Apparently one can never go home again. The early reviews are in by both critics and audiences for ‘Home Sweet Home Alone’ on Disney+ and they are not good!  Maybe Disney and Hollywood need to finally learn that you don’t need to reboot or remake everything.

When Disney over paid, I mean acquired 21st Century Fox, they got the rights to the ‘Home Alone’ franchise. Disney tried to leverage those rights with merchandise as soon as they could. Then they announced that they were going to do a new film for Disney+.

Then they released the trailer for the film and fans were not happy.

Now the Rotten Tomatoes reviews are coming in and it seems critics aren’t happy as well.

Currently it is sitting at 19% Critical Score and 22% Audience Score.

The comments are flattering:

“Compared to this movie, the original [Home Alone] is like La Dolce Vita.” -Wade Major / FilmWeek LA

“It’s perfectly fine for family movie night, but make sure the kids see the original first.” -Brett White / Decider

“This really shouldn’t be hard: find a cute kid (and they have, in the form of Jojo Rabbit’s Archie Yates), and then string together a few comically implausible ways to injure another human being.” – Clarisse Loughrey / Independent UK

“Nice snow, some very good pratfalls, Ellie K and Kenan T kill it and everybody else reads their script and wishes John Hughes was still around to fix it.” – Roger Moore / Movie Nation

“This film really struggles to justify its existence. And I’m just not convinced, “it’s not as bad as it could have been” is a good enough reason to make a movie in hindsight.” -Courtney Lanning / Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

“I can’t stress it enough that nothing good will come from watching Home Sweet Home Alone.” – Leo Brady / A Movie Guy

“Home Sweet Home Alone misses the key elements that made both the slapstick and the sentiment of the 1990 version appealing.” – Nell Minow/ RobertEbert.com

That’s just a sampling. There are many more.

The audience was equally as scathing

“It’s a disgrace to the originals. Reused scenes, lines, and music provoke nostalgia, but then they’re augmented with creepy lines delivered on top of terrible acting.” – Ryan K

“I expected nothing, yet I was still disappointed. However, If you’re looking for a way to lose your will to live, then watching this movie will surely do it.” – Ben S

“While it may be fun for first-time fans, Home Sweet Home Alone wastes a talented cast on a poorly-written story that, despite endless references to the original classic, shows a lack of respect to the franchise that is sure to leave longtime fans disappointed.” – Chris C.

“Home Sweet Home Alone is better than I thought it was gonna be, but it was still bad. Archie Yates isn’t doing a very good job, but I can tell that he is trying his best. I don’t like how the robbers were the main characters, but whatever. Overall, a bad film that I will never watch again.” – Benjamin F.

Part of the contention is that the “bad guys” aren’t really that bad apparently.

“Billion Dollar Disney feels an ill mannered thief of a child (main character) torturing the very people that he stole from is a great idea! Family afraid of loosing their home gets a lovely Christmas gift of the child star stealing a rare and expensive family heirloom from them. Then said child star proceeds to abuse the desperate parents as the from of happy enjoyment of the audience. Bad Form Disney, too many families are struggling these days and fit the narrative of the desperate family that the boy hurts. For laughs, well guess it’s ok as that dumb bumbling couple probably couldn’t afford trip to Disney. Disney don’t want no poors, so lets make fun of their failure instead!” – Dan C.

There are many more there too.

I’m waiting to see if the audience score starts going up suddenly. It’s happened before.

What do you think? Did you watch it? Comment and let us know!

Source: Rotten Tomatoes