Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002, TV movie) - Popular franchise turns to okay TV movie

♥♥♥

 

+ Best TV movie of the Year

 

New Kevin McCallister Mike Weinberg strikes the iconic Macauley Culkin Home Alone pose on this snow-filled poster for Rod Daniel's Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House

9 year-old Kevin's father and mother are separated, and Kevin decides to spend Christmas with his father and his new, rich stepmother Natalie. - But a pair of criminals are looking to grab a piece of her wealth, - and no one believes Kevin!

 

Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House is written by Debra Frank (Cagney & Lacey (1985, TV-series)) and Steve L. Hayes (Hey Arnold! (1998, TV-series)), with young Kevin star Mike Weinberg (Oh Baby (1999, TV-series)) making contributions, and directed by Rod Daniel (Teen Wolf (1985)).

It is the surprisingly good first TV movie iteration of the Home Alone franchise begun with Home Alone (1990).

Weinberg is in his own way a sweet (new) Kevin, although he seems a couple of years too old or perhaps just very aware that he is playing cute, which is a shame. The grownup crooks bumble around as usual here, - and French Stewart (Strike One (2014)) and Missi Pyle (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)) are pretty funny in the parts. Also commendable is that the stunts don't take over the story. Clare Carey (Unrequited (2010)) is also good as Kevin's mother. Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House isn't bad at all.

 

Related posts:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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

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 short trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None (TV movie)

= Uncertain

[Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House premiered 3 November (ABC, USA) and runs 89 minutes. Shooting took place in Cape Town, South Africa. Details concerning its ratings are not easily found. Daniel retired to fight Parkinson's disease after the release of the film. Stewart returned in The Nick at Nite Holiday Special (2003, TV movie); Pyle in Exposed (2003); and Weinberg in Touch 'Em All McCall (2003, TV movie). 36k+ IMDb users have given Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House a 2.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House?

Ma (2019) - Spencer entertains in Taylor's uneven revenge horror

♥♥♥

 

Star Octavia Spencer's face through a shattered glass makes up this simple poster for Tate Taylor's

 Ma

A group of high school students get a woman named Sue Ann to buy them alcohol, and not long after they are even throwing parties in her basement. - But why is she interested in them doing that...?

 

Ma is written by Scotty Landes (Deadcon (2019)) and co-produced and directed by Mississippian master filmmaker Tate Taylor (Pretty Ugly People (2008)), whose 5th feature it is.

Octavia Spencer (Next of Kin (2008)) is good as the scarred, lonely Sue Ann, SPOILER but we get no answer as to why exactly now, 20 or 30 years after her own traumatic high school experiences, she goes off the rocker... Although there's some timeliness to the implication that violations can be avenged decades later by the victim!

Luckily Ma also has a good secondary cast and sexy youths, although it doesn't really compute that Allison Janney (Away We Go (2009)) is here in a non-role as a mean boss. (The reason must be that both Spencer and Janney are friends of Taylor, as they both acted in his 2008 debut.)

The bonkers ending doesn't hit bull's eye, but Ma is still very entertaining up until this.

 

Related posts:

Tate Taylor: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

The Help (2011) - Taylor and an impeccable ensemble portray heart-thumping change in Jackson, Mississippi 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the movie here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 61.1 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 12.2 times its cost)

[Ma premiered 30 May (Germany and 12 other markets) and runs 99 minutes. Shooting took place around February 2018 in Mississippi. The film opened #4 to a an 18 mil. $ first weekend in North America, behind fellow new release Godzilla: King of the Monsters, holdover hit Aladdin and fellow new release Rocketman, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 45.8 mil. $ (75 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 2.3 mil. $ (3.8 %) and the UK with 2 mil. $ (3.3 %). The film made in excess of 3.1 mil. $ additionally on the North-American home video market. Taylor returned with Ava (2020). Spencer returned with 3 voice performances and a miniseries prior to her theatrical return in The Witches (2020). Ma is rotten at 56 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ma?