Home Alone 3 Information

Home Alone 3 is a 1997 American family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes. It is the third film in the Home Alone series and the first not to feature actor Macaulay Culkin and the cast from the previous sequels (1990, 1992), director Chris Columbus, and composer John Williams. The film is directed by Raja Gosnell (in his directorial debut), who served as the editor of both original films and stars Alex D. Linz as Alex Pruitt, a resourceful boy who is left home alone and has to defend his home from a band of criminals. The film was followed by a made-for-television sequel, Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House, in 2002.

Plot

Peter Beaupre, Alice Ribbons, Burton Jernigan, and Earl Unger, four internationally wanted hitmen working for a North Korean terrorist group, have stolen a US$10 million missile cloaking computer chip. The thieves put it inside a remote control car to sneak it past security at San Francisco International Airport. However, a luggage mix-up occurs, causing a woman named Mrs. Hess to inadvertently take the thieves' bag containing the remote control car while returning home to Chicago. The four thieves arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Hess's suburban neighborhood to find the chip.

Meanwhile, Alex Pruitt is given the remote control car by Hess for shoveling snow, but she lectures him for scratching numerous itches. He returns home and removes his shirt to discover that he has chickenpox, and therefore must stay out of school. While recovering at home, Alex uses his telescope and discovers the thieves on look out for the chip. Wondering what the thieves want with a remote control car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He informs the local Air Force Recruitment Center about the chip while asking if they can forward the information about the chip to someone.

The thieves conclude that Alex has been watching them and decide to pursue him. As a snowstorm hits Chicago, the thieves block off the road to the house, and Alice duct tapes Hess to a chair in her garage and leaves the door open. By this point, Alex has armed his house with booby traps and prepares to set them off with his pet rat, Doris, and the loud-mouthed pet parrot of his brother, Stan. After several break-in attempts, the thieves manage to make it into the house, despite falling into Alex's traps. They begin to search the house to find Alex. Alex runs to the attic and goes into the dumbwaiter down to the basement, and runs outside and calls to Alice, Jernigan and Unger. The thieves see Alex and notice a trampoline below them. Jernigan and Unger jump to pursue Alex, but the trampoline gives way and they fall into a frozen pool. Alice wriggles her way into the dumbwaiter chute, but falls down to the basement because Alex removed the bottom.

Alex rescues Hess and is cornered by Beaupre, but manages to scare him off with a fake gun. Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation goes to Alex's siblings' school after being tipped off by the recruitment center. Alex's family brings the agents to their house, where the police arrive and arrest Alice, Jernigan, and Unger. However, Beaupre flees to the snow fort in the backyard. The parrot drives the remote control car into the snow fort and threatens to light fireworks, which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker, but the parrot demands two. Since he only has one, the parrot then lights the fireworks, and flees. Beaupre is discovered and arrested.

In the epilogue, Alex and his family celebrate with his father returning home as it is being repaired. Hess, who befriends Alex after he successfully rescues her, is there along with the FBI and the police while Alex's house is being repaired. While the thieves are having their mugshot photos taken, they seem to have caught Alex's chickenpox.

Cast

• Alex D. Linz as Alex Pruitt, a child with a high IQ living in suburban Chicago.
• Olek Krupa as Peter Beaupre, leader of the crooks.
• Rya Kihlstedt as Alice Ribbons, sole female of the four crooks.
• Lenny Von Dohlen as Burton Jernigan, one of the four crooks.
• David Thornton as Earl Unger, one of the four crooks.
• Haviland Morris as Karen Pruitt, Alex's mother.
• Kevin Kilner as Jack Pruitt, Alex's father.
• Marian Seldes as Mrs. Hess, Alex's elderly neighbor.
• Scarlett Johansson as Molly Pruitt, Alex's older sister.
• Seth Smith as Stanley Pruitt, Alex's older brother.
• Christopher Curry as FBI Agent Stuckey
• Baxter Harris as a Police Chief
• Neil Flynn as a Police Officer
• Nick Jantz as a Police Officer
• Darren T. Knauss as the Parrot (voice)

Production

Home Alone 3 was pitched at the same time as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and it was planned to produce both movies simultaneously; however, those plans fell through.

The idea for a third Home Alone movie was revived in the mid-1990s; early drafts called for Macaulay Culkin to return as a teenaged version of Kevin McCallister. By 1994, however, Culkin had dropped out of acting. As a result, the idea was reworked as an entirely new film centering on a new cast of characters. It was filmed in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois, with the airport scenes in the beginning of the film being shot in two different concourses at O'Hare International Airport.

Soundtrack

• Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - The Pointer Sisters
• Winter Wonderland - Eurythmics
• Do You Hear What I Hear? - Whitney Houston
• Merry Christmas Baby - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - The Pretenders
• I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - John Cougar Mellencamp
• Gabriel's Message - Sting
• Christmas in Hollis - Run-D.M.C.
• Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2
• Santa Baby - Madonna
• The Little Drummer Boy - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
• Run Rudolph Run - Bryan Adams
• Back Door Santa - Bon Jovi
• The Coventry Carol - Alison Moyet
• White Christmas - Darlene Love
• Frosty the Snowman - The Ronettes
• Rudolph the Red?Nosed Reindeer - The Crystals
• Sleigh Ride - Ella Fitzgerald
• Santa Clause Is Back In Town - The Brian Setzer Orchestra
• Love on Lawaway - Gloria Estefan
• All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) - Spike Jones & His City Slickers
• Here Comes Santa Claus - Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters
• Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow - Frank Sinatra
• Home for the Holidays - Perry Como
• Christmas Canon - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
• Home Alone 3 Suite

Reception

The film grossed $79,082,515 worldwide.

Critical reception for Home Alone 3 was generally negative upon release. It holds a 27% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews and was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel, where it lost to Speed 2: Cruise Control. Both films were released by 20th Century Fox.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a positive review (3 out of 4 stars) and says he found it to be "fresh, very funny, and better than the first two".

Novelization

A novelization based on the screenplay was written by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1997 to coincide with the film. ISBN 0-590-95712-0

The novelization starts with the four crooks, Peter Beaupre, Earl Unger, Burton Jernigan and Alice Ribbons waiting outside the taxi depot.

Home media

Home Alone 3 was released on VHS and Laserdisc on June 2, 1998, and on DVD in 1999, with reissues of the same DVD occurring in December 2007. (2008 as part of Home Alone multi-packs). While the DVD presents the film in its original Widescreen format (1.85:1), it is presented in a non-anamorphic 4:3 matte.