Home Alone 3

reviewed by Vivian Rose, age 14, from US

What can I say? This is sure to be a holiday hit, much like its prequels, and any critic who trashes it is sure to get enough hate mail to make her computer crash.

Not that I would trash it anyway - really, the movie wasn't that bad, and had some amusing scenes. It's not just a kids' movie either; even teens and adults will find some amusing scenes. Its star (Alex D. Linz) isn't Macauley Culkin (although he's obviously trying very hard to be Culkin's clone) and would have been much more endearing if he'd just developed the character with his own style, but his acting was certainly adequate, considering his age.

Linz portrays Alex Pruitt, a chicken pox afflicted youngster who is left "home alone" for only short periods of time during the day - not for the whole holiday season, as Culkin's character was in the first two movies. However, Alex manages to get into quite enough trouble. When he spies on his neighbors, he sees what he assumes is a burglar in a neighbors' house (it's really a spy trying to find a lost computer chip which Alex accidentally acquired). By the time Alex calls the police, the spy is already gone, and Alex is in deep trouble for the false alarm. Now the spies are after Alex and no one believes him.

My main problem with "Home Alone III" is that I am simply too old to accept the premise of a little kid fighting off the bad guys. The ending annoyed me because it was very apparent and I like at least a little suspense in movies. The audience was laughing uproariously the whole way through the movie, and even I had to laugh at a couple scenes. Unlike most PG-rated "comedies," it was certainly tolerable, and wasn't insulting to your intelligence.

My rating : 2 and a half stars

Rating : PG (for slapstick violence, language and mild sensuality)

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