The Rewatchables - ‘Home Alone’ With Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Mina Kimes

Episode Date: November 17, 2020

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey and ESPN’s Mina Kimes made their parents disappear after rewatching the 1990 classic ‘Home Alone’ starring Macaulay Culkin, Catherine O'Hara, and Joe Pesci. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we get to today's episode, I want to remind you that if you are listening on a platform other than Spotify, you can only hear the last 60 days of new rewatchables episodes, plus these six classics, The Godfather Heat, the social network, old school, Jaws, and the town. For the entire archive, go to Spotify, where you can listen to every episode for free. This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation. Build for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast, because the asks aren't getting smaller, and the timelines? Ooh, yeah, still tight.

With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Learn more at Adobe.com slash Firefly. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce, and some very tasty, limited time flavors. New Whole Foods, Market Peach, Apricot, Rose, Italian soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch, as is their trending mango, Yuzu chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sale signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods

market. Coming up. Hey, Sean, I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass. It's the rewatchables, home alone. We're going to make the plane. In their rush to the airport, the McAllister's overlooked one minor detail. Now his parents are in a panic. Somebody pick up.

Pick up. Two burglars are in trouble. We know that you're in there. Hands up! And heaven is in heaven. Home alone. Ready, B.G. Start Friday, November 16th at theaters everywhere.

Oh, what's up, guys? It's Sean Fennacy. It's Mina Kimes. I'm Chris Ryan. We're here to do Home Alone rewatchables. And Sean, this is our first podcast ever with Mina, even though we have known Mina for longer than Bill has. We were early on the Mina corner.

Mina, welcome back to the rewatchables. How you doing? I'm doing good. Yeah. We met in, we established this before the show, 2008. So it's been a long time. Our relationship is peak Obama content, you know?

I was just thinking that 2008 to 2020 is been a ride. How many times have the three of us talked about Home Alone together, would you say? I was sort of surprised that this is the trio. I wasn't, you know, I think I've been pretty open about my love for this movie. Sean, you seem like a cynic at heart. But do you have a lot of love for this movie? Well, Chris, I'm glad you asked. Kevin McAllister in the film Home Alone is eight years old. And in 1990, I was eight years old. So you can

imagine the levels of emotional connection I have to this movie Home Alone. So yeah, I got a big place for it in my heart. Right. Because you looked at this film and you were like, who I want to be when I grow up is Buzz. It's just rude. It's just rude. Well, I hate to start this on this foot. But the whole time I was thinking, Buzz, if he lost weight and grew up, would look like Sean. Oh my God. Jesus. Chris, you had to have been thinking that at some point.

It's not that. It's painful. It's more that, like, if you've ever had the pleasure, honestly, the pleasure. And one of the great pleasures of my life is going out to dinner with Sean and just hanging out with Sean as I have for the majority of the last 15 years of my life. But if you've ever had the pleasure of going out with him, Sean just likes his stuff. Just don't touch Sean's stuff, you know? And like when Sean gets dessert, he boxes out like Horace Grant.

And he's just ready to take the lane for himself. And I feel like that is the one thing that I ever associate Sean and Buzz. It's just like, you know, keep out of my room. Don't touch my tarantula. That Michael Jordan card is mine. But other than that, Sean is, you know, he's basically got like the heart of an angel. So it's, it's, I can understand why he would like this movie as a film. Obviously meant a lot.

Mia, what about you? So I was five when the movie first came out. And then I watched it, I think probably a couple more times growing up. but it's been at least 20 years, at least since I've seen it. Really? Which actually made for an incredible viewing experience because the whole time,

like I felt like I was seeing it with fresh eyes, but more importantly with adult eyes. And I have to say, I loved it. This movie, I mean, we're going to talk about how it's aged and get into all of it, but I, like, really enjoyed rewatching this movie and it is better than I remembered. Yeah, I mean, I think that,

I don't remember a time when this movie wasn't on. You know, I was 13 when it came out. It feels like it was a huge sensation that I was obviously aware of. And Culkin was like a star that I think it's almost hard to explain to people who are like in their 20s now. Like, it would be hard to explain how famous McCulley Colkin was in the early 90s. But this movie went immediately from being a giant blockbuster, made almost half a billion dollars worldwide, which is an unfathomable number now. I can't even think of what it would be adjusted. And then it just immediately seemed like it was a video in every person's home and on cable almost every day somewhere.

And so when a movie just takes on that kind of role in the culture where it's just constantly a part of our lives, I think the most fun thing you can do with it is think about how your perception of it changes over the years. Right now, Mina, you obviously said that like you took a 20-year break in there. What was the thing that you think you noticed most as an adult watching this movie? two things jump out to me. One, McCullochin is tiny. Like my memory of it was that he was my peer. Not only is he, you know, a child, he's a tiny, tiny child.

He's very young. I think he was nine when this movie was made, but he's a small nine-year-old and he seems really young, which makes his performance in it all the more amazing and the fact that he carries this entire film as a baby. And then the other thing is my memory of the film as a child was that the entire movie is the break-ins. scene? And the break in scene is only like 20 or 30 minutes max. Most of the movie, and I would

contend the best parts of the movie are when he's home alone before and he's kind of adjusting to that. Okay, I said two things. But the third thing that I didn't remember is that the mom is in the film so much, which I think is a very obvious watching it as an adult versus a child thing. Like I blocked out all the scenes with the mom. Catherine Harrow is amazing in the film. But she is not as important as Colkin, but she is very, very much. important to the movie. I completely agree with you about the final 20 minutes of the movie. In my mind, that was at least half. If not, three quarters of the movie was just hijinks with Peschi and Daniel Stern. And I was kind of shocked. I mean, it's probably been more like 10 years since I've seen it,

but I was kind of shocked by how little of the movie it comprised. And I agree with you about Catherine O'Hara, too. She is like borderline co-lead. And her quest to get home is also a huge part of the story that I forgotten about the other thing that I hadn't really given much time to as a kid was just old man Marley and his like character arc inside this movie, which is something that I guess originally was not even in that John Hughes script. I was when I was reading about the movie and was added by Christopher Columbus when he came on board the movie to kind of give, I guess to give it a little bit more like emotional shape, but that's a whole character that I had just erased from my home alone memory. Yeah, because if Marley's not in the movie, this is a movie, this is

essentially like a torture film. Like this is like there are, There are a lot of amazing theories about Home Alone on the internet, which we'll get to. But without Marley, I do think the film is not as much of a Christmas film. And I wanted to talk a little bit about the idea of Home Alone as a Christmas movie. And for a lot of people, like a Christmas tradition, it's taken its lumps over the last couple of years. I think, you know, 2019 Keith Phipps, who's a buddy of ours who writes for the ringer sometimes. He did a Christmas film ranking for Vulture of the top 40 Christmas movies. Home Alone was 40th.

And you can tell even in his blur, he was like, I would, you know, you have to put it on here. But if you actually watched this movie recently, like, it's not actually, you know, it isn't actually that good. Kevin's annoying in the beginning. The end is brutal. Our own Bill Simmons is on the record. And very notorious, like you can conspicuous in his absence from this podcast as saying, Home Alone is not a Christmas movie. This is one of his own most inexplicable takes.

that he's never actually, I think, properly kind of rationalized to me. I think he just keeps tossing it out there and then walking away from the podium, Trump style. But it's like, I don't know how Bill can watch this movie. There's literally Christmas ornaments or Christmas decorations or they say Christmas in every single moment of the music, John Williams' score.

So it is a Christmas tradition. It is a Christmas film. Do you guys like Christmas movies? Sean, we'll start with you. Do you guys like, are Christmas films? a tradition in your either growing up or in your adult life. Is this like some sort of Megan Kelly set up? I don't, like if I say no, does that mean I'm trying to cancel Christmas?

And when did you become a foot soldier in the war on Christmas exactly? No, I like Christmas movies. Is that Das Kapital in the background? Oh, no. No, I like Christmas movies. I love Christmas. I have an uncomplicated relationship to Christmas, raised Catholic, and love to receive presents.

You know, child of divorce, which means two Christmases, you know, two days of presents. Love that. The movies themselves, I think there are not necessarily a ton of great true blue Christmas movies personally. This one, though, I have always found Bill's Take Confounding because I think it's like a total classic of the genre. The movie literally ends with like a beautiful Christmas morning family reunion. Like it is the essence of what Christmas movies are trying to accomplish. So yeah, I dig them. I mean, I'm not like a huge miracle on 34th Street kind of person or I don't know. What are, what? What are some of the classics of the genre?

I mean, do you like Christmas movies? The cool thing about Christmas movies is that it's a big tent. You know, so I think that movies like Die Hard start getting pulled into it because it takes place over Christmas, but is not actually about Christmas cheer. That's the question. Right. What actually makes a Chris movie? Is it the music? Is it taking place during Christmas, all the various accouterments?

Or is there like an underlying message? This to me is like very obviously a Christmas movie because the whole, the theme of the movie is family and the importance of family and being together. like the kid realizing that, right? And it's undeniably Chris's movie. I not only like Chris's movies, watching this movie made me a little emotional because, sorry, I don't, this is going to get unnecessarily dark,

but like a lot of people, I'm not going to spend Christmas with my family this year. And I was watching it, I was thinking about that a little bit. And I think you associate watching these types of films because as you said Chris earlier, they're always on this time of year, which is genius from a marketing perspective.

I don't know if how movies were. if they get residuals every time. Like, it's played on TV. Yeah. Okay, well, genius. It's like that one black-eyed pea song that has bar mitzvah in it, you know? And yeah, so I felt like I missed my family watching this movie.

Yeah, it's pretty moving. I mean, like, I'm one of those people. I'm mostly conditioned by my wife in this regard. Like, I think I was a, you know, my mother was Jewish. My dad was a lapsed Catholic. I grew up in a very sort of, you know, non-spiritual, non-religious household, very few traditions. But my wife grew up where Christmas was a huge part of it.

And now we've gotten to the point where Thanksgiving is nothing but a tackling dummy. Like, Thanksgiving is just, we just need to get through Thanksgiving. If she had her way, there would be a tree up right now. You know, as soon as it goes below 62 in Los Angeles, it's officially time to put on the Phil Specter Christmas album. But yeah, I agree with you, Mia. Like, it's obviously watching this movie this time around. And, I mean, there's a lot of things that are, you know, you have pangs of like, oh, yeah, airports. Oh yeah, like, you know, sharing a pizza with someone that I haven't lived with for the last

seven months. There are a lot of things in it that I was noticing. But yeah, it definitely has that sweetness. And I think a lot of that comes from the Marley thing, because the thing that makes the movie funny is the lack of sweetness, I think. It's the, it is the physical comedy. It is how reviled Kevin is by his family in the beginning. We can go through a little bit of the background on this movie, there's not a lot of controversy to it. It was released. It's coming up on its 30th anniversary. It's November 16th, 1990 was when it was released. And it was written by John Hughes, who obviously is sort of the poet laureate of suburban Chicago and wrote so many great coming of age movies that we've covered on the rewatchables like Breakfast Club. And it was directed by

Chris Columbus, who I guess, Sean, would you consider Columbus a Hughes protege, a Spielberg protege, kind of a, like a shared kind of Hollywood anointed him as the guy. Yeah, I don't know if he's a protege per se. I think that they saw him as a steady hand, someone that they could trust with their material. John Hugh, he wasn't the first choice even for this movie, though, when John Hughes decided not to direct it. He was another guy, I think Patrick Reed Johnson, I think his name is. He directed Spaced Invaders instead. And so this could have been very different because Chris Columbus goes on to become, like, really the signature family film director of the next 10 or 15 years after this. But he, I You know, how he distinguishes himself, I don't know that the film necessarily succeeds because of what Chris Columbus does. It's much more in the script. And like Mina was saying, like McCauley is, you know, just such a tiny little dynamo. You know, he's such a charisma machine that I think that's really what carried this to amazing success. So you will not be buying my Christopher Columbus coffee table book where I write 17 deeply thought out essays about his works. No, only the one about the founder of America or the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. ill-considered founder of America, not the one about the filmmaker. Save that for things that have aged poorly.

It has to be hard to direct a kid that little, though, right? That's what I was thinking, watching this. Like, getting him to do all the physical comedy and the line delivery had to have been challenging. Yeah, and they discovered, they discovered Colkin, I guess, working on, was it My Girl, right? Or, no, it was Uncle Buck. Uncle Buck. My girl comes out. Yeah.

Yeah. So they discover Colkin working on Uncle Buck. And obviously, I don't really want to spend a ton of time on. McCulley Culkin's personal life and the life with his family, but he obviously had like a very tough time dealing with the fame that came after Home Alone. Home Alone, I don't know, I think I want to try and explain to people just like the pre-me meme ability of this movie and the extent to which McCulley Culkin's sort of mannerisms and reaction shots became something that kids around me would do, you know, like in real life, like in like a teacher would be like, pop quiz.

And kids would be like, ah, you know. And I think that that is... They did that. They did. I mean, like, maybe it was me. Who knows? But it was definitely... It was definitely something worth remarking upon is how famous this child became.

That sort of got seated to, and over the course of the years, like, to like boy bands, I think. It's been a really long time since a child actor was this famous. Can you think of anybody who came after him, Sean? Yeah, Haley Joel Osmond, I think, kind of like, touch. the surface of this. The Sixth Sense was a huge movie, but that was a really creepy movie. And then he was an AI, which was also kind of a creepy movie. But Collinke Kalkin was like lovable. You know, he was like he was a pop star. He was he starred in soda commercials. You know, like this was a really, really famous kid like you were saying. And people just loved him. They just wanted to see him do stuff. You know, they want he had catchphrases. You know, that's a, that's a very rare kind of orbit to enter for a young, young actor. posted SNL. Like, yeah.

Yeah. And that was, you know, back when I think S&L would basically like anoint people as this is the most important or the biggest celebrity in the culture right now. It's worth noting given the movie's popularity and the movie's success at the box office. It was made for $18 million. It made, like I said, nearly half a billion worldwide. It's been on cable pretty much every day since it hit the airwaves. And the movie was so successful that other Hollywood executives told the

famous screenwriter and film studyer, essayist William Goldman, they told him that their movies were home-aloned. If a movie came out around the time of Home Alone, they pretty much just got wiped out. I looked back to see what else was out in November of 1990.

It's not exactly like the most banner month in the history of films, but it did include Rocky 5 and Predator 2, which I wonder whether or not Home Alone sucked up some of the oxygen for them. It also included Dances with Wolves, which obviously went on to run the table at the Oscars to some extent. 1990 was a really great year for movies, but Home Alone, I think, was by far the biggest one. Yeah, I mean, it knocked back to the future, too, out of the box. I mean, that's a pretty big deal.

We just did that movie, the original earlier this year, and that was also similarly a Home Alone-esque phenomenon, the first one. And the fact that Home Alone significantly outgrossed every other movie released that year is kind of shocking. And, like, it's just a, it's another representation of how different Hollywood is right now. the idea of a movie that is this modest, that doesn't really feature anyone famous, could be the phenomenon of its time, is just really interesting. So Goodfellas came out that fall,

which is an amazing one-to-punch from Joe Pesci, by the way, to two guys, fellas, and then Home Alone. Big Apex Mountain question. We'll get there, but the range on that guy is incredible. I wonder whether or not, you know, a movie like this could ever happen again. I'm curious whether, I mean, we obviously live in a world where, like, you know, the standard box office blockbuster right now is coming from Marvel or DC.

It's a superhero film. It's usually based on some sort of previously existing intellectual property of best-selling book or, you know, something that people already have an attachment to. Do you guys think that we'll ever see anything like Home Alone again? Or am I not, am I misunderstanding something that we have? that actually is that big of a phenomenon? Like, is young Sheldon actually home alone? I don't, Mina, what do you think?

I feel like it's not going to be in movies. Yeah, I don't think anything in any culture, any form of culture is that mainstream anymore. And certainly nothing that I think is a kid's movie. Like, Nick, my husband and I were talking, like, okay, this is clearly a kid's movie, but we remembered a lot of adults, teens, families watching it. I don't think that happens anymore.

Like the age categories are much more discreet. Maybe aside from the Marvel movies, if kids are old enough to watch those. But something like this, that's literally like for everyone, just doesn't seem to happen. To be able to appeal from ages 8 to 68, 78, 78 is like, it's pretty much a lost art, I think. I think there's a lot more. Films are made for much more like tight demographics now. And that is the thing that, you know, Spielberg and Zemeckis and Columbus and these guys kind of did understand is that young, young kids, want to feel a little bit older

and older people want to feel young and you can make movies like E.T. and Back to the Future and Stand By Me or whatever and you can kind of capture that energy if you do that. Now I think it's more like here's kids programming and here's adult programming and then everything in the middle of sort of superhero movies. It's funny that you say that though

because while Spielberg and Columbus and Zemeckis as artists were pursuing reaching as many people as possible, movie studios were trying to reach all four quadrants. You know, they were trying to reach adults over 30, men over 30, women over 30, and then women under 30, men under 30. And the best way to do that, obviously, is to kind of fuse, like, family story, comedy, drama, like, blend all these genres together. But we just did Toy Story on this podcast last week.

And I think that Pixar movies are really, and I know, Chris, you're not an animated movies guy, but the Pixar movies to me really are the last kind of subgenre that a 55-year-old couple might just go. alone to see a Pixar movie. Like that would not be totally unreasonable. I think so. When I was talking, I was like, you know what? I'm going to walk this back. Pixar movies are really good. But I also don't think they're made for adults. I think they just happen to be really well made children's movies. Like Pixar movies and, you know, the animated films today, like they're really well written. Like Coco's an amazing movie. It's really well written. But I can't imagine the studios being like, let's focus test this now with people in their 40s and their 50s. It kind of feels more like a side effect, you know, in the same way to like write everything.

now in culture is niche and targeted towards an audience that feels like from a business perspective, it doesn't make sense to try to make something for everyone. I think what happened with Pixar in particular, and they've been kind of lucky in this respect, and some of it is by design, is they made movies that parents would take their kids to and could appeal to them, and then those kids would age out, and they would still be, like me, like they would still be, I was 13 when Toy Story came out, and I'm, Eileen and I would went to go see Onward at a movie theater in February on a Friday night, like, as a date. Now, maybe that's a little bit sad, but I feel fine about it. And I do think that they have been able to, like, hold people

generationally, but that's kind of an anomaly. Like, generally, you're, you're right, Chris. I think that it's kind of impossible to imagine a movie like Home Alone rising to the level of zeitgeist that this movie had. I mean, maybe if it was serial season four or five or whatever. Sure. This is like Sarah Canick. I'm Sarah Kahnik. This is Kevin McAllister. he was left behind by a family. I think I could see that catching on. You know, what happened to Kevin. Home Alone, True Crime is a pot angle for us. We've got to think about that. Well, here's the thing. Is that anything that's been this popular for this long enters the marketplace of ideas? And there are some amazing takes out there about Home Alone that I want to get to. I also want to get into the

category. So we can take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll break down Home Alone on a more detailed basis. Don't you think some once in a blue moon moments should happen more than once in a blue moon? Whether you're getting together with friends you don't see all the time, having a nice dinner, a happy hour, or relaxing night in, blue moon is on a mission to celebrate and inspire more of those moments. Just like those looking for the special in the everyday, blue moon takes a twist on the traditional Belgian wit. You know when I get to the long, you know, the end of a long work week, it's nothing I like more than cracking open a cold blue moon and kind of surveying everything that's happened.

a lot's going on in the world, but this weekend, personally, I'm going to be watching a lot of golf, and I definitely plan on cracking open a blue moon somewhere around tea time, quite candidly. Blue Moon was created during the 1995 baseball season, speaking of sports at the Sandlot Brewery and Coorsfield in Denver, Colorado. The Blue Moon founder and Brewmaster was inspired by the flavorful Belgian wits he enjoyed while studying brewing in Brussels. It has a one-of-a-kind appearance and a bright taste. It's a bright, well-crafted beer with a twist of flavor, with refreshing notes from a full-flavored beer, unlike any other beer. And it's best served with an unmistakable signature, orange, garish, and glass to showcase beautiful,

hazy color. Why the name Blue Moon? As someone was tasting the beer, they said, A beer this good only comes around once in a blue moon. Once in a Blue Moon should happen more often than once in a blue moon. You know, it's been a long year, but one thing I've been doing a lot is getting back in touch with old friends on Zoom, having little reunions. And when we do, we toast, you know, Toast the old times, and I love toast it with a blue moon. So whenever you reach for a blue moon, be reminded of the extraordinary. The next time you are out with friends or just enjoying a night in, reach for a blue moon. It's the beer you can enjoy every day. You can have Blue Moon delivered by going to get.bluemoonbier.com and finding delivery options near you. Blue Moon,

reach for the moon, celebrate responsibly. Blue Moon brewing Golden Colorado. All right, guys, we're back. It's Home Alone, Rwatchables. And let's do the most rewatchable scene. I have a bunch here. This movie is so cleanly made that it's pretty easy to kind of glide through it. But if you guys have any that you want to add on, please let me know. Most rewatchable scene. I have just in general the family chaos in the beginning. I find it very enjoyable to get introduced to all the characters.

You get peshy showing up in the cop uniform. There's many people. There's no shampoo. Pardon me. Are you a parents home? Yeah, but they don't live there. Tracy, did you order the pizza? Oz did.

Excuse me, miss. Are you a parents here? My parents are in Paris. Sorry. Hi. Hi. Are your parents home? Yeah.

Do they live here? No. The introduction of the little Niro's pizza guy who plays such a pivotal role in this story. And just, you know, I feel like the way they set up Kevin to be such a brat. And also, they really do establish the chaos where he could feasibly be left behind. Now, I have some notes about some of the things that happen in that process. But generally speaking, I think that the family chaos in the beginning is great. Love Kevin's shoplifting, although I think it's some.

you know, it's a sad indictment of how it is to slip into a life of crime in this country. And just like the Rusey pulls where he's just like, is this toothbrush certified by the American Dental Association? It's just, it's basically like a bank heist. The Michael Jordan holiday party, which he sort of orchestrates as a marionette, when he goes and uses coupons and has the sort of sassy interaction with the cashier at the supermarket. I really like a lot of the scenes of Kevin shopping. Are you here all by yourself? ma'am i made you so you think i'd be here alone i don't think so where's your mom my mom's in the car where's your father he's at work

what about your brothers and your sisters i'm an only child where do you live uh i can tell you that why not because you're a stranger those are my favorite scenes as a kid because i you know strange you always used to kind of fantasize about like what you would buy if you could buy anything at the super market, you know? You fantasize about consumerism, you know, about spending that hard-earned dollar, Chris. I always wondered, why do people cut out coupons? And then I would find out. Kate and the polka king at the airport, just John Candy's introduction. Polka, polka, poca, poca, poca. I just really love that, that moment.

A low-key moment that has always been a personal favor of mine is Kevin's, Kevin's conversation with the fake Santa Claus. Can I talk to you for a minute? Yeah, if you make it quick, Santa's got a little get-together he's late for. Okay. I know you're not to really. Santa Claus. What makes you say that? Just out of curiosity. I'm old enough to know how it works. All right. But I also know that you work for him. I'd like you to give him a message.

I really, like, always enjoyed that kind of like softening of the movie and the fact that that like that guy, even though he's just like smoking and eating tick-tacks and trying to get his Honda started is kind of like a nice Santa stand in. I always found that moment. Really sweet. Did you recognize him? Do you know what he's from? Of course, man. He's an Armageddon. He's Max from Armageddon. That wasn't what I was going to say. He is Max from Armageddon. To me, he'll always be the guy who says, off to see the Groundhog. Oh, yeah. Groundhog day every morning when Bill Maher comes out. He looks like a Lost Murray brother, actually. Yeah, a little bit. About that. I love the fake out too. It's like where Kevin, he seems sophisticated. He's like,

I know you're not the real Santa. And then you're just one of his helper. That's such great writing, you know, for the character. He's like a precocious but not too precocious. I also have the Christmas choir scene where he sort of gets Mr. Marley's backstory, and it's probably the most holiday-centric moment in the movie. You want to know the real reason why I'm here right now? Sure. Came to hear my granddaughter, see.

And I can't come and hear her tonight. You have plans? No. I'm not welcome. At church? Oh, you're all? always welcome to church. I'm not welcome with my son. Very affecting. Very emotional that sequence.

More than I remembered. For sure. I have the final robbery, which, you know, is, as we've noted, a 22-minute tour de force of physical comedy and, and pre-stages, like a lot of the torture porn horror movies that would come after. I'm sure Eli Roth is a young man. Like, oh, it's pretty interesting here. And then the reunion, which is, is actually, like, I thought last night when I watched this movie, it was like, oh, this is really kind of note perfect is Catherine O'Harris' final arrival and then the jerk brothers and sisters showing up and kind of only having 30 seconds of interest in Kevin before they run off to their room. So did you guys have any other most rewatchable scenes? I did. And now I feel like such a

basic normie because you did all these like deep cuts, right? Like, you find a toothbrush. I felt like the most obvious choice is when the pizza delivery comes back and he uses the film. Yeah. Communicate with him. That'll be 1180, sir. Keep the change, you filthy animal. Cheapescape. Hey, I'm going to give you to the count of ten to get your ugly, yellow, no good keister off my property before I pump your guts full of lead.

One, two, ten. I mean, that scene is amazing. Yes. I mean, we'll get to the quotes, obviously. It's iconic. I too liked the chaos in the beginning, and it's sort of the introduction to the POV style where it shows from,

it's like what it was like to be a child and have everyone yelling at you and the blur of noise and color and screaming, and it sets the tone really well. I also thought, it sounds like you might not agree with this, but the setup for how they left him behind was really cleverly written, which I didn't absorb again as a 10-year-old.

The storm knocking out the alarm, the other neighbor child who's inexplicably in the scene, and then you realize it's his head that gets counted, the rush to the airport, pre-9-11's protocols for getting through. Security, it actually, there are other things that are not realistic, but I actually found it very realistic upon re-watching, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's pretty ingenious the way they do that.

Yeah, I think also, When I think of this movie weirdly, aside from the sort of the robbery, the pranks at the end of the movie, I think of Catherine O'Hara and John heard talking on the plane and trying to figure out what they forgot. Yeah. And then she's like, did you turn the coffee off? Did you close the garage door? That's it. I forgot to close the garage door. And then Kevin!

You know, like screaming on the plane. That to me is one of the most iconic moments of the movie, I think. What else can we be forgetting? Yeah, it's also a very funny moment where you're just like, so they put all their kids in coach. Yes. I remember when that used to be like kind of a thing where it was like, you'd look around coach and see like a bunch of kids,

but their parents would like come back and check on them every once in a while when you would be taking flights. I did think that was one of the more unrealistic parts of the movie, though, was whatever Catherine O'Hara's explanation was to the police officer about how her brother, okay, that's going to step on it. So we need to get into, yeah. Okay. This is where it gets less realistic.

Forgetting him is realistic. The lack of recovery is where... Maybe we'll wait for nitpicks. Yeah. That actually comes up for me in what stage is the worst. Mina, did you have any other most rewatchable scenes you wanted to hit? I like it the first two days a lot, or the first day where he's home alone a lot when he does all the indulges in all of the kid fantasies,

the jumping on the bed, eating like a 16 scoop Sunday while watching, you know, what's the movie called? dirty angels with filthy souls or something. Angels with filthy souls. A rubbish movie as he calls it. And that's what sets up the epiphany, right? Because he screams mom and then she screams in the whole movie. They draw these parallels between him and the mom and they have this connection. But I don't know. I thought these are all the things I would have done to when I was a kid. Like jumped on my parents' bed, all that stuff.

Did you guys fan it? So, Mina, you have a sibling. I grew up with a bunch of siblings. I'm from a very big family. And so like the holidays were very rambunctious for me. but did you guys find yourself fantasizing for alone time or for like a kind of freedom from the strictures of your family? I was an only, I am an only child. So I lived at home alone life every day. You know what I mean? I feel like I have plenty of time.

No, I mean, my parents were around, but it was like relatively quiet. I feel like I, the thing I identified most with, or the thing that I fantasized most was like what I was saying, was like the taking on of strange adult responsibilities that they would never trust you with. But as a kid, especially at that age, you're kind of like, I could do this. Like you guys, like, the only reason I couldn't do it is if the worst case scenario happened and like a fire broke out or something like that. But like at a certain age when you're young

and I'm about to show my ass as not a parent here, I feel like kids could probably handle themselves at home for two or three hours. I mean, I kind of did do some of these things. Like, I kind of did just go down to like walk to the deli which was less than a mile away from my house and like buy things and bring them back from my mom at like probably nine years old so it's not so unreasonable i think it was more like the should i just eat all of the ice cream and the carton while watching the movie i'm not allowed to watch right right sort of thing like like that that stuff i wanted so i'm one of two so i didn't have that same crazy rambunctious household and, which by the way, the house itself is so beautifully constructed in this movie.

It's as much of a character as any of the characters. And there's so many great chaos. But I did have, there were parts of my house I did have access to. And I think that's what I fantasized about, being able to break into my brother's stuff, right? And right, go into my mom's room. Like, the way it captures, like, how the parents' bed is somewhere young children want to be inexplicably. I don't know why, but the fact that he sleeps in there the whole time, and then when he's scared, he hides underneath there is such a spot on.

Like, just, it's so accurate to being a very young child. And I found myself thinking about all the times I got to be in my parents' bed. Did you guys have a part of your house that you were scared of? Like the way Kevin's scared of the furnace? I didn't because I slept in the basement. My bedroom, I shared a bedroom with my brother, which was literally in the basement. And so there was nothing scary about it. I think if I wasn't raised that way,

maybe I would have been scared of my own basement. But alas, I am a basement troll. I was scared of my wife. You really are the parody of a blogger. Yeah. You and Joe Biden in the basement. I was scared of my grandpa's basement, which looked exactly like the home alone basement,

just full of, like, confusing things, right? Like, you're like, why are these mannequins in this house? My grandpa had all kinds of shit like that. And he also, he was into carbon tree, but for some reason, had a saw, like a small saw hanging over the door. So you had to walk under it to go into the basement, which was really dangerous and scary. Was that like a superstition? What was the reason for that? I get the impression that we have, like, parents since our generation is sort of sort of

started childproof their homes. We just had, don't go there. You know, like there was an attic in my grandparents' house that was the pull down and then the ladder would fold out. And that was like, to me, when I finally was able to negotiate that on my own and climb up into the attic and look around my grandfather's shit, that was when I was like, I've become a man now. But before then, that was like, there could be a dragon up there. We haven't, we can't rule it out. You know what I mean? I haven't seen any evidence that suggests that's not the case. When you're a kid, your house is everything. It's your world. And again, that's another thing that maybe does a really good job of capturing because ultimately it's the house itself that he uses to build all the weapons and

whatnot. But like it I remember being a kid so vividly and being not only entranced by the places I couldn't access, but literally everything in my house, whether it was just like a chotchki or a chat weird piece of furniture. I had it all memorized and was obsessed with all of it. And the way they, again, like the set, like they really captured that. It's really cool. Sean, did you have any other? Oh, go ahead. Yeah, no, I'm just reminded. of the fact that I had like the opposite relationship to my house where my family like weaponized the children to go into the places that they couldn't get into. Like we had a crawl space upstairs and all the Christmas decorations would be stored in the

crawl space. And my mom would be like, it's time for you to get into the crawl space to get those decorations. Did you have like swimming goggles on? Yeah. Fight off possums and stuff. It was fucking narrow and scary. But I was small. That's like on snow piercer when they have children operate and turpals.

because they're the only ones small enough. It was like Snowpiercer growing up in my house. Thank you. Fennessee, any other rewatchable scenes that we didn't mention? No, I think you guys got them. You're crushing it. Your level of insight here is very high in terms of how the movie's doing it. You did a great job. All right, so let's vote.

I think the basic, you know, I think the normie choice here would be the last robbery and Kevin thrown paint cans of people's heads. I have a feeling we're all leaning towards the earlier parts of the movie as we've gotten and older and maybe picking the family chaos scene. Or what would you guys say? I'm a pizza guy. I was going to say, I think wouldn't mean a suggestion of the pizza delivery and then using the movie.

That was like, that was something that kids I knew tried to do. You know, we were copying that move. You know, like we were trying to figure out where to even find angels with dirty soul or filthy souls, which doesn't exist, obviously. Let's go with it. I'm all for democracy. So the pizza, the pizza guy getting scared off by the movie is the most. most rewatchable scene. What's age the best? The physical comedy in this movie and the stunts are

actually is just absolutely amazing. I still don't understand how human beings can do the basically the front flip that happens to Peschi when Kevin's covered the stairs with ice towards the beginning. I think that last night, it was interesting, my wife was like for the first time, like, yeah, like the last 20 minutes, like once you've seen them a couple of times, you can kind of like skip through them a little bit. I think that it's still pretty funny to me. So I would say that it's aged pretty well and I don't feel like I see it a ton. I got to

say I'm still just in the bag for John Hughes's Chicago suburbs. And especially when they're all lit up with the Christmas decorations, it looks great. It's set in Winnetka. I think this house is there. I mean, you can go see this house if you want to. But

the way he depicts the suburbs and this kind of weird village life, but you can tell that there's a city right there is also really great. Like Mina said, I also have for what's age the best, how a kid would eat if he was alone. And the thing is, is that Sean and I, one of our favorite conversation topics is

the stuff we used to eat before or after team practice for when we used to play sports as children. So like when you were 13 or 14, and you would have, you would have like a basketball practice at like five. So like sometimes the JV would. go first and then you would go second or it would flip. So you would have plenty of time to kill and you would go out and eat something. And I would have like a full meal of Chinese food plus a roll

of sweet tarts plus a blow pop and then like a cookie from subway. Like I just be like and now I will go play basketball. I would eat a chicken palm hero and a plate of pasta and then play baseball. And that was normal. And my body was like, good job by you. You've given me fuel. When I was in high school, I played soccer my whole life through high school. But when high school I had money and could go places, I used to get three bean burritos from Taco Camp. Then the second I stopped playing soccer, I realized that, oh, this affects your body in a certain kind of way. Exactly. It's like, now I have like one bite of salt and straw.

And I was like, I better have 14 tons and like six salters. But like, back then it was just like, what Kevin? does is like really, really right. I think I can't speak to the veracity of this one, but the way that siblings interact. So I think Buzz is obviously pretty, pretty much a savage, but it does seem like the interactions between them

are unvarnished in a way that is accurate. You guys would have to tell me. Well, should we call Kyle Fennessey and see what, we would see if I was more of a buzz or if he was more of a Kevin? I mean, you know, I don't, I didn't think of myself as a torturer. I thought of myself as a friendly older brother

who was sometimes a little bit difficult to deal with because of bad tendencies. But I think it's a pretty accurate representation of what a big family is like. You know, with a lot of cousins and a lot of kind of clamoring for attention and like, you know, Fuller has his reputation as a bedwetter and this girl is a know-it-all

and this uncle is somebody you want to stay away from because he's an asshole. Like, it's very smart about the complexities of these big families and how they interact. Did you hear how he, rationalized being clearly, clearly the buzz of his family. I mean, he's under the influence of buzzstream media. Like, he clearly, clearly.

I can't believe that this turned out to be a roasting me pod. I just did not see a coming. Did you have, okay, I just want to ask, did you have a buzz-like haircut at any point? Absolutely not. No, no. I had a bad haircut. No, I had, it was parted down the middle and then like long over my ears.

It was a bad, it was bad energy. The butt cut. Yeah. It was the butt cut. So as the Kevin in my household, I did have a lot of those types. My brother wasn't as bad as Buzz, but he did do things like try to capture his own farts and jars and leave them in my room. Play a game called Russell for the Ball. That's exactly what it sounds like that put me in... Actually, I was thinking about this watching Kevin do the sled down the stairs.

My brother used to put me in a sleeping bag and pulled down the stairs. So they brought back a lot of memories, and I think the family dynamics are very accurate in this film. C.R., you missed out. You missed that on getting your ass kicked all the time. I had friends who had brothers. Trust me. I was very aware. I straight up was like, there was a kid I was friends with in school, like, when I was younger. And we would watch wrestling for like an hour.

And I would be like into it. But he would clearly be tapped into like adolescent creatine. by watching this. And then at some point could no longer contain himself and would just summon his younger brother and immediately just suplex him. And watching young boys

like try to do DDTs on their younger brothers, that's like how kids got really hurt. The fact that the, what is it called the bad boy era, bad attitude era of WWE happened at the same time that we were growing up was honestly like we should file a younger sibling. should file a class action lawsuit

because I was on the receiving end of so many what did the stone call stunner? I don't know. It all happened to me. Here were my go-to moves on my brother. The razor, he definitely got razor's edged like five times, six times maybe, very dangerous.

Definitely caught a tombstone or two over the years. And then as we got older, maybe a German suplex over the head. What's the German suplex? Well, one day you'll find out when COVID ends, Chris. I also have long dark hair So my brother made me Be the Undertaker

I feel like this is getting too weird But anyways I have to wear my parents Was he Paul Bearer? What is that even? Who was who? He was just any of the characters

Who kicked the Undertaker's ass That's unreal What do you guys The age of the best? Still thinking about that I haven't thought about that in years It's I mean To me it's just like

the representation of the family and then the suburban experience, I think, is pretty on point. I agree. Okay. So we'll go with suburban Chicago and the way the siblings interact. What's age the worst? I just want to point out that I do not think that 1990 televisions, and frankly, this was probably shot in late 89. So we're talking late 80s TVs, these little box TVs. Kevin's often watching television in the kitchen on that small, little like portable TV. I don't think that's equipped with like THX sound. You know, I don't think we're

rocking Dolby surround there. So are you telling me that Angels with Filthy Souls is so loud and dynamic that it would terrify not only the pizza guy but also Harry and Marv so that they would think that this is actually happening?

So you're trying to cancel home alone because of the TV? Is it the sound quality? Not just the TV, the sound quality of the television. No, I'm saying. It's used multiple times throughout the movie as like, this is this major, like, weapon Kevin can use is to throw on this movie.

And people would be like, this machine guns are going off over my head, brother. We're back in Vietnam. And it's like, no, it's probably a really small television. And it sounds like, this is why you didn't like the pizza scene, huh? Even though every person on earth who watches this movie thinks that scene's iconic.

So all the time, Chris Ryan was saving over the sound quality. I can only be who I am. And that is a guy who really cares about audio visual accuracy. Yeah, paging through the sharper image catalog, wondering why this movie is so inaccurate to the experience. I just remember my dad hiring a guy to come set up surround sound for him in like the 80s or 90s.

Oh my God. And just like this dude being in our house for like a week and the speakers immediately cutting out after he left. Do you guys remember when people used to clap at the surround sound commercial at the beginning. Yes. Yes. I cringed on behalf of

1990s America. Yeah. We bowed before Dolby for years. That was super weird. Why did we clap? So you guys aren't with me on that? It didn't really bother me. Let's get to what we're really here for.

I mean, we can put this in picking nits. I'm going to put it in what's age of the worst. But let's just talk about the response that the McAllister family, their plan, so to speak. I find Kate's phone call to the cops to be criminally negligent.

She is so opaque about what is going on. In the movie, it plays it up like these are these small town podunk cops who are eating donuts, rapping presents. They don't want to deal with this. But the reason why they don't understand is like she's not telling them what she did. She's like, my child is home alone

and I want someone to check on him. And it's like, well, based on what you're saying, lady, it sounds like maybe, you know, someone's staying with him but went out or, you know, this was always the plan and my 14 or 15 or 17 year old is home and we just need somebody to check on him. She doesn't call and say, in a moment of panic, an entire family boarded an international flight, son's one, you know, eight-year-old kid. And now we are without him in France. I need somebody to send over SWAT, break down the door, secure the perimeter, and immediately put this kid into some kind of foster care so that his needs are taking care of. That's what probably should have happened, right? I think we got to go back even further. I need to like explore the structural parameters of

this movie with you guys. So the McAllister family is going to Paris. Yes. They're going to Paris for the holidays because Mr. McAllister's brother has gotten a big job in Paris and his His company is paying? He personally is paying for 11 people to fly to Paris? That there is, and we're going to talk about some of the theories about Home Alone that are floating around on the internet, but I feel like it's a good opportunity to mention that there is one that suggests that Peter McAllister is in the Chicago mob. Because Peter McAllister has never really said what he does, that house is fucking minted. That house is enormous.

And it is the nicest house on the block. Everybody says so. Yeah. And somehow the McAllister brothers, quote unquote, we never meet his brother, are just underwriting what must have been a $10,000 trip to Paris. Are you saying they're like the Cray brothers or something? You know, like they're running an Irish empire?

I don't know. I'm just saying I'm not ruling it out. Just like the dragon in my grandfather's attic. Okay. So let's just accept that this family is funded by the pain an agony of the gangland empire of the McAllister. It's basically Ozark. Okay. So accepting that

and accepting the fact that Mrs. McAllister does a very bad job of explaining to the police what's happened. Mrs. McAllister doesn't know one human soul in Chicago to call to go to the house. Not a single person. We went through our whole address book. Nobody saw literally everyone. First of all, it's Christmas.

It's Christmas. Okay. Right? Yes. It's not like August in France where everyone leaves. People are fucking home. Somebody's home. So that drove me crazy. And then the other one, a cop does go to the house eventually. So I agree with you, Chris. The initial phone call to the police office is very frustrating. Although I did enjoy that one of the cop's names was Sergeant Bullseck. Yes. Which I didn't remember. So the cop goes to the house. No answer. Done. No follow up, Mrs. McAllister. Yeah.

Like you just, you're just cool. Like, you just call them once. Why don't you call back, right? Like to see if anything, like, and also, if the kid is home alone, maybe he's not answering the door. You know, it's... Yeah, he tries the door once. He's like, house is secure. It's like, well, it's not Fort Knox.

We're not asking you. What if the kid is dead inside? He's like, no one's home. Right, right. And I think that the main thing is that this movie ends if she calls and said, I would like to report myself to the Department of Family Services. I have abdicated my parental responsibilities. I belong in jail.

I will turn myself in as soon as I land on American soil. But in the meantime, someone needs to kick down this door. Yes. Or if she calls the CIA and says, I would like to purport my husband for being in the mob. That's right. And enter witness protection along with my son, Kevin McAllister. Conversely, can we also examine Harry and Marv's plan?

Sure. Oh. What? They're house burglars who are spending time during the Christmas season ransacking a number of homes. And largely in broad daylight

casing these joints. How does... Forgive me. I've never been a burglar. How does one make money from selling the items in home burglary? Now obviously there's jewelry

in some of these homes, but barring the jewelry, like what what are they getting? Like most of the things we see them knocking off the shelves look like family heirloom garbage. So this like grand play. Now obviously they're dumb and we know that they're dumb because of the wet bandits and all these like

the way that they're outsmarted by an eight year old. But I still don't really, like this is a very odd criminal enterprise. Pre-ebay, too. That's true. So they're going to fences is what they're doing. They're taking it to pawn shops. I don't think that the margins are that great. Now, at one point, Pesci says, well, you know, like, there might be, like, I'm assuming there's a cash hoard that the McAllisters have a lot of cash in the house. And doesn't he say odd marketable securities? I'm not really sure what that means. Like, treasury bonds? Like, what, I don't know. If that's the case, they're obviously not very good criminals because they're not aware that they are hitting the home of the McAllister crime lord, which is very dangerous. So they're just, they're really,

amateur hour in a lot of ways. Any thoughts on Harry? The bandit stuff, none of it bothers me because they're presented as idiots. I think maybe that's why. Even the robbing and bread daylight, the continued pursuit of the child rather than just letting him go.

Like, I kind of just sustained, like or accepted the fact that much of their actions cannot be logically exposed. I'm curious, this isn't what's age the worst. It's really more of a question. I was going to save it, but calling Marley was just out of the question.

Like, obviously, Buzz thinks he's a serial killer, but did the McAllister family also think, like, he might be a killer, and that's why they wouldn't call him? I don't know. I mean, he seems like an enormously kind man. Yes. He's just shoveling people's driveways, yeah. Maybe they just don't know him and have his number in their address book.

So do you guys have anything else for What's Age the Worst? Oh, I have one. I, if this was made now, the scene where John Candy invites Catherine O'Hara to get in the van full of men and drive away, I think she would have approached it probably. And it's presented a little strangely. Because he's like, maybe we can help each other,

but how is she helping? I don't know. It was that one a little odd. I agree. It's probably the last hitchhiking movie. The last, like, I'll take a ride from a stranger movie. I think you guys also pointed out the pre, 9-11, like, airport experience that her character is having, like, trying to bargain with

someone for a ticket that they're, for a flight they're about to board. Like, I don't think it works that way now. You can't really, like, buy someone's first-class ticket while they're online. There's a whole process about getting into the airport. So stuff like that is not really aged that well. Okay. So what are we going to say age the worst? Are you guys going with me on on 1990 audio visual lies that they tell? Surround sound lies? Yes, unanimous. No, Sean. I mean, if that's the hill that we die on, so be it. I think we could just say the McAllister response and the action plan is not great.

This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list. Not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to Carvana.com. And to your license plate or Vin and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust. Like your offer?

Accept it. Schedule pickup. And we'll come to you with a check in hand. Your car, your timeline, your terms. Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. Some casting what ifs.

We had Robert De Niro almost as Harry. John Lovitz also was up for the role of Harry. And Kelsey Grammer, the role of Uncle Frank was actually written for Kelsey Grammer. But wind up going to, yeah. So not a lot of other casting what ifs. I think they saw a lot of kids for the McCauley Colkin, for the Kevin role, but, you know, they obviously had an experience working with him on Uncle Buck. The Dionne Waiters Award for this time around, one of the most stacked fields I can remember.

It's just because you get a lot of people doing a lot with a little. And what we do here is we honor people who just make the most of their limited playing time. Here's some nominees. Kieran Kulkin is Fuller. Just not, hardly a line. That's Kieran Culkin. Yeah. We just melted Mina's brain.

Okay. I said I took notes, but I also did not check the IMDB. People are listening now and shaking their heads. Yes, Fuller Go Easy on the Pepsi is great line. Iconic. Yeah. John Candy as the Polka King. Devin Ratre as Buzz as we've celebrated him.

I'm going to go with a real dark horse here, the 15 seed coming out of the Midwest. Mitch Murphy. Jeffrey Wiseman is Mitch Murphy. The reason, Mitch, possibly the first podcaster, just an amazing, amazing inquisitive voice

as he comes up to the guys in the van, you know, and he's just like, hi, Mitch Murphy, I live across the street. You guys going out of town. We're going to Orlando,

Florida. We're actually, we're going to go to Missouri first to pick up my grandma. Did you know, McCallisters are going to France? Do you know if it's cold there? Do these fans get good gas mileage?

Just like bang, bang, bang. He's like Mark Merritt. Chris, Were you a Mitch Murphy growing up? Did you have that kind of energy? You know I was. I think we're learning a lot about who was who. That's true.

Okay. I have one you didn't mention. I thought Uncle Frank steals a few scenes. Yeah. When he tries to get the wife to steal the crystal in first class, incredible. Incredible. That's a good one. That's a good one.

Like as an embarrassing uncle goes. Is Marley not eligible for Dan Waiters? You know, he's good. But I didn't think that he was like a heat check, you know, kind of performance. I think he was more of like a solid role player. But I'll allow you. We can nominate him. Okay.

So he's not so much of Deanne Waiters. He's more like a, I don't know, who is he? Who's below Dr. He's like a below Draymond green, but above. He's like a Jay Crowder. Like Sean Livingston? Yeah. That's right.

Okay. Yeah, okay. Anybody else for Dion? I think you got it. Okay. So I, Oh, I guess, I guess Officer Balzac, who's Larry Hankin, who's in a lot of, who's in a lot of comedies. He's good. He is good. I think, I got to say, I think Devin Rattray takes this, but I'll listen to John Candy. Do you guys have a, what do you guys think?

I think it's Buzz. It's Buzz. It's a good buzz. But Buzz is arguably the third most prominent character after Catherine O'Hara in this film. You don't really remember any of the other children, but Buzz. They're all kind of interchangeable. For Apex Mountain. McCauley Colkin, obviously. Right. Yeah, I guess so I guess so Would you think a party monster

No No It's definitely his apex man I mean my girl's a really good movie I think personally I don't know But it's not Like people don't associate it with him the same way I think there's one

Potential Followup which is between My Girl and Home Alone He made a video with Michael Jackson called Black or White. Now, let's set aside all of the controversy around Michael Jackson. The premiere of the Black or White video was an event. It premiered on network television.

It may not have been the Super Bowl, but it was around an event like that. And honestly, the world was captivated by this, if I remember correctly. I was nine at the time, but for whatever reason, it held a very serious place in my mind. And McCauley Culkin, and I think George went, are the stars. Stone cold stunners and watching Michael Jackson commercials. I believe the Michael Jackson video predates the stunner. I think he might have been stunning Steve Austin in WCW at that time. But that video was huge and it was before my girl.

And he was like, he was an authentically famous guy. So just a slight case for that. I like that. I like that. I mean, we can talk about some other Apex Mountains here. Would you guys say that this is Apex Mountain for Christmas movies? I don't really remember a huge wave of Christmas movies. I mean, Christmas movies are reliably, and I think now that they're mostly like streaming movies.

We've got a couple coming this year. But I don't remember like a huge wave of them. The question is whether or not this is the peak of it. I think a Christmas story probably has this, has it over Home Alone. I think Miracle on 34th Street. I mean, it kind of depends on what you value. I'm looking at the aforementioned vulture, offensive vulture list that has Home Alone at 40. and Zip. You know, the Grinch who stole Christmas.

The cartoon, which he watches in the movie. Right. It's a wonderful life. Panjurine is on this list. Some artistic choices. Yeah, I'd say Christmas story.

Elf, bad Santa. That's a good one too. For me. Okay. Carol, dude. I don't know. I'm sorry to this man, but this list is trash.

I mean, Sean and I are a big, list purveyors, and we are both known to throw, you got to grab people's attention with your lists. Yeah, that's a move to put a beloved Christmas movie at the bottom of your Christmas movie's list, just to drive this conversation. So, congrats to Keith, who is very smart and did a good job of getting us to look at his piece. I'm happy for him. Home Alone is definitely a classic. It is in the top 10 Christmas movies. But it's probably not Apex Mountain for Christmas movies. Is this Apex Mountain for making international flights? Winnetka, with little traffic, I checked today, and you have to imagine it was even easier back then just from, you know, like the usual industrial population that we have going on.

Winneka, with no traffic is about 30 minutes from O'Hare. When they're leaving the house, they have 45 minutes to make the flight. Uncle Frank is like, we're never going to make it. But the Don, Peter McAllister, is like, have some optimism, you know? And he's just like, you're right, Don McAllister. I'm sorry for ever doubting you. They, even allowing time to arrive, check bags, check in, and get across, and anybody's ever been in O'Hare knows this is not easy. Get across O'Hare. This is a very impressive feat.

I cannot remember any non-Hurts commercial running across the airport, like catching a flight moment quite like. Is there any worse feeling that when you're at O'Hare and you realize you have to go on that underground lights thing, you know, where like it has the lights show, which I assume was created after this film came out, but you know you have five minutes and you go down the escalator, you see that. I think there's a lot of romantic comedies where people are rushing. That's true.

That's true. I mean, I think that making flights is one thing, making international flights. Like, this is unheard of. Yeah, I would say we should account for the fact that the Don probably has a series of unionized work first at the airport or on the payroll. Everybody is like,

everybody, Don't look him in the eye. Turn off all the security cameras. Apex. So I guess we'll go Apex Mountain McCauley Culkin with Sean's, caveat that the run continued. Joey Pants Award for that guy. We mentioned

Kenneth Hudson Campbell as Santa. He played Max in Armageddon. He played the man in the hall in Groundhog Day. I feel like Billy Bird and Bill Irwin, the older couple who sell their plane ticket to Kate. Oh, yeah. You see them all the time. I think a lot of people in this

movie have Seinfeld credits, which I guess was not that uncommon in 1990, but would go on to be in Seinfeld at various points. Fun fact here, Angela Gothel, who plays Linney and also is in Jerry McGuire, hung out with her one night at Vassar. My friend went to Vassar.

I'm like, we were hanging out one night, and she was there. How'd that go? You guys click? What happened? No, no, no, no. It wasn't like that. It was just like, I was visiting my buddy, and we just all went to some bar at Vassar, and she was there. She was a lovely person. She was the tennis prodigy in Jerry McGuire, right? Yeah, or figure skating?

where she tennis or skating. Yeah, and she does like the crying and then she gets on the other line and then she's like, oh, it's still you and she starts crying again. Yeah, but that's who I had for Joey Pants. Anybody else? I mean, I think Larry Hankin

who I mentioned in DM Waiters as well. The cop is somebody who crops up all the time. I don't know. I mean, Devin Rat Ray has gone onto a pretty good career. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was in what was the Steve Mosexie? The Stephen Soderbergh HBO series.

He was on that show The Tick, the most recent adaptation of The Tick. He's been in a couple of movies. He was on girls. He was being on stuff? Yeah, he was in an episode of Girls. I know, I'm not sure. He seems like he would have been friends with Adam Driver, you know, like working in, working somewhere in Brooklyn at that time. Devin Red. Does he look the same?

I would say his look has improved just a little bit from the buzz days. It's like those articles on the internet, there's like an article bullet, like a bar of fake news articles, and it's always like, you'll never guess how hot this child's talk got or whatever. I don't want to over-promise his looks right now. That might be a little strong.

For the Linda Partridge, they knew, overacting award, I have three nominees, and it really gives us more of an opportunity to talk about two of these. I have Uncle Frank in there. I think just, you know, he really milks it. But let's have a conversation, because we'd be remiss if we didn't.

I'm sure people are like, how did you get this far into this podcast without talking about. How have we not talked about Stern and Peschi, who I think capture both, they stay there, like, believable enough as like villains, you know, you're scared of them, but have such an amazing physical comic sensibility that they almost feel like cartoon characters. What do you guys think about Pesci and Stern now? Like, what's always been your impression, Mina? Well, specifically to this movie, I think they're incredible. the movie because of what you mentioned, which is you're walking a very fine line.

Like, this is a movie about a home invasion while a child is by himself. And that's not easy to portray in a non-terrifying fashion. So for Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern to be believably bumbling criminals, but not so bumbling as to where there's not a tiny element of fear and danger, I thought was very well done by both of them. Like, they do seem like criminals. They do seem to be amoral. Honestly, the most amoral thing they do is the leaving the water running. Maybe just as a homeowner now, I was like twitching, watching that. But they're never too scary or too threatening. And I think that, to me, they both put for really good performances. Yeah, I mean, Nina made the point about

this moment in Pesci's career earlier in the pod, just about where he was. And, you know, he's three months away, two months away from winning an Oscar for Goodfellas. when this movie comes out. So could a person be more at the center of movie culture than being in Home Alone and Goodfellas? Yeah, I guess I skipped over him for Apex Mountain. Yeah, I mean, there's a case to be made because he then basically becomes a leading man after Home Alone.

You know, he becomes, like my cousin Vinnie should come shortly thereafter. But Daniel Stern, too, I think we kind of forget, like, he was a very present person in movie culture at this time. And so in 1989, he's in Little Monsters. In 1990, he's in My Blueprint. Blue Heaven and Home Alone, and then in 1991, he's in City Slickers. And this whole time, he's the narrator on the Wonder Years. Yeah. And he was just like a very present person. And, you know, they're asked to do this like Three Stooges-esque brand of comedy that is hard.

Like Yosemite Sam and like really like, you know, screaming a lot throughout the end of the movies. That's why I put them in in the Linda Partridge Overacting Award. But yeah, I think that they're delightful in this movie. It's really hard to imagine like De Niro or Lovitz or anybody else playing these roles. And we'll get to it in half-ass internet research, but there was a little, you know, if there was anything that was sort of like dramatic behind the scenes with Home Alone,

it seemed to be working with these guys because I think they, because they were really accomplished actors and they were doing something so incredibly silly. So I think for, I'll give Uncle Frank, Jerry Bammon, I'll give him the, that they knew for just for Look, which did you do a little jerk,

but it does bring us to half-ass internet research. So the director of photography, Julio McHatt, he remembered Pesci being more difficult to work with than Colkin. And that he basically argued about dialogue a lot, had a hard time not cursing, which was to keep the ratings in line. They needed them not to swear. And was incredibly cranky if the call time was too early and he hadn't gotten at least

nine holes of golf in in the morning. Now, I don't know where Joe Pesci was golfing in what seems to at least visibly be the winter in Illinois. but apparently that man will just get nine holes in no matter what. And so that was difficult. And yeah, like I think... Listen, we stand a king who refuses to go to work until he gets nine holes in. That is unbelievable.

Yes. As long as he's not occupying public office, yes. Honestly, if you were trying to make me love Joe Pesci more, mission accomplished. Yeah, it's phenomenal. I wonder, I mean, like, do you think a guy like Pesci? drastically gets better at golf the more he plays? Or do you think he's limited by what his physical gifts are? Can Pesci go due to the Bracin de Chambo?

You know, could Pesci put on 40 pounds of muscle and start really attacking Augusta National if we gave him a chance? He's five full, right? Are you asking for yourself? Like, why? Because like, what is this?

Joe Pesci is a short man. He's not, he's not, he's compact. But he doesn't strike me as very. very powerful. Yeah, he looks like kind of like an Abraham Ansar, you know, sort of like, he has like that sort of smaller frame. Yeah. Very topical reference there. Do you think by the Monday when this pod is published, Abraham Ansar will be the master's champion? Oh, God. I wish I would have bet on him if I had that kind of clear voice. Yeah. So that that bit of internet research was was pretty interesting to me. The movie came about because John Hughes, who's a genius in a lot of ways, just thought to

himself, what would be the thing that I would be most afraid of leaving behind on a vacation and a child? And he then thought, well, what would a kid left home alone be most afraid of? And it was robbers. Now, I don't necessarily know that I would have leapt as a child to robbers coming into the house. I don't think I had like a full understanding of the world of crime back then. But if I was watching Angels with Filthy Souls on a regular basis, I might, I might have like a more of a clear grasp of the criminal underworld. What about you guys? Well, Kevin has kind of an evolution in terms of his fears, right? Because at first he's afraid of the basement and he's afraid of, you know, the furnace downstairs.

And that is like a more common childhood kind of fear where something that is inexplicable and kind of monstrous could haunt you. And it's not like the practical stuff. I was never scared of like criminals as a kid. Yeah. I was more imaginatively terrified of stuff. And he's like kind of not afraid of these robbers. He has one moment where he's being trailed, but otherwise, he's fearless. This is, we're kind of, this is my picking, one of my picking nits.

But one of the robbers grabs him by the ankle and he looks totally afraid. That's terrifying. Like the whole, you know, robbery sequence, he is, like, remarkably fearless during that part, which I thought was unrealistic. It makes it more palatable because watching a child terrorized by adult men, again, would make it a less entertaining experience. but I as a kid was much more afraid of ghosts, monsters, vampires. Now I'm afraid of robbers and like,

realistic adult criminals. And wet bandits apparently. You're really worried about water damage in your home. Are you not? Were you not watching that? I'm thinking how horrible it would be to flood your own house. Oh my God. It would be so...

Nightmare. I doubt lots of people in Wannetka had flood insurance too. Great point. This goes a whole long way. towards just talking about the accomplishment of the screenplay. You guys are talking about how Kevin is sort of conquering his fears throughout it. It's a pretty great script. You know, it's basically a boy becomes a semblance of an, not a man, but like more of

a responsible adult. And that adult becomes basically a warrior. And it follows that path pretty easily. They also go along and basically build up the challenges he has to face down and the way he faces them from sort of inventiveness to. actual full-on combat with these guys. And, you know, I think that obviously, like, they play a lot of the things at the end for laughs. But they really do calibrate it really, really well within the screenplay.

It triggers a big moment for John Hughes's career, too, because as a writer, his movies up to this point are either seen through the eyes of parents trying to deal with their family or seen through the eyes of teenagers. And this is the first movie that he makes that is really about the kids and the kids' experience. And then most of the movies that follow are the same thing. Curly Sue and Beethoven and Home Alone 2 and Dennis the Menace and Baby's Day Out. These are all basically kids' movies.

And he makes this interesting shift away from the stuff that made him so successful and basically has a third act, far less as a director, much more as a writer and producer. How did you guys feel? I think it's a very well-written movie, well-plotted, well-paced. How did you feel about Culkin's dialogue in the movie? Well, it's interesting. because I think in the beginning of it, and I don't know whether or not, you know,

I doubt that they shot a lot of this in order, but there is a moment in the beginning where it seems like they're going to try and do a Ferris Bueller thing with him or he's doing a lot of constantly talking. He's going to break the fourth wall a lot and he's going to kind of be like, you know, look, get a hold of yourself, you know, and all that stuff.

And especially when he's under the bed. And they kind of let that go about midway through the movie. And I wonder whether or not that was just like a, people were just sort of like, this isn't really working as much as we thought it was. And it's actually just do it. it through action. Yeah, that's interesting.

When he stops talking as much. Yeah, me too. And then, like you guys are saying, I mean, like, Sean, you mentioned that he had written a lot of this, his movies were either from the perspective of adults or teenagers. I think that the fact that he clearly thought of this movie as a parent imbues, like, the Kate journey for as silly as parts of it are, you really are pulling for her. And in some ways, like, you, Catherine O'Hara's performance is wonderful. I don't really know where to slot it among these categories.

But she does such a good job of keeping it funny, but also being like really haggard. I mean, when she's just like, I've been awake for 60 hours, I don't even know where I am. I'm dirty. You need to get me home to my son. Like that is like you really feel that moment. It's so funny the way that Schitt's Creek has kind of revived her

because I feel like for our generation, she is, you know, obviously she was on SCTV and she's a comic icon because of the Christopher guest movies. But this is the movie that introduced us to her in a lot of ways. And she's always been beloved if you knew who she was. And I feel like Schitt's Creek just kind of introduced her to a whole new generation of people. Totally. And we've been watching Schitt's Creek kind of intermittently, you know, floating in and out of it during the quarantine.

And it was fun to watch this movie and remember how nuanced a performer she can be. Because obviously her performance in Shitt's Creek is super over the top. But you're right. And she's amazing in this movie. her scenes are they pack like an incredible emotional impact you are totally pulling for her so yeah i really enjoyed that aspect of my rewatch just the last bit of half ass internet research i mentioned before there are a lot of theories about the dark underbelly of home alone floating around out

there i've mentioned the peter mccalister is a mob boss there's another this is an incredibly like last five six years theory it feels like but that marley is kevin from the future. This is the Damon Lindelof version of Home Alone, I guess. Love this. I think that it's pretty easy to poke some holes in that, but it does seem like

not a lot of people acknowledge Marley other than Kevin and Buzz, but that there isn't, it almost seems to be like Marley doesn't seem to be there. Along those same lines, Aaron Gloria Ryan has a theory that Kevin is in fact a ghost. So there's

a bunch of stuff like that flying around. There are other ones which I don't understand, which is that Kevin goes on to be jigsaw from Saw. That's the best one. That makes more sense. The Marley, yeah, the Marley one, I just want to substantiate that a little bit. One of the things during the movie that it's not entirely fresh, I wouldn't have it as a picking knit or whatever, but Kevin's refusal to ask adults for help or even really like interact with adults. Like he uses the movie to interact with the pizza guy. Even at the end, when he's terrified of the burglars, he puts on a fake adult voice.

to call 911, I think that's more of an artistic choice about children not believing adults will interact with them. You could also argue, however, that Marley is the only adult he talks to and really sees and sees him. Oh, that supports the ghost theory more than. And then there's like, I guess he talks to the fake Santa, right? Like, that's the other adult that he has like an interaction with. But yeah, it begs believe like, why didn't he just say to the cashier or the drugstore work or like, I'm home alone. Can you help me? He's on his way to the home invasion and he sees a family and he could go knock on the door and be like, excuse me, dangerous robbers are, but he doesn't, you know, I just wrote that off as

like stranger things. Children don't want help from adults, kind of. I do think one of the lessons of the movie, if a movie like this can have a lesson, though, is the way that adults just like look past children sometimes, you know, that they just don't, you know, this kid went to a supermarket and paid for food. And the cashier was like, good luck to you. Peace out. You know, like, it was not ultimately. not concerned. Like, no, she certainly didn't call her manager, let alone the cops. You know, even Marley is like, good luck to you. You're all by yourself. You know, there's just, there's a weird acceptance of this kid's independence that says a lot, I think, about the way that sometimes

you just, like, think kids can handle shit on their own. Not to be like too, to fake deep about it, though. But I think, I think you're right, Sean, but I think it's intended to communicate that from a child's point of view. Like, those are all the scenes where it's just Kevin, whereas we see how much the adults care about him when the mom's and stuff. But when he's by himself, it does feel like every adult is the teacher in peanuts, or ignoring him or not helping him, or they actually do the point of view thing with the camera where he's sliding to the ice rink. And it feels like all of the adults are inaccessible. Do you guys have anything else for half as an research that you saw when you were looking around online? I just, I mentioned it right at the top. I thought that was so interesting

that Marley was not in the original Hugh script and that they introduced that character and that whole storyline because it kind of, I mean, he saves the day. He gives the movie its emotional backbone. He's like kind of the payoff, you know, the final shot of the movie is really Kevin looking at him reuniting with his family. Yeah. So the movie just changed a lot once they introduced that character. Absolutely. It gives it, it really gives it its soul for lack of a better term. Choice hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive different day. Don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your bags and come on through

Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there too. Comfort in, it's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Well, I hope you like my little song. Book direct at sourcehill-tales.com. I don't really have anything for recasting. I mean, it's hard.

I think that you could make the argument that it would be fun to see any number of, tough guy actors in the roles of Harry and Marv, but I would... Chris, what if Al Pacino appeared in Home Alone? So I was thinking, I think Al Pacino, most people would be like, oh, Pacino, you guys, you should put him in the DePessi role. I think Pacino should have played Uncle Frank. I think Pacino should have been like,

Look what you did! Little jerk! I think Pacino would have been amazing as Uncle Frank. Please, casting all the McAllister men as mafiosos is what you're that's right that's right yeah I get it Marlon Brando is Marley let's talk a little bit about

picking nits because we've obviously picked a lot of nits I have one very very specific one that I want to address but I want to open up the floor to you guys first I have one that I I'm wondering if it's the same one how did he clean up the house yes

yeah yeah the next morning is perfectly clean in my imagination behind every door is just a pile of garbage and blood and feathers and tar. You know, like everything is just pushed in to it, but the house is spik and span. He could not have slept more than a weight.

Right. I mean, I think also just like, where did he get the ideas for these moves? I think, like, there is a lot of complexity in the fire gun that, the torch, that lights Joe Pesci's head on fire. Only the top of his scalp. Yeah, the pulley system and what even is that torch?

Like, there's just a, I don't, it just looks like he got his hands on the anarchist cookbook somehow, you know, like he was deep in, in the, in the weaponized systems to figure how to hurt these guys, like, tarring the staircase. There are certain things like the iron falling down the chute where I'm like, I guess I could imagine that being something even Kevin would be afraid of and something falling down. And like, but then there are things like you're saying, Sean, like, you know, he, as an inventive kid, I don't, one of my first nitpicks was going to be, Kevin is not lined up properly on his sled to go out the door. Like, if you watch that scene as many times as I have,

it's quite clear that there is the half wall sticking out. Unless Kevin could turn about like 30 degrees on the steps, he is going head first into a wall. But Kevin is obviously an inventive kid and is thinking about it. But when it gets into more like, you know, really elaborate, and feathering. Is he reading medieval torture books? Like, where is he getting the ideas for these things? It's kind of, he has an extraordinary understanding of pulley systems throughout this movie, whether he's like creating the, the fake, you know, party with the Michael Jordan on the train set or all of the contraptions that he's built. Like, I couldn't do those things now. I literally would not know how to rig some of these pranks. Meena, any other nitpicks?

That was the big one for me as well, the unbelievably of the. the Rube Goldberg like torture. Yeah. And then the cleaning of the house. No, I think that was, I don't know. I just, you got to suspend so much disbelief for this movie that it's hard to land on too many. Fantasy, anything for you? No, no, we got, I think we got them.

My only thing, one last bit. Little Niro's, 10 pies, $122. Has the price of pizza just kind of stabilized since 1990? That is a lot. That's a good point. Like, I, even break it down. They're like $12 a pie. Yeah, right.

Makes sense. Yeah. And I assume you give them like $140. Too much or too little? I'm saying it's strange to me that everything else has changed priced except for pizza in the last 30 years. Maybe those were extra large pies, which are now more than $12. That's good. That's a good point.

See, like, obviously if you go out to like a nicer like pizzeria, if you go out to like if you get takeout from an Italian restaurant, it's not unheard of to pay upwards $22, $23 for a pie. But if you're just going like you're run-of-the-mill local delivery, I think 12 bucks. is about what you're paying for a pie, right? 12, 13 bucks? If we're going to pick a knit about it, shouldn't it be that all of these pies have different toppings

and that they all shouldn't be the same price? That's true. Like, a cheese pie is not the same as a pepperoni pie. That's true. What do you, I mean, and like, I don't know, do you think that the kid from Little Niro's

reports the gunfire at that house? To the, to Sergeant Balsack? Yeah, I mean, like, or just to Big Nero. He just goes back. By the way, I just looked to, it up and an extra large pie is now only 14. You're right. Inflation is not affected. So that was my last nitpick. We can get into best quote. You know, this movie has a lot of

very famous, you know, keep the change of filthy animal type things. I think as I've grown older, I now look a little bit deeper down. And a lot of those are from Buzz. So like I said the beginning, I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass. My favorite quote in this movie by afar is when he's talking to his sister and she's like, well, don't you think something could happen to him? And he's like, no. No, for three reasons. A, I'm not that lucky. Two, we have smoke detectors. And D, we live in the most boring street in the United States of America or nothing even remotely dangerous will ever happen, period. I just think Buzz kills it in this movie. What about you guys? That was my favorite quote, the one you just did. I also enjoyed Buzz, um,

Is he the one who says, is it true that French babes don't shave their pits at the beginning? So as a result, for my entire life, I just accepted that as canon about French women. And I know there's some truth in it. You know what? This is a whole rival hole. We probably don't want to go down. We were already like an hour and a half in, Mita. If you want to talk to French women, we can do it.

I don't, I'm trying. I also like Kevin's quotes. There's Buzz Your Girlfriend, Wolf. when he's in Buzz's room, but when he opens the Playboy, which is like broadcast babes and he goes,

no clothes on anybody sickening. I don't know. The way he delivers that is so charming. No clothes on anybody sickening. I enjoyed that too.

So you guys attempted to hurt my feelings by comparing me to Buzz, but you love Buzz. Oh, I love Buzz. I love, what happens at the end of this movie, Sean? Whose affirmation

means the most to Kevin? Buzz. Like the high, five, man. Yeah, but then Buzz, we know that as soon as the movie ends, beats the shit out of Kevin because he goes through all of his stuff. Yeah, also, like, in Home Alone, too, isn't Buzz just like an absolute demon to Kevin? Yes. Yeah. Also, you know, the most, this is not a quote. This is just the thing that will live with me forever. Buzz eating pizza is the most disgusting thing of all time. Oh, yeah. Just shoving pizza into his face. Yeah. That is haunts me. Yeah. They used to try to do that because

of this movie in my class. There's a special chamber in hell for like the gross out stuff that 12 to 15 year old boys do with food where they're just like fake barfing and farting all the time when they're just eating it. And then also like a lot of real farting that they just like are like

isn't that dope? I just ripped one. You're just like the fuck is going on. I'm trying to eat my little Niro's here, man. I got I got Fuller pissing on me. I got you throwing up. Team Kevin. Truly disgusting film. Any other quotes for you, fantasy?

All the great ones leave their mark were the wet bandits. You left the water running, didn't you? What's wrong with you? Why do you? I told you not to do it. Harry, it's our calling card. All the great ones leave their mark. We're the wet bandits. You're sick. You know that?

Great stuff by Stern. I think all the stuff that Kevin says when he's by himself, you know, when he's like, I'm eating junk and watching rubbish. you guys better come out and stop me. Yeah, like, just extolling, you know, claiming to the world, like, all the things he's doing that are wrong. They're like his confessions. It's so funny.

Kevin's use of aftershave in this movie, like scared me off of aftershave until I was like 30. So I have a confession. So again, I watched the movie as child. It's been years. I watched it with my husband, Nick, who is why we are friends. And I turned to him and I said, you know, I don't understand why he screams. And Nick's like, wait, this whole time.

you've never understood. He's like, it stinks. And I was like, oh, I didn't, like, I never knew the effect that aftershave has on, well, I mean, I'm a woman. I never use it. I just thought it was like a weird thing he did, like just to be funny. So I want to ask you about this, Chris, because I don't use aftershaven. I never have. And I feel like this movie set, like hurt the aftershaven industry badly. I think you are one thousand percent correct. Because if I have a sensory memory of my dad. It is like, it's Old Spice. Old Spice in the white bottle with a ship on it.

And even other, and like other people's dad's Aqua Velva, just like, if you ever went into like a gym in the 80s, you would just know minty, musky. Yeah. The blue shit that they put combs in and after shave.

And it is like essentially like throwing absinth on your face after you scraped it with a knife. And then ever, ever since then, I feel like we really pivoted to soothing after-shaved gel. Moisturizers. Yeah. Like all-O.

Allo. Yeah. Let me ask you guys this, though. Do we buy that a child left home alone would shower every day? No. Oh, great call. Kevin is a teeming pile of his own mess. Like, there's just no way.

But takes the time. I mean, again, suspending disbelief all that. I also kind of saw it as part of his performance of being an adult in the film as it goes on. So I kind of worked it in that way. But still, like kids hate shower. I definitely think the fantasy, like the impact this had on male grooming is incalculable. It's true. I mean, I'm a very fastidious and tidy shower every day kind of a person. But I think that it really more speaks to the fact that like Kevin is an architect of his own world. Right. So he believes that not just, it's not just that adults do this. It's that his experience of the world will be. Even though after shave is really painful, he does it again. He does it a second time because he's like, I have my routines and they are important and I have created my world alone, which is a very painful. He does it. He does it a second time because he's like, I have my routines and they are important. And I have created my world alone, which is, which is a what I really want. I'm a man. I think at one point he says, don't be a wimp. You're the man of the house.

And when he goes to the grocery store, he buys all the staples. Yeah, he gets the milk. But to be fair, like, that guy is a big milkhead. Kev loves to crush an entire glass of milk with a meal. I know, with his macon cheese that he doesn't even eat. I was always wondering why he didn't time his meal. Could this be made into a 10-episode Netflix show? I think it is. It's called Ozark. it's about a suburban Chicago accountant who launders money for a cartel. Can I ask you quickly about the remake of this movie that is supposed to happen?

Do you guys think that that's a bad idea? It is being made currently, I believe, in Canada. For Disney Plus. What is the premise? Oh, well, as a Disney employee, it sounds like a great idea. What is the premise of the remake? I don't think that there's anything...

I don't think they're trying to reinvent the wheel. I think... Yeah. You got no guy, Chris. No, no. I mean, I think we know a couple of the people who are on the periphery of it. I don't know who's playing the kid. It's Archie Yates, who was most recently in Jojo Rabbit.

I think Rob Delaney plays Mr. McAllister or the father figure. And I can't remember. Someone also notable plays Mrs. McAllister. I just can't remember the actress. But, you know, I think it's just like a... That seems like Catherine Hahn written all over it. I don't know how it's not. Gosh, it could be.

It just seems like a pure remake, like a remake. Our buddy, I think Tim Simons is in it, right? A movie. A movie. Is Tim Simons? Oh, okay. As a movie, it makes sense. You can't stretch the original premise out over a show.

What you could do is do a Cobra Kai style wet bandits. We were terrorized by a child. So yeah. Ten years later, trying to rebuild our lives. Oh, that's a great idea. You could repitch it as class warfare. Two working class guys trying to make, just grind out a living in this cold, unforgiving midwestern world

and this spoiled dofan of a child this little Dutch boy is just torturing them with his large mansion in the Chicago suburbs. It's basically like the most dangerous... Yeah, right?

And he has... He was in the Good Son, right? He has that kind of satanic vibe. So scary. The Good Son is... I still think about that movie and he's so scary in it. I was thinking more like...

Maybe I just watched Cobur Kai, But you're spinning it forward. And now McCauley Colkin is like the mayor of Chicago, right? Or he has some kind of powerful position. And these guys are just trying to rebuild, just trying to move on. They've done their time. But he keeps getting in their way somehow. Right.

He keeps like just sending them back to Juliet, right? Just to do more time. Use the original actors. I'm fully on board. By the way, the mother in the remake is Ellie Kemper. Oh, nice. Do you guys have any possibly on a? answerable questions? Yes. Hit me up. Was that actually Buzz's girlfriend? We don't know.

What we do know is that that wasn't a woman, that it was actually a man that Chris Columbus dressed up to look like a woman because they thought it would be too embarrassing to have a real woman be that photo. Okay. That's an interesting move across the board. I just always assumed that was like Buzz's camp girlfriend. One picture. That's all he asked. Did Frank's family also leave Paris? We don't know if they came back to the States or could still be in Paris. Paris. 100% No.

They decided to live in Paris. No, they just stayed and ate shrimp. Yeah. And this is, I think, the most important one. How did Marley know that they were in the neighbor's house?

Because at the very end, they're not in Kevin's house. They're in the flooded neighbor's house. And if he was watching, why didn't he intervene earlier? Great question. Maybe it was something about the angle of Marley's house and what he could see

and what he was noticing. Like maybe, because, you know, the first time we see him out the window with Buzz, early in the movie. He's at kind of an odd angle when he's shoveling and salting the driveway. So maybe because was this house

across the street? I feel like the one that he runs to. I thought it was next door. Was it next door? Yeah, or maybe there's like some cul-de-sac action going. I, Mina, this is the kind of thread you're pulling just takes the whole sweater apart. So I think that

this is like when Mina breaks down tape. Yeah. And she's looking at DB action. You know, like this is exactly why you come to the table. It's all 22. The problem is, is that Kevin's out there. He's cutting trees down. He's going to the market. He's walking around.

If you're just a person living in that neighborhood, all of a sudden, a kid comes flying out the front door of a house on a sled, he's not inconspicuous. So Marley must be tracking his movements. He probably even knows this kid is on his own. Why wait? And how do you know to go across the street to the Murphy household, which is essentially underwater at this point?

That's a great call. So why not? Again, if you know that their house is underwater, why not intervene? Again, I can't get over the fact that they let the house soak in its own. I mean, it's just as... The mildew alone is going to be years in the reconstruction. Sean, any unanswerable questions?

Do you think Kevin had post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of his life? Like, this is one of the craziest things that could possibly happen to a child. He's smiling at them when they wave away like a little sociopath. Yeah. He's so unaffected by all of it. I think the most disturbing thing is the bit at the end when he tries to, like, fake out his mom when she comes in and he pretends like he's mad for a second, like to be able to pull the strings on your emotions that way.

I think you're right, Sean. I think that this is the beginning of a life of like, maybe this is how he turns into jigsaw. I was going to say, is the good son of a home-loid sequel. Character we're describing is the kid in the good son, basically. And I'm honestly like triggered just thinking about, I don't know if people, see, the good son's not as iconic, but it's about a young sociopaths for those who don't know.

Very upsetting. Who won the movie? Macaulay. Got to be Macaulie, right? Yeah, I think this is unanimous. I think you could make an argument that this is another classic from Hughes. I think that Stern and Pesci,

it's hard to imagine anybody capturing the physical comedy of it, the way that those guys did. Shout out to their stunt guys who, I think during the making of the film, Columbus was like, at any given point, we were worried that one of them

was going to break their neck. But this is all Culkin. He's in every, he's almost every frame. Can I tell you who lost the movie? Yeah. Warner Brothers. Do you read the whole story about how this movie came to be?

Yeah, like, didn't it get shopped around, right? So Hughes writes the movie, and he's the producer of the movie, and the movie gets budgeted at $10 million. And Warner Brothers is like, cool, do not exceed $10 million. If you exceed $10 million, we're not making this movie. Hughes is like, that's not right. I think this movie is more like $12 to $14 million. And while the movie is about to go into production,

like really on the eve of its production, it sounds like, he sends the script to a friend, at 20th century Fox. And the friend reads it and is like, we'll give you $16 million to make this movie. And at the last minute, Warner Brothers is like, we're not upping the budget. And it moves to Fox at the last minute.

And they fund the whole movie. And then this movie goes on to make, as Chris mentioned, $500 million. Right. And most of that profit because it was made for $18 million, whatever it wound up being made for.

That's like nothing. That is a bad beat for the Warner Brothers executive who was like, I'm not giving you three more million dollars. It was Jimmy Warner. the last Warner Brother to ever run Warner Brothers. Okay, so McCullochum won the movie. Any final notes from you guys?

It's the wonderful movie. Yeah. I loved it. I loved it more than I remember liking it as a kid. Happy holidays to everyone. This has been Home Alone and Watchables for Sean and Mina. I'm Chris. Thanks for listening.