History YMMV / HomeAlone

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* AuthorsSavingThrow: May have been attempted with the fourth film, bringing back the characters from the first two films after the third one was divisive for going with a new cast. Sadly, everyone was [[TheOtherDarrin played by different actors]] who weren't as good in the roles, and the writing was harshly criticized, so the saving throw didn't take in the end.

* DesignatedHero: Max Mercer from ''Home Sweet Home Alone''. His actions in the movie appear to be sadistic as he brutally hurts the two DesignatedVillain thieves (who just wanted their doll back). He also acts snobbish due to his family's style of life, and is generally unsufferable, with the worst of his {{Jerkass}}ery being stealing gifts for children in need, even quipping "Well I'm definitely a child in need !" before he returns to his bonafide ''mansion''. At the end of the movie, he doesn't seem to make up for this, and stays as this archetype.
* DesignatedVillain:
** Natalie from ''Home Alone 4'' is supposed to be hated because she's a rich stepparent who's dating Kevin's divorced father, and doesn't want Christmas ruined. There's nothing inherently bad about the aforementioned traits; the only "bad" thing she's described as doing is overworking Prescott, but [[OffscreenVillainy this behavior is never actually shown to the audience]]. Even worse at the end, he leaves her right before Christmas, and she ''bursts into tears'' right in front of everyone. We're meant to cheer at this moment, but it's pretty hard not to feel bad for her instead.
** The "villains" in ''Home Sweet Home Alone'' are just a desperate couple trying to retrieve their stolen property so they can afford to keep their house. It's actually ''painful'' watching them be tortured by the spoiled brat who stole from them.

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Creator/TimCurry steals the second film as the smarmy Mr. Hector. It helps that he isn't a {{Expy}} from the first film and many of the funniest scenes center around him, especially the shower prank.
** Gus Polinski. Even people who don't like the film enjoy Creator/JohnCandy's performance.
** Kevin's sisters and cousin Fuller get some appreciation for being decently acted, and showing some concern for him and/or sharing in the childish glee of Christmas.
** Johnny from ''[[ShowWithinAShow Angels With Filthy Souls]]'', purely due to his AxCrazy nature and his penchant for {{Bond One Liner}}s. Quite a few people didn't realize on first viewing that the clip isn't an actual old time film noir and was made for this movie.
** Stan's parrot and Doris the rat from the third movie are decently entertaining {{Team Pet}}s.
** Even the [[{{Sequelitis}} fourth movie's]] biggest detractors find Prescott the butler to be a likable character.
** Jessica is sixth in the fifth film's credits, but might be the movie's best liked character for her HellBentForLeather wardrobe, SlapstickKnowsNoGender injuries, and her subplot of missing her ex-boyfriend and trying to contact him to reconcile.

* FanPreferredCutContent: Those fans of the fourth movie who view Natalie as UnintentionallySympathetic and a DesignatedVictim often wish the scripted ending had been used, where Natalie and Peter stay together while Kate starts dating a cop who turns out to be Marv's WhiteSheep brother.

* FourthWallMyopia:
** In the first movie, the officer gives the house a cursory glance and declares it to be secure - which people often considered to be an example of AdultsAreUseless and idiot police. Except in-universe, he can't exactly barge in without a warrant - which he doesn't have - therefore him suggesting "Count your kids again" actually ''is'' justified in-universe.
** The writers of ''Home Alone 4'' seem to have had a bad case of this, particularly in regards to Natalie. Take the scene where she's mad at Kevin. The audience knows he was trying to stop the burglars, but he provides no evidence and no one at the party saw anything (which ''the film itself'' acknowledges). As such, Natalie is well within her rights to think he ruined the party on purpose because he wants to sabotage her relationship with Peter.
** The sheer amounts of PoorCommunicationKills in ''Home Sweet Home Alone'' ends up making the [=McKenzie=] family seem like a bunch of ''idiots'', even for the standards of a series that relies on {{Idiot Plot}}s. While some of Max's antics can be seen as one big KickTheDog after Kick the Dog, he's actually well within his rights to assume the home invaders ''are'' here for him -- ''we'' the ''viewers'' know that the [=McKenzies=] aren't there for him, but ''he'' only hears them say that they want to take "him" and sell "him" (the doll) to some old lady, and from his point of view, a pair of human traffickers understandably deserve what he inflicts on them.

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* IdiotPlot:
** The first movie happens because Heather miscounted heads, rather than doing a roll call of all her siblings and cousins, that Mitch Murphy goes completely unnoticed when he rifles through their things before wishing them goodbye, and that Kevin is so heavy a sleeper that he missed the hustle and bustle. Lampshaded by Kate when she asks, "What kind of a mother am I?" about forgetting her youngest son. She also could have rented a car the minute she was on American soil to drive home, the way she does later. Meanwhile, Kevin assumes his family didn't rent taxis and vanished into thin air, rather than [[OccamsRazor realizing they left him at home]].
** ''Home Alone 2'': Kevin has been found by the two bandits who want him ''dead'', so he makes a break for the hotel he's been staying at to get his stuff and head home. He gets grabbed by the Concierge who thinks he stole his credit card and threatens to call the police on him... [[TooDumbToLive so he runs away]]. He never once considers that A) The card isn't stolen, it's his dad's; and B) ''His family is looking for him''. Getting grabbed by the cops would give him a free ticket back home to his parents, and the entire third act of the movie wouldn't have happened.
*** Possibly justified in that while he definitely has the smarts to plan things out like an entire battle plan of death traps, Kevin is still a kid who can't think rationally in the heat of the moment when danger confronts him rather than vice versa. Remember, in the first movie he knew from the second act on the bandits wanted to rob his house, but he wouldn't tell the police[[note]]And when he finally did, he still told them the house next door was being robbed and tried to lure the bandits into that house, which was when his plan went awry.[[/note]] because he feared they would send ''him'' to prison for ''shoplifting a toothbrush that he didn't mean to shoplift''.
*** Note that in the novelization of the movie, it is mentioned that one of the commercials Kevin sees on the TV at the very beginning of the movie (when he sees the ad for the Plaza Hotel) is a public safety notice about the police cracking down on credit card thieves, ''regardless of age''. Then they reference back to that when the Concierge confronts Kevin in the hotel.
*** Speaking of the Concierge, he wants to detain a kid until the police arrive and said kid comes running up to him begging for help and crying that he's being chased by criminals. Does he tell the kid "Hurry inside and we'll call the police to protect you!" so said kid sits inside, happily munching a cookie thinking he's now safe, while the cops are actually en route to arrest him for the stolen credit card? Nope, he decides to [[EvilGloating Curry it up]] and threaten how he knows the card is stolen and that he's going to have the kid arrested. Cue [[HilarityEnsues wacky hijinks]] in the hotel and an extra half hour or so of movie!

* MorePopularReplacement: Finn Baxter for Kevin [=McCallister=] in ''Home Alone: The Holiday Heist'', replacing him as TheProtagonist which fans approved of, having gotten sick of Kevin in the poorly-received previous film, especially since his [[Creator/MacaulayCulkin original actor]] was too old to reprise the role and ended up retconning his previous portrayal. This is ironic, considering the first time he got replaced in ''Home Alone 3'', his then-successor Alex Pruitt attained ReplacementScrappy status simply because he was a new character.
* {{Narm}}:
** The scene where Kevin meets Marley outside of his house for the first time. It's meant to serve as a reminder that Kevin shouldn't tempt fate, but his over-the-top screaming makes it hard to take seriously.
** In the fourth film, it honestly seems like Kevin can hear the scary music that pops up whenever the butler appears, as there's literally no other reason to so strongly suspect he's the burglars' inside man.
* OneSceneWonder: Buzz's cameo in ''Home Sweet Home Alone'' is widely considered the high point of the film, particularly when he hilariously recaps the first two films to his colleagues and explains how Kevin prank calls the police every year just to mess with him.

* RootingForTheEmpire:
** Admit it. Some of you wouldn't have minded so much if Marv had conked Kevin with that brick in ''2''.
** Sinclair and his team in the fifth film, not only are they all AffablyEvil {{Jerkass Woobie}}s, but Sinclair actually has a valid reason for wanting to steal the painting.
** Jeff & Pam in the sixth film, a financially down-on-their-luck couple who are trying to reclaim a stolen doll that was rightfully theirs, and go through their abuse thanks to a series of misunderstandings. It doesn't help that Jeff also takes a lot of unwarranted abuse and insults from people before he ever even sets foot on the Mercer household.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: While it still wasn't on the same level as the first two films, the fifth movie is a noticeable improvement over the fourth, and actually feels like a ''Home Alone'' film.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** Many fans wished Mitch Murphy has more screen time, as it would been interesting to see Kevin's reaction to him being partially responsible for him being left behind, and Mitch teaming up with Kevin to take down Harry and Murphy.
** Kevin himself being TheGhost in Home Sweet Home Alone, as him experiencing the trauma and how he's living his life as a security company owner would have been a great watch. Also count for several main characters such as Kevin's parents, and Harry and Marv themselves

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: This is a ''BIG'' criticized point of ''Home Sweet Home Alone''.
** Archie Yates portrays Max as a ''very'' snobby child who doesn't come off as being bullied or neglected by his family. The pain he inflicts on the home invaders actually feels less deserved (thanks to [[FourthWallMyopia what we know about them, but he doesn't]]), and he seems almost too EasilyForgiven, considering the HomeAloneAntics he subjected the [=McKenzies=] to could have ''easily'' landed them in the hospital if not left with permanent injuries. There's even a scene where, at a church toy drive, Max is even given a toy gun from someone ''less'' fortunate than him. He's only really at his best in the ''penultimate scene'', where he tells Jeff and Pam's children not to take their family for granted and then saves the valuable doll, rather than having more time to showcase his HiddenHeartOfGold the way Kevin did.
** Max's family as well, ''especially'' his father. While his mother does attempt to get back to her son, the rest of the family doesn't seem the least bit phased. Even in the first two movies, the rest of the family is visibly shaken by Kevin's absence. In the ending, in which it's shown that the two families are now friends, Max's father isn't even ''there''!
** The issue of calling the police to perform a welfare check on on the kid [[TitleDrop home alone]] actually ''is'' brought up -- except Buzz writes it off as a prank phone call because it's a running gag that his brother calls him and pretends to have been left behind on Christmas. Except this time, it's ''not'' Kevin calling about it -- it's someone ''completely'' different. So why would anyone assume that this is just another "wolf" cry? This makes Buzz seem like he hasn't grown out of his {{Jerkass}} behavior is quite an incompetent officer.

** In the first film, Buzz owns an air rifle which is later used by Kevin. While it did raise some eyebrows in TheNineties, the idea of even carrying around an air rifle after two decades of school shootings would be seen as TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: TV airings of ''Home Alone 2'' tended to cut out Trump's cameo, which, after his 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent presidency, has caused both him and his supporters to accuse Hollywood of censoring and trying to erase his previous, positive media depictions. However, this scene (and others) had been regularly cut ''before'' his political career, and has nothing to do with his controversial reputation shift, but rather the same reason most films get cut down in TV airings. They only have a limited TV slot, and Trump's cameo is a non-essential thing that added nothing to the plot, and was only thrown in to appease Trump's contractual requests for use of his tower.

* WTHCastingAgency: Was there any legitimate reason to cast French Stewart as Marv in the fourth movie other than to cut costs, given that Daniel Stern would have gladly reprised the part given his love for the character (assuming the script was any good, which in this case it admittedly wasn't)?
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* AccidentalAesop:
** Pay your pizza delivery boys fairly. They'll always give good service. Also, please don't terrorize them with an old movie.
** If you suspect a minor of committing credit card fraud, maybe try to call their parents first if you can rather than threaten them with the police. Or, even better, check the surname on their backpack which they share with either their father or mother.
** If you work in a position where you handle credit cards, especially with transactions as large as the ones conducted at five-star hotels, ''you'' are the front line of defense against credit card fraud. Don't accept a credit card from someone to whom it clearly does not belong, and don't buy any stories of "Oh, the person who has this card is away, and they're letting me use it."
** If you cut your toxic family members from your life, you'll eventually miss them.

** If you're a parent, Kate harassing the airport employees and patrons in the first film (not so much the hotel employees in the second, as they actively antagonized Kevin) is acceptable because she just wants to get home to her son. If you work with the public, she's an asshole, with or without [[FreudianExcuse a vulnerable kid stuck at home]].
** In ''Home Alone 2'', is the Bird Lady's reason for being homeless meant to be taken at face value by more than kids, or is she meant to be telling Kevin an age-appropriate version of her story?
* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: According to Creator/ChrisColumbus, during an interview with Creator/AlecBaldwin on Baldwin's podcast "Here's the Thing", Creator/JohnHeard was unhappy about working on the film, feeling that the film was going to be terrible. However, upon seeing the finished film and its subsequent success, Heard apologized to Columbus when they were shooting his scenes on the film's sequel, having broken character before his first take to tell Columbus. Columbus says he still has footage of Heard's apology on video tape.
* AssPull:
** In ''Home Alone'', it's heavily implied that Kevin was somehow able to set up his trap house in under an hour between 8pm and 9pm. Maybe the traps alone would be doable within that timeframe, but the fact that Kevin ''also'' had to race home from the church, think and draw up a battle-plan before placing said traps, and even had some spare time at the end to cook some microwave mac-and-cheese, [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief shoves a lot into just one hour]].
** In ''Home Alone 3'':
*** Beaupre mistakenly grabs a dart gun Alex spray-painted black instead of his real gun, which Alex hid under a towel in the basement. How Alex could possibly have predicted someone would not only find it, but turn the towel over onto their ''real'' gun to cover up their mistake, is fairly ridiculous. Same goes for the professional criminal [[RuleOfPerception being unable to tell the difference between a plastic toy with a suction cup sticking from the barrel and a heavy metallic firearm.]]
*** There is no indication that the toy dart gun is not made of metal, and thus not similar in weight to the real gun. The plastic gun that was spray-painted black was only ever handled by Alex. Plus, Beaupre was not looking or paying attention when he reached for his gun, so if the weights were close, he thought it was his. There was no orange cap, and the dart was black.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: After setting up traps in his home for the burglars in the first movie, Kevin sits down to enjoy a fancy macaroni and cheese dinner only for his alarm clock to go off and alert him about the burglars. He blows out the candles, leaves his dinner to go cold and waits for the burglars, and it's never mentioned again. Even the film's creator is stumped by the macaroni dinner's relevance.
* BrieferThanTheyThink: It can be a real surprise for people to discover that there really isn't a whole lot of HomeAloneAntics in the first movie. They're pretty much entirely confined to the climax, which is about fifteen minutes long. It's certainly not a short scene, but from the way people remember it, you'd think pranking the bandits was the entire plot, or at least that there were pranks occurring throughout the film. (This is likely due to the sequels, along with countless rip-offs, using that structure instead.)
* CantUnHearIt: Once you've seen the first movie, try hard not to imagine Kevin's scream while listening to The Drifters' version of "White Christmas".

* CatharsisFactor:
** Kevin and his family are equally at fault in the first film: Kevin was being a brat when his parents told him nicely to pack his suitcase while stressing about the trip and not glue up his dad's fishing hooks, and Kate missed the whole debacle with the pizzas to send Kevin to the attic without dinner while being unsympathetic when he says everyone hates him. They both suffer karma as a result: Kevin realizes that being on his own isn't that great when you have to do all the chores and groceries with dangerous men breaking into your house, and the whole family sans Buzz feels super guilty when they realize Kevin's still in Chicago. Kate goes OhCrap when she remembers mid-flight ("KEVIN!") and MyGodWhatHaveIDone since the last thing he said to her was he didn't want to see any of them again. She makes up for it by flying home immediately, and most of his siblings can't sleep out of worry about their little brother. Meanwhile, Kevin destroys Buzz's room, stealing his money and rifle, which seems like a fair punishment for Buzz getting him in trouble and eating his dinner.
** While Kevin's later pranks seem disproportionate after Harry and Marv break into the house, he manages to give the latter a harmless scare by playing the mobster video and using firecrackers to sell the effect, on seeing Marv investigating the kitchen dog door. It is satisfying to see Marv running for his life.
** Old Man Marley slamming Marv and Harry with a shovel after they were planning to torture Kevin is definitely what they deserved.
** The hotel concierge has a reason to suspect that Kevin is using a fraudulent credit card, ''but'' he acts in a complete inappropriate fashion. He breaks into the hotel suite where Kevin is staying and sneaks into the bathroom when he hears running water. Even if Peter had really been there, that was out of line. Then he intimidates Kevin when learning the card was reported as "stolen" and taunts him about having called the police. Unsurprisingly, he's forced to eat HumblePie when Kevin's parents show up, in full YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe mode. They point out angrily that the concierge chased a minor into the streets on Christmas Eve. All he can do is offer his best suite for the whole family at no extra charge, and Kate smacks him for condescendingly saying there's no way she can find Kevin alone. Kate was the one who pointed out [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot that the concierge could have reassured Kevin he wasn't in trouble and kept him there until his parents arrived]]. Even Peter is in PapaWolf mode, berating the concierge.
* ContestedSequel: Although every movie after ''2'' could count, ''3'' is easily the most contested; some, like Creator/RogerEbert, consider it the strongest movie, others like WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic loathe it. Then you have a middle ground, who concede that it's still a good movie and the main actor is pretty good, but not as strong as the first two movies.

* CrossesTheLineTwice:
** Kate is in shock after learning they left Kevin behind. Frank tries to comfort her by reminding her it could have been worse. He forgot his reading glasses.
** Gus's story about leaving his kid in a funeral parlor.
--->'''Gus''': You know, we went back at night, and apparently he had been alone all day with the corpse. He was okay, though. After six, seven weeks, he came around and started talking again.

* EvenBetterSequel: ''Home Alone 2'' gets this among fans who consider it to be more action-packed and dramatic than the first movie. It also gives the Wet Bandits and the booby traps more focus.

* {{Fanon}}: Kevin's (unintentional) theft at the pharmacy is never brought up again despite lingering chances that the police might be able to identify and send him to juvenile detention as he continues to roam around town unsupervised. There's a generally accepted theory among fans that it was Old Man Marley himself who paid for the stolen toothbrush, apologized on Kevin's behalf, and begged the store owner not to press charges, having understood why Kevin ran away. Given the [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold kind of person]] Marley turns out to be, this isn't far-fetched at all.

* GenreTurningPoint: This made family-oriented film-making a much more attractive proposition for studios, in tandem with the animation revival the previous year's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' inspired.
* {{Glurge}}: The Bird Lady's reason for being homeless can come off as, at best, [[{{Narm}} unintentionally funny]] and at worst manipulative.
* HamAndCheese:
** Creator/JoePesci and Creator/DanielStern felt indifferent about the movie's potential during shooting, so they intentionally gave over-the-top performances, neither one of them believing the film would become a massive success.
** Creator/TimCurry in the sequel, per usual, hams it up playing his role in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** In the first film, when talking to Marley, who mentions his strained relationship with his son, Kevin says that no matter how mad he were at his father, he would still talk to him, especially around the holidays. In real life, Creator/MacaulayCulkin has had a very strained relationship with his infamous StageDad, to the point that the two no longer speak.
** In ''Home Alone 2'', there's a particular scene where Kevin pays a visit to the World Trade Center. If you were alive before or during 9/11, seeing that one shot showing the World Trade Center in all its glory is likely to [[TearJerker hurt your heart]].
** Buzz is a BigBrotherBully to Kevin, to the extent where Kevin expects Buzz to pound him for going through his stuff in the first movie. This hits pretty hard after Devin Ratray's (Buzz's actor) domestic abuse arrest in December 2021. What adds to it is Kevin looking at a picture of Buzz's (unattractive) girlfriend in that movie and exclaiming "Buzz, your girlfriend! Woof!"
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Kevin ends up letting his macaroni and cheese get cold while enacting his one-boy defense of the house, leading to many people questioning what happened with it and if Kevin even got to eat the macaroni. Apparently, Google thought the same thing; in 2018, they released an ad where Creator/MacaulayCulkin is about to eat the same dish, only to see the clock ring nine times and hearing Harry and Marv drive up. Culkin just asks Google Home to run Operation Kevin -- lock all the doors, turn on the lights, and run the Roomba with a basketball athlete cutout -- and [[BrickJoke happily finishes his meal]]. You can't blame Culkin for looking smug.
** Two years after the first movie, Hillary Wolf (Megan) would star in another film about a dysfunctional family, ''Big Girls Don't Cry... They Get Even''. In that movie, she's the ButtMonkey of a dysfunctional family and runs away.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: A major criticism of the second movie is that it's too much like the first film, apart from the setting switching to New York City rather than being secluded to a house.
* InformedWrongness: It's debatable as to how wrong Uncle Frank was meant to be, but at the beginning of the first movie, him not letting Kevin watch a violent gangster movie is treated as another example as to why he's a [[EvilUncle terrible uncle]] even though Kevin later watches said movie and ends up getting the fright of his life. It can come off less like another example of Uncle Frank being a {{Jerkass}} and more him trying to prevent Kevin from being traumatized.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Harry and Marv in ''Home Alone 2''. They intend to steal money from a [[UnacceptableTarget kid's charity]] and later try to shoot Kevin when they capture him, as well as the Pigeon Lady when she intervenes.
** The spies in the 3rd movie were going to invade Alex's house and possibly kill him since he had the chip they were looking for. In particular, Alice crosses this by leaving Mrs. Hess BoundAndGagged, and then leaving the door and window open and have her exposed to the cold air. By the time Alex saves her life by closing the doors and covering her with a blanket, she's semiconscious. Beaupre also crosses the line by threatening to shoot Alex, all while the kid is begging him to please allow him get Mrs. Hess indoors to warm her up before she dies.

* NarmCharm: In the second film, Frank singing an off-key rendition of Cool Jerk in the shower can have [[SoBadItsGood charm of its own]]. Kevin also records it and it becomes a ChekhovsGun to temporarily fool Mr. Hector into buying that Kevin is traveling with his "dad" when he walks into the hotel room to investigate Kevin's claims.
* NauseaFuel: Buzz telling Kevin that someone would have to barf up his pizza because it's been eaten already. Then he pretends to throw it up.
* OneSceneWonder:
** Mitch Murphy is one of the reasons Kevin is left behind. He bothers the shuttle drivers by asking about the speeds on their vans and rifles through the family's suitcases, which leads him to getting mistaken for Kevin from behind.
** Jimmy, the stock boy at the pharmacy. He's on screen ten seconds tops but is widely remembered for being told to "Stop that boy!" and his one line: "Hey! Hey! Shoplifter!"
** Technically a Two-Scene Wonder: Creator/JohnCandy as Gus Polinski, Polka King of the Midwest. He only has about five minutes of screentime, but he makes the most of those five minutes with some of the movie's funniest lines, nearly all of which were improvised. He's also well-loved for being a HeroicBystander and helping Kate get back to Chicago when it seemed like all hope was lost.
** Buzz's cameo in ''Home Sweet Home Alone'' is widely considered the high point of the film, particularly when he hilariously recaps the first two films to his colleagues and explains how Kevin prank calls the police every year just to mess with him.
* {{Padding}}: ''Home Alone 3'' repeats the exact same sequence back-to-back in the first Act where Alex spots Beaupre snooping around a neighbor's house, calls the cops on him, but miss catching the spy. Alex being scolded for calling the cops on what they believe to be a false alarm could have easily been done after just the first attempt.
* ParanoiaFuel: Kevin walking around New York City at night in the second movie, coming across a LaughingMad homeless man and some hookers who flirt with him. What caps it is this exchange when he calls a taxi.
-->'''Kevin''': It's scary out there!\\
'''Taxi driver''': Ain't much better in here, kid.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: {{B|igBrotherBully}}uzz at the end of the second film, considering that he was the one to acknowledge the fact that it was because of Kevin that the [=McCallister=] family is able to have a hotel room full of wonderful Christmas presents and insists that Kevin opens the first one.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Wallace Wells]]/[[Series/{{Succession}} Roman Roy]] used to be a bed-wetter.
** Hope Davis of ''ComicBook/AmericanSplendor'' and ''Film/SynecdocheNewYork'' is the American Airlines clerk in France.
** One of Kevin's older brothers is [[Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete Big Pete Wrigley]].
** The cop in Family Crisis Intervention would eventually [[Series/{{Friends}} move to Greenwich Village below Monica Geller]].
** In ''Home Alone 3''. Ah... so that's what Creator/ScarlettJohansson looked like when she was in her teens...
** In the Latin American Spanish dub, this was one for both Kevin and Brook's voice actors, Creator/VictorUgarte and Alma Wilheleme respectively, at least in the first film. before their [[StarMakingRole star-making roles]] as [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji Ikari and Maya Ibuki]], [[Anime/VisionOfEscaflowne Dilandau Albatou and Hitomi Kanzaki]] and [[Manga/KishinDoujiZenki young Zenki and Chiaki Enno]].
** An uncredited Creator/EdenRiegel was a member of the choir in ''2''.

* ShockingMoments: In the second movie, Harry tells Kevin that he has a gun and that [[WouldHurtAChild knocking off a youngster won't mean much to him]]. Then when Harry and Marv bring Kevin into Central Park, we learn that Harry ''wasn't'' bluffing: he '''did''' have a gun and fully intended to shoot Kevin with it! Thankfully, [[BigDamnHeroes the Pigeon Lady saves Kevin]] and it turns out the gun was jammed after he and Marv were covered by a thick coat of varnish.

* SpecialEffectFailure:
** That clearly wasn't Creator/MacaulayCulkin's hand grabbing the spider to place on Marv or him flying on the zipline from the home to the treehouse in the first film.
** When Kevin places his brother's tarantula on Marv's face, it's obviously a real spider. In the next shot, it's clearly a prop. Given that putting a spider on Stern's face caused genuine anxiety (the scream was added in post-production as Stern was afraid screaming would cause the spider to bite) this is understandable.
*** Props must be given to Stern for averting the trope by actually allowing them to put the spider on his face.
** The same happens with Creator/JoePesci whenever his stunt-double comes in, such as the moment he flips over the wire after charging up the stairs.
** A lot of people could tell that the "M" scar left behind on Harry's hand doesn't match up with the direction that the scar should've been in based on how he grabbed the [=McCallister=] doorknob.
* SpiritualAdaptation: The ending of the first film is considered to be basically a kid-friendly ''Film/DieHard''. Need some proof? Take a look at [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19710_6-movies-inadvertently-remade-as-other-movies.html this article]] from ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', and also consider that HomeAloneAntics is a SubTrope of ProtectThisHouse, which itself is a SubTrope of DieHardOnAnX.
* {{Squick}}: Gus Polinski tries to get Kate to play his clarinet on the drive to Chicago - right after taking it out of his mouth. Keep in mind 1. he has just met her that day, and 2. the clarinet is a woodwind instrument, which means it has a reed that has been soaking in his saliva, probably for a while. Kate is clearly put off by it in-universe and sternly refuses, and anyone watching this post-COVID will find it very jarring.
* StrawmanHasAPoint:
** Uncle Frank commenting that they won't catch the plane in time, as it leaves in 45 minutes. While it's meant to demonstrate his pessimistic and cynical nature, he's right. It takes at least 30 minutes to get from where they live to O'Hare Airport, not counting the heavy traffic on the road and at the airport because it's Christmas. If this was real life, he would be right.
*** He was also right about how Kevin wasn’t old enough for the movie he wanted to watch.
** The police officer who goes to the [=McCallisters'=] home to check on Kevin simply makes a cursory evaluation of the house, declares it to be secure, and says that the family should count their kids again. But if one is tempted to call this officer an idiot for thinking that these parents had somehow miscounted their children, one should remember that the [=McCallisters=] actually ''did'' do that when they were travelling to Paris.
** Mr. Hector disadvising Kate for looking for Kevin by herself. While he's just as sleazy as he was towards Kevin, he's right in that it wouldn't be a good idea for a wealthy woman unfamiliar with the city to wander the streets of New York alone at night. The film doesn't treat it as such and he gets slapped by her.

* ToughActToFollow: ''3'' to the previous two movies. It didn't help that this came out five years after the second one and focused on an entirely new family. So it already had a lot stacked against it on release. More often then not when you hear fans talk about it, it's usually about how Kevin, the [=McCalister=] family, or the Wet/Sticky Bandits are not in it.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** The first film relies almost ''completely'' on the realities of life in pre-[[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] America. Viewing it in the new millennium can be a bit of a time capsule, and reminder of how things used to be in ways the filmmakers could never have intended.
*** If the film were made and set in TheNewTens and beyond, Kevin's parents would, at worst, have to sort out some new SIM cards for their cell phones in order to give Kevin's own cell a call. They weren't able to call the house due to the ''land-based'' phone lines being down and the house having no wireless phones, which was, in 1990 (and as a holdover from UsefulNotes/TheEighties) a fairly typical arrangement, even for a well-off household like theirs. In the new millennium, even just before 9/11, Kevin would've been able to find a way to get his hands on a cell phone, and that would've opened up a number of additional solutions for his family to either get back home or get him to France with everyone.
*** You can see a line of pay phones in the airport terminal (Kevin also uses one of them in ''Home Alone 2'').
*** Nowadays, there are alarm clocks that hold regular batteries that activate when a power outage cuts off the main electrical supply, and a lot of people use the alarms on their smartphones to wake themselves up -- so unless the backup battery of the alarm clock failed and wasn't replaced, or the person in question accidentally put the phone in sleep mode/forgot to charge it, a power outage wouldn't prevent Kevin and his family from waking up on time and going to the airport without incident. Ironically, the alarm clock in the movie actually ''does'' have a battery backup, as is advertised on the top edge of said radio -- meaning his parents either forgot to replace them, or never put them in at all.
*** Harry and Marv, in the [=21st=] century, would've ''never'' discovered that Kevin was alone at the house; he'd already fooled them repeatedly into thinking that the house was still heavily occupied. The jig was only up when Kevin's father left a message about Kevin being home alone on a neighbor's answering machine -- and Marv, who was in the middle of robbing that same neighbor's house, overheard it while it was being recorded and told Harry, who realized the truth. Answering machines are all but gone today, in favor of private, electronic voicemail, and many homes no longer have landline phones anyway.[[note]]Although in that type of affluent neighborhood, some still do.[[/note]]
*** On top of that, the lax airport security of the time is on full display as well. Kate is able to barter a plane ticket off of a fellow traveler ''right in the terminal''; that was still a little questionable even then, but at least ''conceivable'' (and was a holdover from still earlier eras of air travel where the tickets were more like train or ship tickets). However, anybody who attempts something like that in an American airport in the [=21st=] century would probably be detained on suspicion of being a terrorist. Much more glaringly, there's the fact that the [=McCallisters=] would have ''never'' been able to get through [=21st=]-century airport security in time to make their flight in the first place, giving them ample time to discover that Kevin is missing and go back home to him, preventing the plot of the film from ever unfolding.
*** As noted, we have Frank tell Peter, "There's no way on Earth we're gonna make this plane. It leaves in 45 minutes!" before they get in the vans at their house, located in Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago. Without traffic, it's a half-hour drive from 671 Lincoln Avenue (their home address) to O'Hare International Airport. Not only are Chicago's expressways known to be ''very'' congested in both directions at rush hour due to the city's reverse-commute nature, but the airport would be even ''more'' crowded because they were catching a flight close to ''Christmas'' -- one of the busiest, if not ''the'' busiest, times of year for airports. In the [=21st=] century, even if the [=McCallisters=] somehow ''didn't'' hit any traffic and reached the airport in that time, they would still have to go through a ''lot'' of time-consuming steps once they arrived: checking in, printing their boarding passes, waiting in the security line, clearing the security checkpoint, and then making their way through Terminal 3 to their gate.[[note]]American Airlines is based out of Terminal 3, along with Delta Airlines[[/note]] Factoring in all of that, they would have missed their flight by almost ''two hours'' by the time they reached the gate. There is a reason why the airlines generally recommend that you arrive at the airport a full ''90 minutes'' before your flight (and even ''earlier'' for international flights). In the [=80s=], though, it was conceivable, if rather frowned on, for a person to show up to the airport with fifteen minutes to go 'till their flight and make it work, and many people would've had an experience somewhat like that at some point.
*** For that matter, in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens and The New Twenties, the sheer ''opulence'' of the [=McCallister=] household can stick out a bit. The family is presented as being upper-middle-class, with Kevin's dad being a while collar worker of some sort, but not a tycoon or anything (he has to use vans and consumer air travel, for a start). The [=McCallister=] home is absolutely enormous and filled with ''stuff'' (so as to work as a great movie set), though; in the [=70s=] and [=80s=], it still wasn't terribly uncommon for people with middle management-style jobs or other mid-tier white collar jobs to be able to afford something like that, especially with perhaps a little clever investing. In the new millennium, a home such as this would only possibly be believable as the home of the moneyed investor class (which would give the whole film a somewhat different read).
*** The worst part of it all is that this is almost the opposite of what was intended; Creator/ChrisColumbus has said that he and Creator/JohnHughes wanted very much for ''Home Alone'' to have a "timeless" look and feel to it so that ten, fifteen, twenty, etc. years down the line, it could still be viewed and enjoyed by people and it not seem "dated". Unfortunately, this wasn't the case, though it isn't entirely their fault -- if nothing else, we were some way off from normalizing the kind of travel protocols which became common after 9/11.
** ''Home Alone 2'':
*** Similar to the original film, the [=McCallister=] family is once again late for the airport, and once again just barely makes it. While the fact they are taking airport shuttles allows them some leeway in not needing to find parking, it still comes with all of the same problems of the original film when comparing it to today's airport security. Also, the reason Kevin accidentally boards the wrong flight is that he is insistent on reloading the batteries in his tape recorder, and mixes up his dad for someone else. These days, Kevin would probably just use a similar feature included with most smartphones, and not need a separate device.
*** Oh, and that Talkboy uses a cassette tape. How often are ''those'' seen anymore?
*** The reason the [=McCallisters=] are late in the first place, Kevin's dad accidently unplugging his bedside clock and therefore resetting it and turning off the alarm that was supposed to wake them up on time. Nowadays, he, along with every other member of the family, would have the alarm set on their smartphones.
*** No way in today's world would anyone even consider just letting a kid under age 10 without a parent/guardian around board a fully booked flight to New York. An even more boneheaded move was letting the [=McCallisters=]' flight take off with Kevin's unaccompanied baggage, post-Lockerbie (though we don't know if Kevin's baggage was checked to Miami as part of someone else's checked bags).
*** There is no way that the Plaza Hotel would just buy Kevin's story about his dad being on a business trip, and then let him check into their hotel with a credit card that Kevin openly admitted wasn't his. While the card really did belong to Kevin's father, he was still illegally using it; in today's world, Kevin would have been arrested almost immediately.
*** The famous shot of the Twin Towers during the New York montage is a ''powerful'' reminder that it was filmed before 2001. In the decade following, that shot was either edited out or kept the movies off airwaves entirely.
*** It [[DreamingOfAWhiteChristmas snows in New York City around Christmastime]] in the film. New York City hasn't had a white Christmas since 2010.
*** One of the big settings in New York is a dedicated toy store, which has become something more of a novelty in TheNewTens.
*** UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's cameo. At the time, Trump was always seen as an eccentric billionaire, whereas today, his highly controversial political career has massively overshadowed this, clearly setting the film in a time before his reputation shift. In fact, Chris Columbus was originally going to cut this cameo from the film since it was only shot as part of the contract for filming in the Plaza Hotel, but he left it in because test audiences ''applauded it''.
** In ''Home Alone 3'', pagers are used.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: The two Wet Bandits, [[BigBadDuumvirate Harry and Marv]], are impossible to hate, [[spoiler:even when they attempt to kill Kevin in the sequel]], as their ButtMonkey status and Marv's ditziness make them hilarious to watch. However, Kevin's family, especially [[BigBrotherBully Buzz]] and [[EvilUncle Frank]], are just unlikable, as they constantly bully him and don't get much comeuppance.

** The moment where Kate realizes that they forgot Kevin -- while on a plane flying to France, 30,000ft in the air. At first, Kate and Peter talk about what they forgot, and Kate determines it wasn't him leaving the garage open. After a {{Beat}}, she looks in the camera and suddenly screams, "[[OhCrap KEVIN]]!"

** The Paint Cans in particular, both their use in the first movie as well as the [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] in the second movie.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: TV airings of ''Home Alone 2'' tended to cut out Trump's cameo, which after his 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent presidency, has caused both him and his supporters to accuse Hollywood of censoring and trying to erase his previous, positive media depictions. However, this scene (and others) had been regularly cut ''before'' his political career, and has nothing to do with his controversial reputation shift, but rather the same reason most films get cut down in TV airings. They only have a limited TV slot, and Trump's cameo is a non-essential thing that added nothing to the plot, and was only thrown in to appease Trump's contractual requests for use of his tower.

* DesignatedHero: Max Mercer from ''Home Sweet Home Alone''. His actions in the movie appear to be sadistic as he brutally hurts the two DesignatedVillain thieves (who just wanted their doll back). He also acts snobbish due to his family's style of life. At the end of the movie, he doesn't seem to make up for this, and stays as this archetype.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: The two Wet Bandits, [[BigBadDuumvirate Harry and Marv]], are the main villains, but it's hard to hate them, [[spoiler:even when they attempt to kill Kevin in the sequel]]. Their ButtMonkey status and Marv's ditziness make them hilarious to watch. However, Kevin's family, especially [[BigBrotherBully Buzz]] and [[EvilUncle Frank]], are just unlikeable, constantly bullying him. And unlike the Wet Bandits, they don't get much comeuppance. It's no wonder that Kevin enjoys being alone.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Fans often hate Kevin's family members for being mean and unfair to Kevin. But nearly everyone loves [[BigBadDuumvirate Harry and Marv]], the criminals who actually tried to kill Kevin in the sequel, probably because they are LaughablyEvil and spend most of the two movies being bumbling [[ButtMonkey Butt-Monkeys]], while Kevin's family doesn't get much comeuppance.

** In a crossover example, a rather popular theory among non-fans (usually known as "Kevin is Jigsaw") is that Kevin and John "Jigsaw" Kramer from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series are the same person, saying that Kevin's booby traps are early versions of John's death traps (since while Kevin's traps aren't fatal, they ''should'' be with real life logic applied), and that plenty of Kevin's behavior matches John's.[[labelnote:Such as]]Problems controlling his temper, indulging in somewhat violent fantasies, spying on people, delighting in the pain of those caught in his traps (although much more prominently than John), and using video/audio recordings to communicate with people and trick them. Kevin's neglectful parents and troubles with the police also line up with John's distrust of authority and his particular contempt for police officers who abuse their power.[[/labelnote]] Many versions of the theory also draw parallels to certain objects in Kevin's ''Home Alone'' films (such as the furnace he got scared by looking similar to the Reverse Bear Trap and being the basis of the Furnace from ''Saw II''), and even [[https://grantland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/homealone_kevin_jigsaw.png compare]] Creator/MacaulayCulkin's (Kevin's actor in his first two films) present appearance as resembling John at a younger age. Believers of this theory tend to overlook the fact that (among many other problems) John's motivations and the origin of his death trap methods were already established in the ''Saw'' series, and are very different to Kevin's intentions. Still, it hasn't stopped the theory from receiving [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVodDpKSi2E numerous]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Y9W-oK02w fanmade]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8PAIbiKFVk trailers]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ilToTEH9k&t=106s a short film]] based on it, several [=YouTube=] media channels [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Uq-j0SOKU making]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJvke1QtgY videos]] about it, and even being brought up in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx54quy9tDQ a program]] of ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon'' where Culkin is interviewed about various conspiracy theories in regards to ''Home Alone''.

** In a crossover example, a rather popular theory among non-fans (usually known as "Kevin is Jigsaw") is that Kevin and John "Jigsaw" Kramer from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series are the same person, saying that Kevin's booby traps are early versions of John's death traps (since while Kevin's traps aren't fatal, they ''should'' be with real life logic applied), and that plenty of Kevin's behavior matches John's.[[labelnote:Such as]]Problems controlling his temper, indulging in somewhat violent fantasies, spying on people, delighting in the pain of those caught in his traps (although much more prominently than John), and using video/audio recordings to communicate with people and trick them. Kevin's neglectful parents and troubles with the police also line up with John's distrust of authority and his particular contempt for police officers who abuse their power.[[/labelnote]] Many versions of the theory also draw parallels to certain objects in Kevin's ''Home Alone'' films (such as the furnace he got scared by looking similar to the Reverse Bear Trap and being the basis of the Furnace from ''Saw II''), and even [[https://grantland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/homealone_kevin_jigsaw.png compare]] Creator/MacaulayCulkin's (Kevin's actor in his first two films) present appearance as resembling John at a younger age. Believers of this theory tend to overlook the fact that (among many other problems) John's motivation and origin of his death trap methods were already established in the ''Saw'' series, and are very different to Kevin's intentions. Still, it hasn't stopped the theory from receiving [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVodDpKSi2E numerous]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Y9W-oK02w fanmade]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8PAIbiKFVk trailers]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ilToTEH9k&t=106s a short film]] based on it, several [=YouTube=] media channels [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Uq-j0SOKU making]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJvke1QtgY videos]] about it, and even being brought up in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx54quy9tDQ a program]] of ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon'' where Culkin is interviewed about various conspiracy theories in regards to ''Home Alone''.

** In ''Home Alone 3'', Beaupre mistakenly grabs a dart gun Alex spray-painted black instead of his real gun, which Alex hid under a towel in the basement. How Alex could possibly have predicted someone would not only find it, but turn the towel over onto their ''real'' gun to cover up their mistake, is fairly ridiculous. Same goes for the professional criminal [[RuleOfPerception being unable to tell the difference between a plastic toy with a suction cup sticking from the barrel and a heavy metallic firearm.]]
** There is no indication that the toy dart gun is not made of metal, and thus not similar in weight to the real gun. The Plastic gun that was spray painted black was only ever handled by Alex. Plus; Beaupre was not looking or paying attention when he reached for his gun, so if the weights were close, he thought it was his. There was no orange cap, and the dart was black.

* DesignatedHero: Max Mercer from ''Home Sweet Home Alone''. His actions in the movie appear to be sadistic as he brutally hurts the two DesignatedVillain thieves (who just wanted their doll back). He also acts snobbish due to his family style of life. In the end of the moment, he doesn't seem to make up for this and stays as this kind of trope.

* EvenBetterSequel: ''Lost in New York'' gets this among fans who consider it to be more action-packed and dramatic than the first movie. It also gives the Wet Bandits and the booby traps more focus.

*** If the film were made and set in TheNewTens and beyond, Kevin's parents would, at worst, have to sort out some new SIM cards for their cell phones in order to give Kevin's own cell a call. They weren't able to call the house due to the ''land-based'' phone lines being down and the house having no wireless phones, which was, in 1990 (and as a holdover from UsefulNotes/TheEighties) a fairly typical arrangement even for a well-off household like theirs. In the new millennium, even just before 9/11, Kevin would've been able to find a way to get his hands on a cell phone, and that would've opened up a number of additional solutions for his family to either get back home or get him to France with everyone.
*** You can also see a line of pay phones in the airport terminal. (Kevin also uses a pay phone in the sequel)
*** Nowadays, there are alarm clocks that hold regular batteries that activate when a power outage cuts off the main electrical supply, and a lot of people use the alarms on their smartphones to wake themselves up -- so unless the backup battery of the alarm clock failed and wasn't replaced, or the person in question accidentally put the phone in sleep mode/forgot to charge it, a power outage wouldn't prevent Kevin and his family from waking up on time and going to the airport without incident. Ironically, the alarm clock in the movie actually ''does'' have a battery backup, as is advertised on the top edge of said radio -- meaning his parents forgot to replace them, or never put them in at all.
*** Harry and Marv, in the [=21st=] century, would've ''never'' discovered that Kevin was alone at the house; he'd already fooled them repeatedly into thinking that the house was still heavily occupied. The jig was only up when Kevin's father left a message about Kevin being home alone on a neighbor's answering machine -- and Marv, who was in the middle of robbing that same neighbor’s house, overheard it while it was being recorded and told Harry, who realized the truth. Answering machines are all but gone today, in favor of private, electronic voicemail, and many homes no longer have landline phones anyway.[[note]]Although in that type of affluent neighborhood, many homes still do.[[/note]]
*** On top of that, the lax airport security of the time is on full display as well. Kate is able to barter a plane ticket off of a fellow traveler ''right in the terminal''; that was still a little questionable even then but at least ''conceivable'' (and was a holdover from still earlier eras of air travel where the tickets were more like train or ship tickets), but anybody who attempted something like that in an American airport the [=21st=] century would probably be detained on suspicion of being a terrorist. Much more glaringly, there is the fact that the [=McCallisters=] would have ''never'' been able to get through [=21st=] century airport security in time to make their flight in the first place, giving them ample time to discover that Kevin is missing and go back home to him, preventing the plot of the film from ever unfolding.

** ''Lost in New York'':

*** UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's cameo. At the time, Trump was largely seen as an eccentric billionaire, whereas today, his highly controversial political career has massively overshadowed this, clearly setting the film in a time before his reputation shift. In fact, Chris Columbus was originally going to cut the cameo from the film since it was only shot as part of the contract for filming in the Plaza Hotel, but he left it in because the test audiences ''applauded it''.
** In the third film, pagers are used.

** Harry and Marv, especially in the sequel. The pain and humiliation from the traps is supposed to be LaserGuidedKarma for their villainous deeds, but many of them are so violent and over the top that you can't really blame them for wanting to kill Kevin. Additionally, there was a deleted scene of the first film, in which Harry explains to Marv his reason for burglarizing is because he hates the commercialization of Christmas. It was cut for this very reason, since they're supposed to be the bad guys you ''want'' to see get pulverized by Kevin's traps.
** Natalie from the 4th film's a RichBitch but did that really prompt having the royal family she had invited to spend Christmas with her abandoning her to spend Christmas with her ex-boyfriend's family and being left in tears by said ex-boyfriend because he loved his wife and kids more then he loved her, not to mention she loved him despite him being middle class? Doesn't help that the movie was originally supposed to end with Peter staying with her, which makes her late-addition FaceHeelTurn feel forced and unconvincing.
** The thieves in the 5th movie are meant to be seen as bad guys but they had no intention of hurting anyone. Sinclair only wanted the painting but sadly he along with Jessica and Hughes are arrested after numerous pranks and traps Finn set up.
** Jeff and Pam from ''Home Sweet Home Alone'' are this in that they are set up as [[AntiVillain Anti Villain]], as their motivation isn't to rob Max's house or harm him, it's to obtain a doll that was rightfully theirs so they could provide for their family. However, because they are given such a sympathetic background and motive, this makes the HomeAloneAntics that Max inflicts on them come across as ''very'' mean spirited to viewers instead of funny. Not only that, but they even end up acting as better parental figures ''than Max's actual parents''. Because of this, and Max being an DesignatedHero, many even considers them the ''true'' protagonists.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
** This is a ''BIG'' criticism of ''Home Sweet Home Alone'':
*** Archie Yates portrays Max as a ''very'' snobby child who doesn't come off as being bullied or neglected by his family. The pain inflicted on the home invaders actually feels less deserved (Thanks to information that [[FourthWallMyopia we know, but he doesn't]]) and he seems almost too EasilyForgiven considering the HomeAloneAntics he subjected the [=McKenzies=] to could have ''easily'' landed them in the hospital if not left with permanent injuries. There's even a scene where, at a church toy drive, Max is even given a toy gun from someone ''less'' fortunate than him. He's only really at his best in the ''penultimate scene'', where he [[spoiler:tells Jeff and Pam's children not to take their family for granted and then saves the valuable doll]], rather than having more time to showcase his HiddenHeartOfGold the way Kevin did.
*** Max's family as well, ''especially'' his father. While his mother does attempt to get back to her son, the rest of the family doesn't seem the least bit phased. Even in the first two movies, the rest of the family is visibly shaken by Kevin's absence. In the finale in which it's shown that the two families are now friends, Max's father isn't even ''there''.
*** The issue of calling the police to perform a welfare check on the kid [[TitleDrop Home Alone]] actually ''is'' brought up -- except Buzz writes it off as a prank phone call because it's a running gag that his brother calls him and pretends to have been left behind on Christmas. Except this time, it's ''not'' Kevin calling about it -- it's someone ''completely'' different. So why would anyone assume that this is just another "wolf" cry? This makes him seem more like he hasn't grown out of his {{Jerkass}} behavior and seem like he's ''quite'' an incompetent officer.
%%** Kate in the aftermath of the pizza scene. She's meant to be written as a fair parent who's simply punishing Kevin for acting like a brat. But she snaps at Kevin after freeing him from Buzz's headlock, she doesn't get mad at Buzz for eating Kevin's pizza and taunting him afterwards, doesn't defend him when Uncle Frank and Jeff call him a "little jerk" and a "disease" respectively, tells him it's too late when he tries to apologize and sends him to bed without any dinner. When Kevin says that he believes that everyone in the family hates him, Kate offhandedly tells him to "ask Santa for a new family". She instead just comes off as being an [[AdultsAreUseless oblivious and inconsiderate mother who's acting unfair towards Kevin.]] She does get better when she feels remorse over what happened and does everything she can to return to her Son. Although, the moment where she, while understandably mad, unfairly expresses her anger at a flight receptionist, who was simply doing his job and genuinely unable to do anything to help her, doesn't look good either.

** In the second film, Kevin is able to get onto a flight that wasn't his -- a feat that was already difficult in TheNineties but nigh impossible by the end of the decade.
** The second film’s scene where Kevin escapes from the Plaza plays the "You’ve been smooching with everybody!" quote for laughs, but the GayPanic makes it very hard to imagine any film trying that these days. The employees are also forced out of the room when they mistake Johnny shooting a tommy gun for being real. Hector's precautions and warnings for the guests to remain in their rooms would be taken much more seriously today.

** The first two films were polarizing at best when they came out, but as time went on, people started looking at it more fondly and the first film is now widely considered a holiday classic, with ''Lost in New York'' also being well-regarded today.
** Some people have started to come around to ''3'' as well. While not as iconic as the first two, it has been admitted it at least tries something different with the formula, even if it's a bit outlandish, and give kudos to the villains really feeling like a threat at points. With the only real shortcoming is that it feels so alien after two films with Kevin and not as many creative traps.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: TV airings of ''2'' tend to cut out the Donald Trump cameo, which after his 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent presidency, has caused both him and his supporters to accuse Hollywood of censoring and trying to erase his previous, positive media depictions. However, this scene (and others) had been regularly cut ''before'' his political career and has nothing to do with his controversial reputation, but rather the same reason most films get cut down in TV airings. They only have a limited TV slot and Trump's cameo is a non-essential cameo that added nothing to the plot and was only thrown in to appease Trump's contractual requests for use of his tower.
* WTHCastingAgency: Was there any legitimate reason to cast French Stewart as Marv in the fourth movie other than to cut costs, given that Daniel Stern would have gladly reprised the part given his love for the character (assuming the script was any good, which in this case it admittedly wasn't)?

** Old Man Marley in the first film, who not only has to deal with scary rumors being made about him, but also had a falling out with his own son, leaving him only able to see his granddaughter while she's singing at the local church. Fortunately for him, Kevin's advice convinces him to try and reconnect with his son, and the ending shows that the two have made up.

** Natalie from ''4'' is supposed to be hated because she is a rich stepparent who is dating Kevin's divorced father and does not want Christmas ruined. There is nothing inherently bad about the aforementioned traits; the only "bad" thing she is described as doing is overworking Prescott, but [[OffscreenVillainy this behavior is never actually shown to the audience]]. Made ever worse at the end, he leaves her right before Christmas and she ''bursts into tears'' right in front of everyone. We are meant to cheer at this but its pretty hard not to feel bad for her instead.

** In a crossover example, a rather popular theory among non-fans (usually known as "Kevin is Jigsaw") is that Kevin and John "Jigsaw" Kramer from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series are the same person, saying that Kevin's booby traps are early versions of John's death traps (since while Kevin's traps aren't fatal, they ''should'' be with real life logic applied), and that plenty of Kevin's behavior matches John's.[[labelnote:Such as]]Problems controlling his temper, indulging in somewhat violent fantasies, spying on people, delighting in the pain of those caught in his traps (although John tries to deny this), and using video/audio recordings to communicate with people and trick them. Kevin's neglectful parents and troubles with the police also line up with John's distrust of authority and his particular contempt for police officers who abuse their power.[[/labelnote]] Many versions of the theory also draw parallels to certain objects in Kevin's ''Home Alone'' films (such as the furnace he got scared by looking similar to the Reverse Bear Trap and being the basis of the Furnace from ''Saw II''), and even [[https://grantland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/homealone_kevin_jigsaw.png compare]] Creator/MacaulayCulkin's (Kevin's actor in his first two films) present appearance as resembling John at a younger age. Believers of this theory tend to overlook the fact that (among many other problems) John's motivation and origin of his death trap methods were already established in the ''Saw'' series, and are very different to Kevin's intentions. Still, it hasn't stopped the theory from receiving [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVodDpKSi2E numerous]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Y9W-oK02w fanmade]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8PAIbiKFVk trailers]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ilToTEH9k&t=106s a short film]] based on it, several [=YouTube=] media channels [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Uq-j0SOKU making]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJvke1QtgY videos]] about it, and even being brought up in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx54quy9tDQ a program]] of ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon'' where Culkin is interviewed about various conspiracy theories in regards to ''Home Alone''.

* FanonDiscontinuity: The fourth, fifth, and sixth movies, universally agreed on there. The third film also gets this to an extent, though not as much as the fourth.

** The writers of ''4'' seem to have had a bad case of this, particularly in regards to Natalie. Take the scene where she's mad at Kevin. The audience knows he was trying to stop the burglars, but he provides no evidence and no one at the party saw anything (which ''the film itself'' acknowledges). As such, Natalie is well within her rights to think he ruined the party on purpose because he wants to sabotage her relationship with Peter.

** The sheer amounts of PoorCommunicationKills in ''Home Sweet Home Alone'' ends up making the [=McKenzie=] family seem like a bunch of ''idiots'' -- in a series that relies off of {{idiot plot}}s. While some of Max's antics can be seen as one big KickTheDog after KickTheDog, he actually is well within his rights to assume the home invaders ''are'' here for him -- ''we'' the ''viewers'' know that the [=McKenzies=] aren't there for him, but ''he'' only hears them say that they want to take "him" and sell "him" (the doll) to some old lady, and from his point of view a pair of human traffickers understandably deserve what he inflicts on them.

** The first two movies have a sizable and loyal fanbase in Latin America, at the point that the translated title of the movie, "Mi Pobre Angelito", became trending topic in several countries in 2015 after the release of Macaulay Culkin's viral video in which he reprised the role of Kevin. It became a Christmas tradition in the region, too.
** It is also a Christmas tradition in Portugal (with either the first one or the second one being usually aired on the afternoon of the 24th or the 25th).

** In the first film, when talking to Old Man Marley who mentions his strained relationship with his son, Kevin says that no matter how mad he were at his father, he would still talk to him, especially around the holidays. In real life, Creator/MacaulayCulkin has had a very strained relationship with his infamous StageDad to the point that the two men no longer speak.
** In ''Home Alone 2'', there's a particular scene where Kevin pays a visit to the World Trade Center. If you were alive before or during 9/11, seeing that one shot showing the Twin Towers in all their glory [[TearJerker will hurt your heart]].
** Buzz is a BigBrotherBully to Kevin, to the extent where Kevin expects Buzz to pound him for going through his stuff in the first movie. This hits pretty hard after Devin Ratray's domestic abuse arrest in December 2021. What adds to it is Kevin looking at a picture of Buzz's (unattractive) girlfriend in that movie and exclaiming "Buzz, your girlfriend! Woof!"
* HilariousInHindsight: Kevin ends up letting his macaroni and cheese get cold while enacting his one-boy defense of the house, leading to many people questioning what happened with it and if Kevin even got to eat the macaroni. Apparently, Google thought the same thing; in 2018, they released an ad where Creator/MacaulayCulkin is about to eat the same dish, only to see the clock ring nine times and hearing Harry and Marv drive up. Culkin just asks Google Home to run Operation Kevin -- lock all the doors, turn on the lights, and run the Roomba with a basketball athlete cutout -- and [[BrickJoke happily finishes his meal]]. You can't blame Culkin for looking smug.
** Two years after the first movie, Hillary Wolf (Megan) would star in another film about a dysfunctional family, ''Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even''. In that movie, she is the ButtMonkey of a dysfunctional family and runs away.
* HoYay: But you might say that Harry and Marv bicker like an old married couple, and you might also note that (aside from the made for TV sequel, which ignores continuity in many ways, and removes Harry from the story) neither of the thieves mentions having a girlfriend or a wife. (Harry wears a wedding ring, but this could be handwaved as his wife being dead or in jail, or as the ring being stolen.) This would also explain why Harry puts up with Marv, since he is certainly not the brains of the operation and not much use for brawn either, being defeated by a child. Marv does go "Well, hello!" to the woman who gets her skirt pulled by Kevin in the second movie, and if you wanna count ''Home Alone 4'' at all, he has a wife named Vera that he officially met in prison, but he could be bi.

** ''Home Alone 2'': Kevin has been found by the two bandits who want him ''dead'', so he makes a break for the hotel he's been staying at to get his stuff and head home. He gets grabbed by the Concierge who thinks he stole his credit card and threatens to call the police on him... [[TooDumbToLive so he runs away.]] He never once considers that A: The card isn't stolen, it's his dad's and B: ''His family is looking for him''. Getting grabbed by the cops would give him a free ticket back home to his parents and the entire third act of the movie wouldn't have happened.
*** Possibly justified in that while he definitely has the smarts to plan things out like an entire battle plan of death traps, Kevin is still a kid who can't think rationally in the heat of the moment when danger confronts him rather than vice versa. Remember, in the first movie he knew from the second act on the bandits wanted to rob his house, but he wouldn't tell the police [[note]]and when he finally did, he still told them the house next door was being robbed and tried to lure the bandits into that house, which was when his plan went awry[[/note]] because he feared they would send ''him'' to prison for ''shoplifting a toothbrush that he didn't mean to shoplift''.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: A major criticism of the second movie is that it's too much like the first ''Home Alone'' apart from the setting switching to New York rather than being secluded to a house.

** Harry is a hot-tempered burglar who tries to bite off Kevin's fingers in the first film and tries to shoot Kevin in Central Park in the second film but considering all the sadistic and nasty things Kevin does to him (and Marv), especially in the second film, few people wouldn't feel sorry for him.

** The criminals in the fifth movie, especially Sinclair who has a valid reason for wanting to steal the painting.
* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Fans often hate Kevin's family members for being mean and unfair to Kevin. But nearly everyone loves [[BigBadDuumvirate Harry and Marv]], the criminals who actually tried to kill Kevin in the sequel, probably because they are LaughablyEvil and spend most of the two movies being bumbling {{Butt Monkey}}s, while Kevin's family doesn't get much comeuppance.

** Many of the people are watching the series mainly only because of the traps at the second half of the film.
** A number of people only watch the second movie for Creator/TimCurry. Similarly, since his 2016 presidential bid and victory, many people watch ''Home Alone 2'' just for UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's cameo.

* MemeticMutation: [[Memes/HomeAlone See here]].

* MorePopularReplacement: Finn Baxter for Kevin [=McCallister=] in ''5'', replacing him as TheProtagonist which fans approved of, having gotten sick of Kevin in the (poorly received) previous film, especially since his [[Creator/MacaulayCulkin original actor]] was too old to reprise the role and ended up retconning his previous portrayal. This is ironic considering the first time he got replaced in ''Home Alone 3'', his then successor Alex Pruitt attained ReplacementScrappy status simply because he was a new character.

* ReplacementScrappy: Alex from ''3'' gets a lot of this, simply for not being Kevin. Finn from from ''5'' not so much, because his movie came after the CanonDefilement that was the retcon-happy ''4,'' convincing most viewers that cast reboots might be a good thing after all.

** In a crossover example, a rather popular theory among non-fans (usually known as "Kevin is Jigsaw") is that Kevin and John "Jigsaw" Kramer from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series are the same person, considering that Kevin's booby traps are early versions of John's death traps (since while Kevin's traps aren't fatal, they ''should'' be with real life logic applied), and that Kevin displays a very similar behavior to John's. Many versions of the theory also draw parallels to certain objects in Kevin's ''Home Alone'' films (such as the furnace he got scared by looking similar to the Reverse Bear Trap and being the basis of the Furnace from ''Saw II''), and even [[https://grantland.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/homealone_kevin_jigsaw.png compare]] Creator/MacaulayCulkin's (Kevin's actor in his first two films) present appearance as resembling John at a younger age. Believers of this theory tend to overlook the fact that (among many other problems) John's motivation and origin of his death trap methods were already established in the ''Saw'' series, and are very different to Kevin's intentions. Still, it hasn't stopped the theory from receiving [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVodDpKSi2E numerous]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Y9W-oK02w fanmade]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8PAIbiKFVk trailers]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ilToTEH9k&t=106s a short film]] based on it, several [=YouTube=] media channels [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Uq-j0SOKU making]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJvke1QtgY videos]] about it, and even being brought up in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx54quy9tDQ a program]] of ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon'' where Culkin is interviewed about various conspiracy theories in regards to ''Home Alone''.

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** A (somewhat joking) fan theory is that Kevin grows up to be [[Franchise/{{Saw}} John Kramer aka Jigsaw]]. Kevin's penchant for building traps to exact justice on criminals is quite similar to Jigsaw's MO, and while Kevin's aren't fatal, they ''should'' be. Aside from their traps, Kevin shows many other behaviors that match Jigsaw: problems controlling his temper, indulging in violent fantasies, spying on people, delighting in the pain of those caught in his traps, and using video and audio recordings to trick people and communicate with them. His neglectful parents and troubles with the police also line up with Jigsaw's distrust of authority and his particular contempt for police officials who abuse their power.

*** For that matter, in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens and UsefulNotes/TheNewTwenties, the sheer ''opulence'' of the [=McCallister=] household can stick out a bit. The family is presented as being upper-middle-class, with Kevin's dad being a while collar worker of some sort, but not a tycoon or anything (he has to use vans and consumer air travel, for a start). The [=McCallister=] home is absolutely enormous and filled with ''stuff'' (so as to work as a great movie set), though; in the [=70s=] and [=80s=], it still wasn't terribly uncommon for people with middle management-style jobs or other mid-tier white collar jobs to be able to afford something like that, especially with perhaps a little clever investing. In the new millennium, a home such as this would only possibly be believable as the home of the moneyed investor class (which would give the whole film a somewhat different read).

** In ''Home Alone'', it's heavily implied that Kevin was somehow able to set up his trap house in under hour between 8pm and 9pm. Maybe the traps alone would be doable within that timeframe, but the fact that Kevin ''also'' had to race home from the church, think and draw up a battle-plan before placing said traps, and even had some spare time at the end to cook some microwave mac-and-cheese, [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief shoves a lot into just one hour]].

* AssPull: In ''Home Alone 3'', Beaupre mistakenly grabs a dart gun Alex spray-painted black instead of his real gun, which Alex hid under a towel in the basement. How Alex could possibly have predicted someone would not only find it, but turn the towel over onto their ''real'' gun to cover up their mistake, is fairly ridiculous. Same goes for the professional criminal [[RuleOfPerception being unable to tell the difference between a plastic toy with a suction cup sticking from the barrel and a heavy metallic firearm.]]

** There is no indication that the toy dart gun is not made of metal, and thus not similar in weight to the real gun. The Plastic gun that was spray painted black was only ever handled by Alex. Plus; Beaupre was not looking or paying attention when he reached for his gun, so if the weights were close, he thought it was his.

** In the first film, Buzz owns an air rifle which is later used by Kevin. While it did raise some eyebrows in TheNineties, the idea of either carrying around an air rifle after two decades of school shootings would be seen as TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior.

* {{Squick}}: Gus Polinski tries to get Kate to play his clarinet on the drive to Chicago - right after taking it out of his mouth. Keep in mind 1. he has just met her that day, and 2. the clarinet is a woodwind instrument, which means it has a reed that has been soaking in his saliva, probably for a while. Kate is clearly put off by it in-universe and sternly refuses, and anyone watching this post-COVID will probably be horrified.

* EpilepticTrees: There's a semi-serious theory that the [=McAllisters=] are actually a high-level mob family. Everyone persistently ignores Harry in the opening scene, like they've all been trained to never talk to cops, and when Peter finally does, his first line is "Am I in trouble, officer?". Several of the adults are shockingly cruel to the kids, especially Uncle Frank. Kevin himself is incredibly quick to turn to violence to solve his problems when there are several easier ways to take care of Harry and Marv, and he even terrorizes an innocent pizza delivery guy purely because ItAmusedMe. Peter somehow has enough money to give the entire extended family a holiday vacation in Paris, and Harry labels their house a "silver tuna", despite the rest of the neighborhood looking just as nice and the house not having any obvious super-valuable items inside.

* DesignatedVillain: Natalie from ''4'' is supposed to be hated because she is a rich stepparent who is dating Kevin's divorced father and does not want Christmas ruined. There is nothing inherently bad about the aforementioned traits; the only "bad" thing she is described as doing is overworking Prescott, but [[OffscreenVillainy this behavior is never actually shown to the audience]]. Made ever worse at the end, he leaves her right before Christmas and she ''bursts into tears'' right in front of everyone. We are meant to cheer at this but its pretty hard not to feel bad for her instead.

* DirectorDisplacement: John Hughes is often believed to have been the one responsible for directing the 1st three films. In reality, he was only the screenwriter. The actual directors were Creator/ChrisColumbus (in the case of 1 and 2) and Raja Gosnell (in the case of 3).

** Jeff and Pam from ''Home Sweet Home Alone'' are this in that they are set up as [[AntiVillain Anti Villain]], as their motivation isn't to rob Max's house or harm him, it's to obtain a doll that was rightfully theirs so they could provide for their family. However, because they are given such a sympathetic background and motive, this makes the HomeAloneAntics that Max inflicts on them come across as ''very'' mean spirited to viewers instead of funny. Not only that, but they even end up acting as better parental figures ''than Max's actual parents''.