Home Alone 3

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Home Alone 3
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Raja Gosnell
Screenplay by	John Hughes
Story by	Hilton A. Green
Produced by	John Hughes Hilton A. Green
Starring	Alex D. Linz Haviland Morris Olek Krupa Rya Kihlstedt Lenny Von Dohlen David Thornton Kevin Kilner Scarlett Johansson Marian Seldes Christopher Curry
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Edited by	Bruce Green Malcolm Campbell
Music by	Nick Glennie-Smith
Production companies	Hughes Entertainment Fox Family Films[1]
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	December 12, 1997 (1997-12-12)
Running time	102 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$32 million[2]
Box office	$79.1 million[2]

Home Alone 3 is a 1997 American family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes. It is the third film in the Home Alone franchise and the first not to feature actor Macaulay Culkin and the cast from the previous films, nor director Chris Columbus and composer John Williams. It is also the final film in the Home Alone franchise to receive a theatrical release. The film is directed by Raja Gosnell (in his directorial debut), who served as the editor of both original films. It stars Alex D. Linz as Alex Pruitt, an 8-year-old child prodigy who defends his home from a dangerous band of criminals working for an infamous terrorist organization.

The film was followed by a made-for-television sequel, Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House, in 2002.

Plot[]

In Hong Kong, internationally wanted criminal Peter Beaupre is instructed by a high-ranking executive of a North Korean terrorist organization to retrieve a $10 million missile-cloaking microchip. Later on, he meets his associates Alice Ribbons, Burton Jernigan, and Earl Unger, where they receive the chip and hide it inside a remote control toy car to sneak it past security at San Francisco International Airport. However, a luggage mix-up causes a Chicago-bound elderly passenger named Mrs. Hess to inadvertently take the spies' bag containing the car. The four spies arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Hess's suburban neighborhood to find the chip.

8-year-old Alex Pruitt is given the remote control car by Hess for shoveling her driveway, but she lectures him for scratching in public. He returns home and discovers that he has chickenpox and must stay out of school. The next day, Alex discovers the spies while spying on his neighbors. After two failed attempts at reporting them, Alex attaches a camera to the remote control car and uses it to spy on them, leading to the spies chasing it when they spot it. Wondering what they want with the toy car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He informs the local Air Force Recruitment Center about the discovery and asks if they can forward the information about the chip to the right authorities.

The spies finally realize that Alex has been watching them and decide to break into his house. Alex rigs the house with booby traps with help from his pet rat Doris and his brother's loud-mouthed parrot. Beaupre, Alice, Jernigan and Unger break in, spring the traps, and suffer various injuries. While the four pursue Alex around the house, he flees and rescues Hess, who has been duct taped to a chair in her garage by Alice. Beaupre ambushes Alex, but the latter uses a bubble gun resembling a Glock to scare him off.

Meanwhile, FBI agents arrive at Alex's siblings' school after a tipoff from the recruitment center. Alex's family brings the agents and the police to their house, where they arrest Alice, Jernigan, and Unger. However, Beaupre flees to the snow fort in the backyard. The parrot drives the remote control car into the snow fort and threatens to light fireworks, which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker in exchange for silence, but the parrot demands two. Since Beaupre has only one, the parrot then lights the fireworks and flees; Beaupre is discovered and arrested.

Later, the Pruitts, Hess, and the authorities hold a celebration for Alex as the Pruitt house is being repaired, with Jack returning home from a business trip. The spies are shown to have contracted Alex's chickenpox during their mugshots.

Cast[]

Production[]

Home Alone 3 was pitched at the same time as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and both films were meant to be produced simultaneously; however, those plans fell through.^[3] The idea for a third Home Alone movie was revived in the mid-1990s; early drafts called for Macaulay Culkin to return as a teenage Kevin McCallister. However, by 1994, Culkin was no longer acting. As a result, the idea was reworked, centering on a new cast of characters.^[3]

It was filmed in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois, with the airport scenes in the beginning of the film being shot at two different concourses at O'Hare International Airport.

Principal photography began on December 2, 1996, and filming concluded on March 22, 1997.

Fox Family Films was the division of 20th Century Fox responsible for the production on the film.^[4]

Music[]

Release[]

Home media[]

Home Alone 3 was released on VHS and Laserdisc^[5] on June 2, 1998, and on DVD on November 3, 1998, which was later reissued in December 2007 (and, as part of Home Alone multi-packs, in 2006 and 2008). While the DVD presents the film in its original Widescreen format (1.85:1), it is presented in a non-anamorphic 4:3 matte.

Reception[]

Box office[]

The film grossed $79,082,515 worldwide.^[2]

Critical response[]

Home Alone 3 holds an approval rating of 29% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The critical consensus reads: "Macaulay Culkin's precocious charisma is sorely missed in this hollow sequel, which doubles down on the broad comedy while lacking all the hallmarks that made the original a classic."^[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[7]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a positive review of 3 out of 4 stars, and said that he found it to be "fresh, very funny, and better than the first two."^[8]

Accolades[]

The film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel, losing to Speed 2: Cruise Control.^[9]

Other media[]

Novelization[]

A novelization based on the screenplay was written by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1997 to coincide with the film. ISBN 0-590-95712-0

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Home Alone 3

• Home Alone 3 at IMDb
• Home Alone 3 at AllMovie
• Home Alone 3 at Rotten Tomatoes