Home Alone is a movie series that was based on the adventures of a boy named Kevin (with the exception of the third film which focuses on a child named Alex Pruitt). The term usually refers to the first film in the series, which at the time was the third highest grossing film yet, making a major star of lead actor Macaulay Culkin.
Home Alone
After a fight with his older brother, Buzz, over pizza, Kevin McCallister (Culkin) gets sent to the attic bedroom, where he wishes that his family would simply disappear. An electrical line failure during the night resets all the alarm clocks, so the next morning the rest of the family, who have overslept, rush to leave to go on a Christmas vacation to Paris, France. During the confusion, Kevin is accidentally left at home and experiences what it is like to be independent for the first time. At the same time two intruders, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), plan to break into the (almost) vacant home. Kevin musters up a plan not only to stop the burglars but also to punish them through different boobytraps set around his house, which include flying paint cans, a BB gun, and a doorknob heated with an electric charcoal lighter.
The movie is set around Christmas 1990 and launched a series of sequels and a career for Culkin. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Kevin McCallister and his family are taking another Christmas vacation, this time to Miami, Florida. During the chaos at the airport, Kevin gets separated from his family and accidentally gets on a plane to New York City. After enjoying himself there for a while, he runs into Harry and Marv from the original film, who have escaped from prison. Marv, the tall robber is essentially the "Lackey" and follows Harry's orders into their demise. Home Alone 3
The film does not revolve around Kevin, but centers on Alex Pruitt, a young boy who is home alone with the chickenpox. At this time, four burglars working for a North Korean terrorist group are sent by their boss to obtain a top-secret microchip that can act as a cloaking device for a missile. They succeed in retrieving the chip and hide it in a remote controlled car, but due to a luggage mix-up at the airport with the Pruitts' neighbor Mrs. Hess, the car lands in the hands of Alex, who is given the car as a thank-you present for shoveling the snow on her driveway. The burglars begin systematically searching every house on Alex's street. Once they figure out that Alex has the chip, they prepare to invade his house. Alex devises elaborate traps and disables three of the four burglars. The fourth burglar hides out in Alex's igloo, but is revealed when Alex's brothers' parrot ignites fireworks to reveal his location to the police. Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House
The fourth and final installment of the series, Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House, premiered as a television movie on ABC on November 3, 2002. Mike Weinberg takes over the role of Kevin McCallister and French Stewart replaces Stern as Marv Merchants. In the film Kevin's parents have divorced and he lives with his mom. He decides to go spend Christmas with his dad and his rich girlfriend, Natalie, but finds himself having to deal with his old nemesis Marv, and his new sidekick, Vera (played by Missi Pyle). Directed by Rod Daniel, it was shot in Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.[1] It was released to Region 1 DVD on October 20, 2003.
