The director of the first two films in the Home Alone franchise really wishes producers would stop making “really bad sequels” to keep the holiday classic going.
Chris Columbus didn’t hold back when he and star Macaulay Culkin spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the franchise’s lasting legacy in honor of the 35th anniversary of the 1990 hit family film.
Columbus, 67, directed the first and second movies in the iconic series.
“Sorry to insult anybody, but they’ve completely f---ed it up. It started with Home Alone 3, and then it just went downhill from there; Home Alone 3 is sort of the best of the bunch of the bad movies," Columbus said.
The franchise continued with 1997’s Home Alone 3, 2002’s Home Alone 4, 2012’s Home Alone: The Holiday Heist, and 2021’s Home Sweet Home Alone.
Columbus has torched the films in previous interviews, telling Entertainment Tonight earlier this year it’s hard to “recapture” the moment.
“I think it’s a mistake to try to go back and recapture something we did 35 years ago. I think it should be left alone,” said Columbus, who also directed two of the Harry Potter film adaptations.
Culkin, who starred as Kevin in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, sounded more open to revisiting the story that launched his career.
“I like the idea that maybe Kevin’s older, that he’s like a widower or something like that. He’s raising his kid, and they don’t really get along, he’s working all the time...it’s almost like a Liar, Liar kind of thing,” Culkin, 45, said. “There’s one of two ways you can do it. One, he actually leaves the kid behind by mistake; he calls up his mom like, ‘So sorry, I get it now.’ Or I leave him behind on purpose, like, ‘Oh, that made me the man I am today.”
“Then he locks me out of the house and he’s setting up traps and things like that,” he continued. “And I think I see them coming because, you know, I’m the expert. It also explains why I don’t call the police or locksmith because I’m embarrassed my kid is beating me and this is my gig. And I think the house would be kind of a metaphor for getting back into the kid’s heart kind of thing.”
Columbus reiterated that he’s heard “about 600 different ideas” of how the story can find new footing. He said it would only truly be worth it if Culkin returned with his original costars, Joe Pesci and Dan Stern. The director is skeptical that either Pesci, 82, or Stern, 68, would return, however.
“The problem is when you’re doing a film like this, a lot of it is really based on cast,” he said, “Part of it is based on the cast at that age, at that particular time, and I don’t think you can duplicate that.”
