Stream It or Skip It: ‘Home Sweet Home Alone’ on Disney+ Flips the Script on the Christmas Classic

Home Sweet Home Alone is a new Christmas movie on Disney+, the latest entry in the holiday movie mega franchise that you probably didn’t realize was a mega franchise. Did you know that this is the sixth Home Alone movie?? It’s also the first one since Home Alone 2 to feature anyone from the original cast. So, does Home Sweet Home Alone live up to the original, or are we giving it to the count of 10 to get its ugly, yella, no-good keister off our property before we pump its guts full of lead?

HOME SWEET HOME ALONE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney star as Pam and Jeff, a married couple desperate to come up with some cash so they can halt the sale of their family home. Their Christmas prayers seem to have been answered when Jeff realizes that one of his mom’s creepy old dolls is incredibly rare and a hot item on eBay. They can sell it and save their home—that is if they can find the doll.

It turns out that 10-year-old Max (Archie Yates) swiped the doll while dropping in on Pam and Jeff’s open house. Max has problems of his own: his incredibly harried extended family comprised of so many comedians (Aisling Bea, Andy Daly, Pete Holmes, Chris Parnell) lose track of him during their mad dash to the airport. Now Max is home alone and in possession of a doll that Pam and Jeff are desperate to take back—even if it means breaking into a stranger’s house.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Home Alone.

Performance Worth Watching: Timothy Simons and Ally Maki are fantastic as Jeff’s brother and sister-in-law. Simons plays an incredibly annoying relative who’s a PG version of the NC-17 Jonah Ryan, and he’s perfectly paired with Maki’s stylish and self-absorbed millennial mom.

Memorable Dialogue: “I am trying to get home to my son who’s alone and scared and he needs his mother.” No, that’s not from Home Alone—it’s from Home Sweet Home Alone. Okay, there are a couple of one-liners that made me laugh out loud, particularly one delivered by the always precise Jim Rash. Did I mention that everyone is in this movie?

A Holiday Tradition: There is one thing that happens every year in this movie’s universe—but I can’t mention it because it’s kind of a teeny spoiler for a funny little scene. It’s mentioned during a scene in a cop car, to narrow it down.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Oh yes. And in fact, the sequencing of the title is in order of priority. While this movie makes about a million callbacks to the original Home Alone, it is actually way more concerned about the Home Sweet Home part of the title.

Our Take: There’s a scene well into the movie wherein Kemper and Delaney’s frazzled and desperate couple are trying to scale the large stone wall at the border of Max’s family’s property. Jeff—played by the incredibly tall Delaney—is comically standing on Pam’s shoulders. And then Jeff, his butt mere inches from his wife’s face, accidentally lets one rip.

That one moment sums up what you’re getting in Home Sweet Home Alone, a movie with a ridiculously stacked cast trapped in really bizarre premise. This time around, we’re actually not following a 10-year-old smart aleck and master strategist. The leads are actually a pair of average 40-year-old parents who are willing to endure a lot of toy torture so they can make ends meet for their family. It’s an interesting choice to say the least, and there are some funny moments between Delaney and Kemper as their characters wrestle with whether or not to commit a misdemeanor. Kemper in particular is a delight to watch as she finds her inner Joe Pesci and becomes more gung ho about getting that damn doll.

But that leaves Max, the movie’s Kevin, with oddly little screen time in a movie that you think is going to be about a kid learning to appreciate what he has or something. Instead, the movie hustles through all of the beats that Home Alone let fully play out. Max’s entire plot line is so rushed that we end up knowing nothing about him. We have no idea what his relationship is like with his sister, his shouty uncle (I assume Pete Holmes is playing an uncle?) or even his father (Andy Daly). As Max’s mom, Aisling Bea does a great job with what little material she has—but it truly takes the movie a while to show Max’s family realizing he’s not in Tokyo with them. It took so long that I fully thought we just weren’t going to see them again! Not even Max’s motivation for running Jeff and Pam through the wringer sheds any light on who this kid is. All that is a shame because Archie Yates is really good at what he has to do which, like with his movie mom, isn’t much.

The main problem with Home Sweet Home Alone is the Home Alone part. With a plot that’s so far removed from the original, home invasion aside, the movie could stand on its own and be a perfectly fine family watch that kids love and adults don’t mind. But Home Sweet Home Alone keeps reminding you that it’s part of—I guess there’s a Home Alone-iverse? There are so many callbacks, including a fun scene with 40-something Buzz (Devin Ratray), bits of John Williams’s score, entire lines of dialogue (see “Memorable Dialogue”), traps (LEGOs), tiny plot points (a full bladder), a Little Nero’s Pizza box—there’s even a reboot of Angels with Filthy Souls!

As someone who knows Home Alone inside and out, yes, yes I did notice and appreciate all of this. But as someone watching Home Sweet Home Alone, the callbacks made me compare this sequel to the original—a movie with a whip smart script, heartfelt and idiosyncratic performances, timeless and lush cinematography, a true emotional arc for its star kid, and just lots of heart. It goes without saying that there’s nothing in Home Sweet Home Alone that comes close to Catherine O’Hara and John Candy’s U-Haul scene. And yeah, it’s preposterous to think that any scene in any new Christmas movie could compare to that, but I bet Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney could have come close if they were given the material. They’re Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney! Ultimately, Home Sweet Home Alone doesn’t live up to the legacy that it keeps harkening back to over and over again.

Our Call: SKIP IT. It’s perfectly fine for family movie night, but make sure the kids see the original first.

Stream Home Sweet Home Alone on Disney+