It’s the festive season, which means that if you’ve so much as glanced at a screen, you’ve probably seen Kevin McCallister (and others) setting up booby-trapped homes in one of the Home Alone films.
Let’s admit it — the first two movies were massive hits, and because Hollywood is obsessed with flogging a franchise until the very last drop of profit has been beaten out of it, we also have four additional films in the series now. Macaulay Culkin only starred in the original pair of flicks (alongside Catherine O’Hara, Daniel Stern, and Joe Pesci), so the others can kind of feel disconnected from the iconic watches that started off the whole thing.
However, as it’s Christmas and there’s nothing much to do, you might want to watch the entire series — that too in the right order — from start to finish. And, who knows: you might even find a hipster favorite.
All Home Alone movies in order
The Home Alone movies were released in the following order:
- Home Alone (1990)
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
- Home Alone 3 (1997)
- Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002)
- Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012)
- Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
Home Alone
When a power cut means their alarm fails to go off, the McCallister clan rushes to the airport for the Christmas holiday, only to discover that young Kevin has been left home alone. While his parents struggle to get back to Boston, Kevin enjoys having free rein in the house, until he discovers that a pair of thieves, named the Wet Bandits, are looking to break into his home and take everything they can.
Armed with household items and a great imagination, Kevin booby traps the house, managing to keep the two criminals at bay until his family finally returns and he’s reunited with them.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
A great film that may have accidentally sent the U.S. on a terrifying political journey by giving the allegedly worst-smelling president since the Civil War his first taste of screen time.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was a slight twist on the first film as in this movie, Kevin accidentally boards the wrong flight, ending up in the Big Apple while his parents and the rest of the family wind up in Florida.
Armed with his dad’s credit card and a tape machine, Kevin holes up in a fancy hotel before eventually being rumbled (but not before giving us one of the film’s most iconic moments). He finds himself staying at a relative’s empty house that’s being refurbished, only to once again run into the Wet Bandits, who are keen on revenge. Once more, Kevin uses his Rube-Goldberg brain to set a series of traps in the massive home he’s staying in and puts an end to the thieves’ plans before being reunited with his mother.
Home Alone 3
The most notable thing about Home Alone 3 is the fact that it’s an early role for Scarlett Johansson, who would later go on to be one of the biggest A-listers in the world. Culkin didn’t return to the franchise, and his role was ably taken on by Alex D. Linz, who did pretty well considering the script was quite poor compared to the other films in the series (although by no means the worst).
In Home Alone 3, Alex Pruitt (Linz) receives a gift from an elderly neighbor but, because of an airport mixup, he gets a box that contains a computer chip wanted by four terrorists. Alex is stuck at home, down with chicken pox, and the criminals try to break into his home so they can retrieve the chip, only for the inventive young brainiac to keep them at bay long enough for the cops to arrive.
Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House
While Home Alone 3 was a standalone film with new characters, the fourth installment in the series brought back the McCallister clan, as well as Marv. However, with the exception of two minor characters, they were all played by different actors, and the movie is all the worse for it.
The movie follows Kevin as he tries to defend his new stepmom’s house from Marv, who is hellbent on breaking in and kidnapping a guest: a foreign royal. The only thing you need to know about this film is that Daniel Stern was asked to reprise his role but declined, calling the movie “an insult, total garbage.”
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist
It is a hard line to toe with child actors — after all, it’s technically their job to act so viewers will judge them, but as they are only kids, you can’t expect too much. Perhaps it’s just because Culkin is such an excellent screen presence that makes other kid performers seem not great in comparison, but watching the terrible acting in this pretty awful installment of the Home Alone franchise, you really do begin to miss the original Kevin. This lack of quality is even stranger as one of the characters was played by Jodelle Ferland, who was the youngest-ever recipient of a Daytime Emmy nomination.
Thankfully, the director and writers had the sense to move away from the McCallister family this time, although if you’re an Easter egg lover then you might enjoy all the little homages and references to the original films that are scattered throughout this movie.
The plot itself involves thieves trying to break into a home to steal a famous painting by Edvard Munch, only for their plan to be foiled by a brother and sister who have been, you guessed it, left home alone. Although it’s not great, it is an improvement when compared to the fourth film.
Home Sweet Home Alone
If there was going to be a film to reignite the Home Alone franchise, it was probably this one. The cast list has some impressive names in it, including Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Aisling Bea, Kenan Thompson, Pete Holmes, and Chris Parnell. Devin Ratray also reprised his role as Buzz McCallister, Kevin’s older brother. And, while it isn’t exactly a classic, this sixth installment has some decent moments in it.
This iteration involves Delaney and Kemper as a down-on-their-luck married couple who attempt to break into a home to retrieve a doll they think might be worth some money. The vibe is a little more wholesome with this one as the thieves end up not stealing the doll but befriending the family of the kid who is home alone, but overall it’s forgettable.