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Home Alone
How did this movie manage to become one of the highest-grossing comedies of all time? Maybe it's the ingeniously mixed message, celebrating the importance of family while giving kids the vicarious wish-fulfillment of freedom from parental supervision and annoying siblings. Maybe it's the unique blend of holiday sentiment (the subplot about the Boo Radley-ish neighbor who turns out to be a lonely old man) and vicious slapstick (the booby traps that should have killed burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern many times over). But probably it's the discovery (by writer John Hughes) of Macaulay Culkin, the preternaturally mature 10-year-old who appeared briefly in Hughes' ''Uncle Buck,'' and ultimately became a hero to the preteen set, in much the same way Molly Ringwald connected with teens in Hughes' earlier movies. The film also gave a boost to director Chris Columbus; a decade later, he'd make even bigger hit movies about a parentless, resourceful lad who battles relentless villains, a boy by the name of Potter.
