Home Alone 3 (1997) or, Home Defense: The New Kid

♥♥♥

 

+ Best Chicago Movie of the Year 

 

Four bumbling criminals in bad shape behind a new kid with technical appliances and two animals on his back are out selling Raja Gosnell's Home Alone 3 on this poster

 

A villainous quartet of terrorists hired by North Korea fly from Hong Kong to suburban Chicago to retrieve micro-chips hidden in a toy car that's now the property of smart kid Alex.

Home Alone 3 is written by John Hughes (Uncle Buck (1989)) and directed by debuting Raja Gosnell (Show Dogs (2018)). It is the third and last theatrical entry in the Home Alone franchise to date.

Alex D. Linz (One Fine Day (1996)) is charming as the new adolescent hero, credible as the highly intelligent boy. The now four thieves are uproariously stupid.

Home Alone 3 is very formulaic and bereft of magic, but it still works because it is highly amusing and made with a surplus of good-time energy.

 

Related posts:

 

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Home Alone franchise: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) - The coolest kid in the world incites kiddie bellylaughs once again 

Home Alone (1990) - Columbus, Hughes, Culkin and co. take Christmas and home defense to the next level 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 32 mil. $

Box office: 79 mil. $

= Minor flop (returned 2.46 times its cost)

[Home Alone 3 was released 10 December (Philippines) and runs 102 minutes. Plans for the film fell through immediately after the second film, and Macaulay Culkin stopped acting before it could be made with him. Shooting took place from December 1996 - March 1997 in Hong Kong, San Francisco, California, and in Illinois, including in Chicago. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release Scream 2, holdover hit Flubber and fellow new release For Richer or Poorer, to a 5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 30.8 mil. $ (39 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The franchise returned with Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002, TV movie). Gosnell returned with Never Been Kissed (1999). Linz returned in 4 short and voice performances prior to his theatrical return in My Brother the Pig (1999). Home Alone 3 is rotten at 29 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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