You know those lists of 90s movies that you watched as a kid that somehow don’t hold up when you rewatch them as an adult? Home Alone tends to appear on a lot of those, and one of the main reasons it doesn’t offer much more than nostalgia for folks these days is that Kevin McAllister is one of the most annoying fictional children that there has ever been.
Conceived by John Hughes, who served as writer and producer on the first movie, it’s a character that maybe could have benefited from his direction as well (although his 80s teen characters aren’t exactly the most amiable either). Or maybe he’s supposed to be as much of a little snot as he is. He probably is. It would explain why he and his brother Buzz butt heads so much. Perhaps he has some kind of a Dennis the Menace version of impish charm.
But one thing I cannot forgive Kevin for is the ordeal he put his poor worried mother through. Catherine O’Hara deserves better!
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