Macaulay Culkin was very good and showed a lot of range. First he’s this insufferable brat at the beginning. He’s equally convincing as the mature man of the house going grocery shopping and doing laundry.
If you wonder how Home Alone really ends, make sure you find and watch Ariana Grande’s parody of HA on SNL 12/20/2025. It’s so over-the-top and crazy that we had to rewatch the original tonight. My wife and I both forgot how sweet the film is deep down, after all the slapstick violence is done.
The John Williams score is awesome. The granddaughter’s high school band played the theme as part of their Christmas concert.
I was watching out for this because it’s written and directed by Bryan Fuller, the one who did Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, Dead Like Me, Hannibal and the good season of American Gods.
Ended? No, no, no. It never ended. (skip to 1:00:28 if not automatically done for you).
Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)
Recommended.
Huh. This is the seventh Silent Night, Deadly Night movie and it is actually quite good. Consider me very surprised. A guy hears a voice that not only talks to him, but helps him identify people who are “naughty”. He then puts on his Santa Suit and kills them.
It’s better than it sounds, but not amazing.
Fun Christmas horror movie.
This Is Spinal Tap (HBO). A nth-time rewatch for me, Inna had never heard of this film. She thought it was hilarious and I enjoyed pointing out to her that the lead singer was also Chuck on Better Call Saul.
It’s a great movie. I’ve seen it numerous times with my kids and then with my grandkids. I still remember watching it for the first time with my then 5-year-old grandson and 4-year-old granddaughter. During the burglar scenes with all the booby traps, the kids had the biggest grins on their faces, and their bodies were practically quivering. I had fun just watching them.
The Holdovers
It’s not what I expected. I thought it would be a bunch of different kids staying over the break, but all but one quickly got "disappeared out of the film. If the director wanted to make it a one-on-one film, just start that way.
I liked the film. I liked the acting. But, does director Payne have a problem with authority figures? It just seemed obvious that Paul’s character was fated for that ending from the beginning. It didn;t seem organic, it seemed predestined.
They did a real nice job getting the period details correct. But really, do we really need fake film flaws digitally added?
Me. I am aware that it is/was a cultural phenomenon, but every clip I’ve ever seen looks mind-bogglingly inane (and I am not, but any means, a film snob). I have zero interest. Give me The Goonies instead any day and twice on Sunday. 
I Think We are Alone Now Trying this late xmas eve - I like Dinklage Popcorn 
Eden (2024)
A Ron Howard film on Netflix about the real-life Galapagos murder mystery c1930. The film has a definitive point of view about what happened and who the heroes and villains are which was pretty smart for a dramatization but a little disconcerting for someone who has already read about the events or seen the Galapagos Affair documentary. Still, a very captivating film with some good, but admittedly scenery-eating, performances.
Stargate 1990 Kurt Russell, James Spader,
I was very excited it’s available for streaming again on MGM+. I looked for it a couple years ago, and couldn’t find it. Even Amazon wouldn’t rent or sell the damn thing. I had to buy a used dvd on Ebay.
I’ve always enjoyed Stargate. The movie and early seasons of the tv series are very good.
It’s odd seeing an innocent, mop top Spader. He’s played psychos and villians most of his career. Another exception is White Palace. He’s Susan Sarandon’s young, toy-boy lover. Tough job, but someone has to do it. 
1994.
I stand corrected. I forgot to double check the year.
Annual viewing of Violent Night. A heartwarming story about a family, gunfire, a young girl, and Santa of course. A dysfunctional grouping who come to believe in Santa. Sledgehammers and Home Alone traps turned up to eleven. All come together in a tear-inducing final scene. Magical. Strong language and some gore.
Home Alone (Disney+). This movie sucked. Boring, flat, stupid, of all the big-movie Hollywood directors out there, Chris Columbus just might be the worst (sorry, Michael Bey). Yes, he was a kid, but Culkin’s line-readings were second-rate even for child actors, and didn’t anybody bother to tell Catherine O’Hara that her hair length changed from scene to scene? Isn’t this what continuity people are for?
I’ve never seen the movie before, didn’t miss a damned thing, and Inna’s slightly embarrassed “I guess it was funnier 30 years ago” is probably the perfect slogan for this time-waster.
I mean, Home Alone sucked so badly that I regret not finishing Jeremy Irons in Lolita, which we caught half of last night and decided that it wasn’t really Christmas Eve fare to finish it tonight. And Lolita sucks too, just not as much as HA.
I’ve been silent on the matter, but I’m with you. I friggin’ hate that movie. It can’t decide what it wants to be for one thing. Is it a heart warming tale, a heartbreaking pathos, or Looney Tunes violence. My problem is that if it had chosen just one of those … it still would have sucked.
There’s also the fact that it came out in 1990 when I was a 25 year old alt rocker. Like I gave a shit about a family movie in the first place. Hanging out with the family at Christmas time, I actually said this once: “Home Alone? That movie sucks. We should watch Killing Zoe.”
Philistines. That’s all I’m saying.
Lolita cost $62 million to make, earned $1.8 million in the US box office, effectively destroyed Adrian Lyne’s career, ruined Jeremy Iron’s future as a leading man, and it still didn’t suck as much as the insanely popular Home Alone.