Home Alone 3 . Newcity Chicago . 12-15-97

Home Alone 3

DIRECTED BY: Raja Gosnell

REVIEWED: 12-15-97

It was less than half an hour before the yaws set in. Not the yawns -- loud, gaping, rude ones that rip through the air. Not the "aws" -- reserved for only the cutest and cuddliest of warm, loving puppies. The yaws. You can't look them up, but you'll sure feel them if you go to see John Hughes' barrel-bottom-scraping remake of "Home Alone." Mopy mophead Alex D. Linz is brought aboard to replace the nearing-majority, party-hearty Macauley Culkin. "Home Alone 3" opens with an Asian-set prologue worthy of straight-to-satellite action programmers. A quartet of North Korean-funded arms thieves ogle a microchip-encrusted motherboard that could "help us control the region!" according to their boss. They're full of good plans. "Here -- hide it in the toy car -- We'll sail right past airport security!" (Their low-jinks are accompanied by a score that nears the level of 1970s softcore Europorn Muzak.) While Raja Gosnell, longtime editor to both Hughes and Chris Columbus, seems to have a nice handle on the use of a mobile camera, Hughes' script stinks. When the family parrot joined in with a stream of repartee and Alex's piercing "Augghh!" at the sight of chicken pox was greeted with "Mom! Alex slammed the toilet seat on his thing again!" I knew it was time to go. The cold air was good. To paraphrase the long-gone Culkin, "Noooooooooooooooooo!" 104m.

--Ray Pride

Full Length Reviews
Home Alone 3
Home Alone 3

Capsule Reviews
Home Alone 3

Other Films by Raja Gosnell
Never Been Kissed

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