'Home Alone' is one truly weird holiday movie

The iconic shot

I hadn't watched Home Alone in years.

It used to be a staple in my house growing up, especially around the holidays. I even remember seeing it in theaters.

Macaulay Culkin was pretty close to my age, so this movie was very much in my wheelhouse but I must say after revisiting it -- I found it to be a jarring movie experience.

It's especially interesting viewing in the wake of that new viral video, in which a disheveled Culkin plays an aging version of his Home Alone character who's been traumatized by the events of 1990 film.

It's hard to believe watching the movie now that it was such a phenomenon. It wasn't expected to be a hit when it was first released. it was up against the highly anticipated Rocky V. Today, that movie is remembered as the one universally disliked entry in that series, and Home Alone is ironically admired by hipsters.

The basic premise of Home Alone has the potential to be charming. What would happen if an 8-year-old kid was left to fend for themselves when his family accidentally departs for a Paris vacation without him. The movie handles the early scenes of Culkin's abandonment well -- he's pretty cute when he imagines he's made his family disappear, goes shopping and tries on after shave.

But then it feels like the filmmakers had no where else to go -- so they graft on a truly creepy subplot about bungling burglars (a slumming Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci) that becomes downright sadistic. Culkin's character turns into a total sociopath and the crooks don't fare much better. I found all of this riveting as a child, but now it just leaves me puzzled.

Here are a few observations I had watching the movie again for the first time in well over a decade:

The McCallisters may be one of the most unlikable, obnoxious families captured on film. They are loud, rude and totally oblivious to the fact that what appears to be a police officer (Pesci in disguise) has entered their home for a considerable period of time.

Also why on earth would they take a trip to Paris with at least a dozen extended family members, most of which are children? How can they afford a trip like that? And while we're at it, how do they afford that house?

Why does the scary old man in the neighborhood go out of his way to act as scary as possible? Until his big reveal at the church in the film's third act he just stares intensely at Kevin. "Use your words," I kept saying. Who just stares menacingly at a child for literally no reason? And his decision to reconcile with his son because an 8-year-old suggested he should is laughable.

Is this funny to you?

Also, at the end of the movie, the old man somehow miraculously enters a house, which is not his own, and disarms the crooks (who are threatening to eat Kevin's fingers at the time -- um, Merry Christmas) with a shovel. But how does he get into that house? How does he know where to be at that exact moment?

Where did Kevin learn how to booby trap like some kind of trained assassin. The movie does nothing in its early scenes to establish him as particularly bright or creative. In fact, even as a child, I thought he came off as smug and spoiled. And yet, almost arbitrarily, he develops next level MacGuyver skills.

And is it weird, that at this stage in my life, I feel a lot more sympathy for Pesci and Stern than I do the 8-year-old they're supposed to be terrorizing?

Keep in mind that I find this all very compulsively watchable. John Candy has a great little cameo. Culkin has his moments too. And I love the bit where he uses a fake old film noir to intimidate people outside of his house ("Keep the change, you filthy animal").

That said, the success of this movie now seems very dated to me. It's not really heartwarming. It's funny but now moreso unintentionally than not. It's not really about anything more sophisticated than what you see on screen. It's like one half kids movie, one half slapstick with a real mean streak.

And yet, Home Alone still endures.