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AROUND EASTERN OREGON
15
NOVEMBER 24�DECEMBER 1, 2021
‘Home Sweet Home Alone’
Update is
familiar
but fun
‘HOME SWEET
HOME ALONE’
MPAA rating: PG (for slap-
stick violence, rude material
and some language)
Running time: 1:34
Where to watch: Streaming
on Disney+
By Adam Graham
The Detroit News
T
he plot is familiar — a young
boy, left by himself for
Christmas, is forced to defend
his home against burglars using
a series of elaborate homemade
booby traps — but the execution
of this update on the 1990 smash
is fresh, and its hearty laughs
make it a welcome holiday treat.
“Jojo Rabbit’s” Archie Yates
is Max Mercer, the Kevin McCal-
lister of this tale, left alone when
his family heads off to Tokyo for
the holidays. How are parents
still leaving their children behind
when traveling internationally at
Christmastime? Eh, it’s best to
not get tripped up in the details.
Max gets to live out his
fantasies in his family’s hand-
Disney+
Archie Yates in “Home Sweet Home Alone.”
some suburban Chicago home,
dressing up like Tony Montana
from “Scarface” and burying his
head in a mountain of M&M’s.
But his solo bliss is interrupted
by Jeff and Pam McKenzie (Rob
Delaney and Ellie Kemper), who
are trying to retrieve a valuable
doll they believe Max stole from
their home.
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Seems like a simple misun-
derstanding that can be easily
ironed out between two rea-
sonable parties. Instead, the
McKenzies go the robber route
and Max rigs up a series of vio-
lent contraptions, fi ring billiards
balls at Jeff ’s head at close
range and sending the couple
through a series of backbreak-
ing death traps.
A little bit of the Looney
Tunes-style violence goes
a long way. But the script by
“SNL” vets Mikey Day and
Streeter Seidell is consistently
funny without the painful prat-
falls, and Delaney and Kemper
— along with Kenan Thompson,
Tim Simons (“Veep”) and Devin
Ratray (Buzz from the original
“Home Alone,” reprising his
role) — keep the laughs clipping
at a steady pace.
There are callbacks to the
original “Home Alone” — fun
fact: this is the sixth entry in the
“Home Alone” franchise — and
jokes about how remakes are
never as good as the original.
Which is true, and holds true
here. But “Home Sweet Home
Alone” holds its own, a new spin
on an old tale that keeps the
spirit of the original alive.
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this Holiday Season!
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