, otherwise, this would be a different sort of movie.

Jeff starts to feel nostalgic about the family home. He and Pam still haven’t told the kids that they have to sell. He looks up the doll on an online auction site and finds that it is worth $200,000. Hallelujah! All their financial woes are over. However, shock. When Jeff goes to retrieve the doll, it is mysteriously missing. Jeff immediately assumes Max stole it. Young Max conveniently revealed his mother’s full first and last name during the short time he was at Jeff’s house, and, since “Carol Mercer” is such an uncommon name, it was a simple matter for Jeff to find Carol’s home almost immediately. Help. I have fallen into a plot hole and I cannot get out.

Jeff immediately drives to the Mercer home, but the family is leaving. Carol has already left and the remaining family believes that Max has gone with her. During the confusion of the family leaving, Jeff conveniently hears the alarm security code and sees where the spare key to the house is hidden. Of course, later, when he keys in this easy to remember security code, he gets it wrong anyhow, so one wonders why the writers bothered having him be so conveniently privy to the code. However, this is far from the movie’s worst flaw.

Jeff tells Pam about the supposed theft of the doll, and somehow convinces her that the best course of action is to break into the Mercer home and steal the doll back. You see, they have an offer on the house, so it only makes sense. They can’t possibly wait until the Mercers get back from Tokyo because, if they did, they would have to sell their house instead of just selling the ugly doll. This brings me to another plot hole, by the way. Specifically, just because another (similar) doll is listed on an auction site for $200,000, that does not mean they will receive that amount for their doll. You can list anything on an auction site for any price. If I were Jeff and Pam, I might want to do a tiny bit of research before, you know, just breaking into someone’s home.

When Max realizes he has been left behind, he is initially delighted, but soon becomes bored and misses his family. Unfortunately, when Jeff and Pam come to break in, rather than referring to the doll as a doll, they call it an “ugly little boy.” They refer to selling it to an old lady, and Max assumes they mean him. Without this fundamental misunderstanding, the whole movie would fall apart. However, it seems contrived. Why would Jeff and Pam continually refer to the doll as an “ugly little boy”? And why would Max assume that they meant him? I suppose it makes sense although the idea that they are planning to sell him to old ladies seems weird.

Meanwhile, Carol, in Tokyo, realizes that they left Max at home. She immediately heads back home. You would think that she could contact Max or some friends or family in the city or the police, but, for a variety of reasons, none of that is possible. Don’t worry. It’s all explained in a way that seems almost plausible.

In arguably the most cringy part of the movie, Jeff and Pam break into the Mercer home, but Max is prepared for them. He has set up traps in the house, and subjects Jeff and Pam to countless horrors, which, in reality, would at the very least have hospitalized them, and would likely have killed them both. If they were burglars, I would have felt sorry for them. Given that they were just trying to get their ugly doll back, I could barely watch.

Luckily, before Max completely kills Jeff and Pam, it is finally revealed that they came to steal back their doll, not to steal Max. However, it turns out that Max stole a can of soda, not the doll. When Jeff and Pam realize that Max has been left home alone, their hearts go out to their vicious little attacker and they immediately invite him to stay with him until Carol returns. He, in turn, is happy to go with these crazy home invaders.

So, who took that ugly doll? Well, Jeff’s brother Hunter, his brother’s wife Mei, and their kid Ollie have shown up for the holidays. It is implied that Ollie took the doll (because Ollie has it).

Did the Movie Have any Redeeming Features?

Despite the plot holes and some scenes being extremely violent in ways that seemed completely unjustified, the movie was surprisingly watchable. I chalk this up to some of the cast being quite talented. Archie Yates was fun as Max. I also really enjoyed Ellie Kemper as Pam. While she doesn’t have a lot of range as an actress, I always enjoy watching her and she is funny.

The plot and dialogue were relatively well crafted. By this, I mean that, somehow, although there were many plot holes, they were somehow not glaringly obvious.

There’s not a lot to say in terms of redeeming features, sadly.

Conclusion

With a 3.6 out of 10 rating on IMDB, and coming almost a decade after the last in the Home Alone franchise, it is safe to say my expectations were low. However, I was curious to know what another Home Alone movie could possibly look like. How many ways can you accidentally leave a child home alone during the holidays?

I think that IMDB’s rating of 3.6/10 was about right. The most recent Home Alone movie before this came out in 2012. “Home Alone: The Holiday Heist” received a rating of 3.5/10 on IMDB. So, I guess the creators of this Home Alone can count it a micro-success because it got 0.1/10 more.

This was a truly terrible movie. I recommend you don’t waste your time watching it, and instead, watch one of the other 100+ holiday movies from this year’s offerings.