HOME ALONE 3
This is one of those plots where a simple misunderstanding that could
be cleared up in a few minutes snowballs into a farce of epic proportions.
It seems that through an airport baggage mix-up, Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz)
has unknowingly acquired possession of an integrated circuit board that
is hidden inside a remote-control toy car. The board is the key to a powerfully
destructive device that the bad guys need to complete their evil deal. The
bad guys are four international spies played by Olek Krupa, David Thornton,
Lenny von Dohlen, and Rya Kihlstedt (I list them together, because their
characters are not really distinguishable from each other). They are armed
with state-of-the-art, extremely high-tech communications and weaponry,
and world-class stupidity.
Using their sophisticated intelligence devices, they track the board
to Alex's house, and plan to break in during the daytime, when no one is
home. Trouble is, he is home, covered with chicken pox. From this point
on, it's the same old formula all over again: with incredible cunning and
almost clarivoyant intuition, Alex fends them off time and time again.
What can I say about this? It's lame, slapstick comedy, just like in
the other Home Alone movies. There is little characterization; mainly
just Alex playing tricks, and the bad guys finding various different ways
to say "ouch." Linz actually is a very good actor for a little
kid, but there isn't much for him to do except laugh at the downfall of
his victims and say "Yes!" with a fist in the air. Haviland Morris,
who plays Alex's mother, lends a certain amount of credibility to her role,
but she's little more than a side character, as are Alex's father and two
siblings.
As for the believability of the script — well, Alex would have to
be a genius to make the mental leaps he does in this film. And when he sees
the guys coming, he is able in a few minutes to rig the house with numerous,
extremely complex, Wile E. Coyote-style booby traps that, in reality, would
take weeks to arrange.
But what am I going on about? This isn't reality. It's a movie meant for kids. Some people might think me stodgy for giving it a low rating: it's funny, in its way, and isn't that the whole point? True, but on the other hand, do we want our kids watching trash? **