In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's the first Christmas since Kevin McCallister's parents separated. He lives with his mother Kate (Clare Carey) and two siblings. His father Peter (Jason Beghe) plans to marry his rich girlfriend Natalie (Joanna Going) and wants the kids to spend time with her. Kevin refuses at first. After continued abuse by his brother, Kevin decides to sneak away to his father. Prescott (Erick Avari) is the butler and Molly (Barbara Babcock) is the maid. The mansion is high tech. Marv Merchants (French Stewart) has dropped his Wet Bandits partner. With his wife Vera (Missi Pyle), they plan to kidnap a visiting Prince. Kevin fights them off again and again but nobody believes him.The McCallisters seem to have lost a bunch of the kids. The new Kevin has the required cuteness and a bit of mischief. Having the parents separated puts a damper on any fun in the movie. The reunion is fully expected. It has too many moments trying to be serious. The tone is all wrong. Stewart and Pyle try their best to be wacky. It is stupid but not in a fun way. Even a simple thing like set design is weak. Natalie is supposed to be rich but the decor looks cheap. This is a sad continuation of a failing franchise.

As a person who grew up watching the Home Alone movies (mainly the first two, since we had them on VHS. I didn't hear about the third until I was 7 or 8), I can say that this movie is dumb... But it's on such a level of fail, that it's fun to watch and make fun of. French Stewart's acting is over-the-top; Kevin looks nothing like he did in Home Alone 1 and 2; Buzz's age is wrong; only two of Kevin's four siblings are present here; the house looks nothing like it did in the first two.... And the opening... Oh God, the opening. That's not a Home Alone opening scene, that's the intro to the Home Alone reality show! All of these screw-ups are just so stupid, that there's no choice but to sit there and laugh at it.

This is quite possibly one of the worst sequels I've ever seen. For starters, it was a made-for-TV movie. Kevin is still somehow 8 years old, they don't live in the same house, none of the other family members from the first two films are mentioned, and Kevin's parents are randomly getting divorced. A bratty annoying technology obsessed kid named Mike Weinberg plays Kevin this time, and he's awful. There was no way in heck he could ever try and replace Macaulay Culkin. To make things worse, they cast squinty-eyed French Stewart to play Marv. Kevin's dad is now dating a spoiled rich girl named Natalie. Kevin wants his family back together, so he sneaks to Natalie's house and they just let him stay around for awhile and play with cool technical toys. Because Natalie is rich, she has to throw a party for some Prince from another country. While Natalie and Peter are out, Marv and his new wife, Vera show up at the house to rob it, so Kevin has to play 'Jigsaw' again and stop them. (The traps in this film are terrible, lame, and generic.) My only advice is avoid this 'sequel' like the plague. It makes Home Alone 3 look like a masterpiece. I definitely would not recommend HOME ALONE 4: TAKING BACK THE HOUSE!!!

I was never a huge fan of the first "Home Alone" movie, and for that matter the second and third entries. But each of them was like a Broadway play compared to this fourth entry. This entry is a bad high school play in comparison. It goes wrong in just about every way you can think of. Being made for television, it looks really cheap and undernourished, save for the part of the movie involving a cascade of water (they must have blown most of the budget on that scene alone.) The people that are cast in the roles of Kevin and his family (as well as Marv) have none of the spark of the original actors. But the worst thing about the movie is how dull it is. There is very little of the character of Kevin taking charge, acting smart, and inflicting mischief. It's mostly boring talk. I think even kids will find this sequel a shabby excuse, and I can only imagine what their smarter and experienced parents will think of it.