The holidays bring cheerful songs, exciting activities, and some amazing movies. Just like Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland, there are many unforgettable Christmas movies that many know and love. In particular, Home Alone is a classic movie franchise about a boy who gets stuck at home for Christmas and has to deal with unpleasant burglars. Ever since the second one came out in 1992, numerous other Home Alone movies have been released with new characters and different storylines.

This year, the sixth movie in the Home Alone franchise, Home Sweet Home Alone, has been released. Like many other of the new Home Alone movies, the main character is not played by Macaulay Culkin, which may already be a sign to not watch the movie. For those who give it a chance, viewers learn the story of 10-year-old Max, who is actually happy to be home alone for Christmas, at least at first. 

Overall, the movie was really great at bringing in a cringey dialogue full of new slang native to Generation Z. The burglars in the movie, Pam and Jeff, use many words that they definitely don’t know how to use correctly, which honestly makes the movie comical. One of the many times they do this is when they are deciding on whether to go into Max’s house and then decide “Our w, our family’s w, is in that house and we’re going to get it” is their reason to go in.

The thing that makes this movie interesting is the fact that the burglars of this movie aren’t really the bad guys. This might not make much sense, as it sounds like a complete oxymoron, but the movie shows that it is true. These burglars never try to steal anything, but are just trying to get back what Max has taken from them. While it would most likely be a wiser choice if they had waited for Max’s family to get home, the burglars decide to sneak in to grab their missing item.

Now, truthfully speaking, the new take on this movie may have been the wrong one. Not only is the movie cringey, but it was highly unrealistic and the ending felt very rushed. Many of the scenes contained events that wouldn’t actually happen if the burglars had common sense. In particular, there is a scene where Pam is trying to get into the house through the backyard and gets absolutely bombarded with coke and mentos mixtures. She handles the situation differently than most, because instead of going to take cover, she runs around while getting sprayed with soda in the cold. The film also seemed to have many plot holes, which made the movie unenjoyable.

The thing that differentiates this movie from all of the other Home Alone movies is the fact that the story focuses more on the burglars than Max and his family. Watchers get a few short clips of Max’s family and a couple of fun montages from Max’s time alone in the house. But otherwise, it focuses on Pam, Jeff, and their family. While there may have been more to their story than Max’s, the story of being home alone feels stripped from the movie, making it seem like a different title would have suited the movie better.

However, something that viewers may enjoy about this movie is the return of Buzz McCallister, one of Kevin McCallister’s brothers from the first movie. He plays a cop in the new film, and we learn just a sneak peak about what has happened after their own home alone incident years ago. Even though he isn’t shown much in the film, his role is very important to the story and his laziness allows the burglars to get into Max’s house.

The actual storyline of this movie isn’t terribly dreadful, and the idea of doing anything for your family is spread throughout the movie, making it quite wholesome. The only problem with this movie is that it really doesn’t feel like the story Home Alone tells. It’s the story of a family trying to take something back so they don’t lose something they love, which isn’t what Home Alone is originally about. All in all, this new take on an old classic was not the right idea.