Over the Christmas / New Year holiday time the New Zealand Herald
newspaper ran this series of articles with journalists giving their
suggestions for New Zealand's favourite family film for The Great
Family Film Poll ...


*Home* Alone*
Here's an admission: I once wanted to be Macaulay
Culkin.

Not the Macaulay Culkin who hung out with Michael
Jackson, had trouble with drugs and started a
desperately terrible band called The Pizza Underground.

No, I wanted to be Macaulay Culkin circa 1990, the time
when the most excellent Christmas movie Home Alone came
out.

I know, I know, Culkins a bit of a mess now. But as a
12-year-old just starting to find fault with his
parents, Home Alone resonated with me in a big way.

In the film, Culkin's character Kevin is left alone at
Christmas by his parents, who manage to pack the car,
leave the house and fly to Paris without once checking
to see if their 8-year-old son Kevin is with them.

I wanted to be this kid so bad that I would spend hours
dreaming about being left alone. I compiled lists of all
the things I would do without my parents and my sister
around to stop me.

I made lists. I drew diagrams. I even started
burglar-proofing our home, just in case it ever
happened.

Yes, every burglar-proofing device that Kevin uses to
outsmart bandits Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, I tried at
home. With a few variations.

In Home Alone, Kevin booby traps the laundry chute with
an iron on a rope.

We didn't have a laundry chute at home, and I wasn't
allowed to use the iron, so I tied rope around a rock
and set it up above the front door. I think it hit my
sister on the shoulder.

In Home Alone, Kevin tars one of the burglars and, using
an industrial sized fan, blows feathers all over him.

We didn't have tar, or a fan, but I spread glue all over
a face cloth, flung it at my sister and, using a
cardboard tube full of feathers gathered from the back
yard, blew them over her face.

In Home Alone, Kevin heats up a door handle with a
welding tool so the burglars burn their hands when
turning the door knob.

This one was a bit tricky - I didn't want to burn the
house down. But I did attempt it by inviting my sister
to visit my room at a certain time, then spent 20
minutes pointing a hair dryer set to "high" at the door
handle. She didn't even notice.

I never did get left home alone, so my plans never came
to fruition. And though Macaulay Culkin is no longer my
favourite actor, Home Alone is still my favourite family
movie.

- Chris Schulz, New Zealand Herald Deputy Entertainment Editor
11 January, 2016

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