Home AloneMovie Reviews

Gifts + Promos

Fandango Gift Card

Give the gift of movies with Fandango Bucks Gift Certificates! Design your own gift card, or choose from our collection.

Rock of Ages GWP

Buy Rock of Ages tickets to any Regal Theater Showing & receive a FREE song download!

Madagascar 3 Sweeps

Enter for a chance to win a wild family getaway to San Diego!

Need Help?
Go
Avg. Critic Score: 63 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
7 OK for kids 7+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 80
    Washington Post |

    This holiday contender from John Hughes is too crass, too loud and too violent to be added blithely to Christmas viewing traditions. But it is funny. Read full review

  • 80
    The New York Times |

    Kevin has the potential to be the mawkish child or the obnoxious little adult so common on screen, but he is neither. Played with great glee by Macaulay Culkin, he is a totally endearing, up-to-the-minute little boy. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post | Hal Hinson

    The movie has a big payoff; it's the setup that's the drag. But Kevin's antics will touch the budding subversive in every kid. My advice? Hide the car keys. Read full review

  • 67
    The Onion A.V. Club | Noel Murray

    Even though Macaulay Culkin's alternately muggy and inexpressive lead performance hasn't worn well, the supporting turns by Catherine O'Hara and John Candy are especially crackerjack, as is John Williams' buoyantly cartoony score. Read full review

  • 67
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    Home Alone is the apex, the pinnacle, the culmination of every bad bit Hughes has ever written or directed. It overflows with primitive, disastrously unfunny sight gags and neo-hateful familial humor. Read full review

  • 63
    TV Guide |

    The first half of Home Alone features the sugar-coated sentimentality that can usually be found in a Hughes film, while the second half is full of unanticipated sadism. Read full review

  • 63
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    All plausibility is gone, we sit back, detached, to watch stunt men and special effects guys take over a movie that promised to be the kind of story audiences could identify with. Read full review

  • 60
    Empire |

    So it may not be Citizen Kane, but it is a hilarious comedy (although not a very believable one - there can be no eight-year-olds this ingenious) that kids will love and adults won't mind sitting through either. Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Reader | Jonathan Rosenbaum

    The movie is quite enjoyable as long as it explores the fantasy of a neglected little boy having an entire house of his own to explore and play in, but the physical cruelty that dominates the last act leaves a sour taste, and the multiple continuity errors strain one's suspension of disbelief to near the breaking point. Read full review

View more reviews for Home Alone on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 7+ Slapstick family holiday comedy brings the pain.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know there's a tremendous amount of slapstick violence in this movie, some of which results in very painful-looking injuries. The main character inflicts serious pain on two would-be burglars -- he trips them down a flight of stairs, burns them, hits them with heavy objects, places sharp objects on the ground for them to step on, and so on. Kevin is also shown watching a violent '30s gangster flick that his parents forbid him from seeing.
  • Families can talk about whether or not they think slapstick violence is funny. Is it ever appropriate to laugh when someone gets hurt?
  • With younger kids, parents may also want to discuss the steps they should take in the event they ever do get left alone, especially if they sense they're in danger.
  • In the film, Kevin decides to take on the burglars himself and wins. Instead of attempting to foil them on his own, how could he have sought help?
The good stuff
  • educationalvalue true0 Educational value: None, unless you count giving kids ideas about how to set booby traps...
  • message true0 Positive messages: The film suggests that a child who's left alone can fend for him or herself without adult supervision. It also celebrates violence as a means of solving problems.
  • rolemodels true0 Positive role models: Although Kevin is brave and resourceful, he's also pretty vicious in his attacks on the bad guys. The fact that his parents leave him behind doesn't speak highly of their status as role models, and the two would-be burglars are clearly iffy examples.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence and scariness: Tons of slapstick violence. Characters fall down stairs, get hit with blunt objects, step on nails and glass, get burned, etc.
  • sex false1 Sexy stuff: Kevin finds an old Playboy magazine but isn't very interested in it.
  • language false2 Language: A few uses of words like "damn," "hell," and "ass," plus one use of "s--t."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false1 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Very brief shots of minor characters (adults) drinking and smoking.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Home Alone Featured Trailers + Video Clips

Facebook Movie Fans

Fan Fandango on Facebook