The writing career of John Hughes is very interesting, or at least, it is in my opinion.  By that, I mean that he had a very long string of really good movies, followed by a string of really bad ones.  The film I’ll be talking about falls in the category of the good ones, along with The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Pretty in Pink.  The bad films start right around Dennis the Menace, and then continue from there until some of his last works before his death in 2009.

Regardless of his writing career, one of Hughes’s greatest films just so happens to be based around Christmas, the classic comedy “Home Alone”.   As most people know, the basic plot follows Kevin McCallister, a young boy, who is accidentally left at home after his large family leaves for a vacation.  As he has felt neglected recently, Kevin is pleased, and does all the thing he isn’t supposed to do and has a great time, until his house is invaded by two zany robbers.  And then the scene that everybody knows happens.

Yes, the scene in which young Kevin fends off the two robbers, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, is the most famous of them all, and the best scene in the film.  Pesci and Stern play their roles very over-the-top and stupid, creating very funny and somewhat likeable characters.  Sure, they are sinister and you get a lot of enjoyment out of watching Kevin beat them up, but they have a charm that makes them relatable and fun as well.  The traps that Kevin set up, constructed by toys and other items he finds around his large house, and interesting and entertaining to see in action, regardless of how impossible some of them may be.

I speak specifically about this scene in such high regard because, to be honest, I find the rest of the film to be fairly underwhelming.  Kevin, played by Macaulay Culkin, is a decent enough character, with some good funny lines, but he isn’t as charismatic as the robbers.  Nor are Kevin’s family, who venture to get back home once they realize that they have gotten onto the flight without their youngest son.  Not that they play their parts poorly, but they aren’t very interesting.  Most of the film just feels like filler, leading up to the action/ slapstick, and Christmas message of “Family is important” at the end.

Most people have already seen it, but if you haven’t, I would only watch about the last half an hour.  That’s where the real fun is.