They play it every year but I feel 'Christmas-y' watching. Maybe I don't have the cojones to say it isn't Christmas without watching it. The thing is watching it reminds me of Christmas past. People put down the movie, for example in Dogma, the muse (Selma Hayek) said she was not responsible for the movie with the boy getting left home to fight bandits, she said 'someone sold their soul for that one.' It is even referenced in "Seinfeld," where George gets choked up with the part of the old man. It actually has good story structure and there is an actual evolution to Kevin's bravery. To me, it's a movie about self-sufficiency, in other words growing up and learning the things you are afraid of as a kid is just plain silly.All the sequences with the shooting of the groins, fire burning skull, iron to the face, feathering and so on, my nephews pretty much had that memorized, like I imagine any kid had at the time. I like the mix of the Christmas classics before the great showdown. Oh and that horrible Uncle Frank! Ha! Catherine O' Hera, who played the mother, gives a strong performance but now is stuck with doing Christopher Guest movies and voice overs. Other than propelling M.C. to popularity and all the emotional trauma of divorcing parents and being a child star, there are indeed classic moments I like but it is not the violence. What always confused me was the amount of people in the family. What was never really clear was how many kids were in his imitate family. In the sequel, when they just had the imitate family in the beginning, it's like 'now these people have to feign being a family more than in the last movie.' Now as an adult, I can figure it out but the movie never made it crystal. My dad's favorite part is the 'filthy animal' sequence with the black-white movie that doesn't exist, they just made it especially for the movie. They did it again in the sequel.
It is probably the only holiday 'family' movie that has the lines, "Maybe he committed suicide" and "Come on you big horse's ass." I can just ignore the stupidity of a spiteful family (Kevin was more annoying than bad. Ooh wow! He spilled soda and everyone goes nuts) and the dumb-y thieves. Now, what I was mentioning before about Kevin's evolution. Before the whole ordeal, the only thing he feared most was packing his suitcase. Then, it was the basement, he got over it when he needed to do the laundry. Some kids left home alone would haven't even bothered to do his laundry. He was afraid of a simple task, he then went on to go shopping on his own and coming up with all those traps... even making the house look 'jumping!' with its just movie magic, let's say. I didn't see the movie in theaters but when I saw John Candy in it for the first time, I was happy because I remember M.C. being in Uncle Buck. John Candy was one of my favorite comedians growing up.
