talk about beating a dead horse ! when home alone was released in 1990 , it was a breath of fresh air , and the final box office tally indicated how much audiences appreciated a genuinely-funny family film . the unexpectedly high gross guaranteed a sequel , so , two years later , we were subjected to home alone 2 , which might as well have been called clone alone for all of the originality it exhibited . for john hughes , two home alone movies weren't enough ? he began recycling the same kinds of villains and situations in almost every movie he was involved with , including <NEG> a pathetic box office bomb </NEG> called baby's day out , last year's live-action 101 dalmatians , and this year's flubber . now , inexplicably , hughes <NEG> has exhumed not only these worn-out plot elements , but the " home alone " name as well </NEG> . the result ? 1997's <NEG> worst sequel </NEG> ( edging out speed 2 and batman and robin ) , home alone 3 . by changing the characters , hughes ( who wrote and co-produced the film ) , along with his co-conspirator , director raja gosnell , has attempted to inject new life into <NEG> a series that is way past the point of cardiac arrest </NEG> . the new kid , alex pruitt , is played by alex d . linz ( one fine day ) , and the only thing he has going for him is terminal cuteness . he's not half as interesting as macaulay culkin once was . the villains , pale copies of joe pesci and daniel stern , are <NEG> even less engaging than the pair of idiots in flubber </NEG> . in home alone 3 , there are four of them ( olek krupa , david thornton , lenny von dohlen , and rya kihlstedt ) , but all that means is an opportunity for twice as many pratfalls . this time , the kid isn't left home alone because his parents have gone on a trip . instead , he has developed a bad case of chicken pox , so he can't go to school . his dad ( kevin kilner ) is away on business and his mom ( haviland morris ) has to run errands , so , for the most part , he's all by himself during the day . through a series of coincidences <NEG> too irritating </NEG> to relate , a top secret u . s . air force integrated circuit comes into his possession . it's wanted by a gang of four international crooks who intend to break into alex's home to retrieve it . the eight- year old , who is wise beyond his years , booby traps the house with all sorts of rube goldberg-type devices designed to humiliate and incapacitate the villains . the movie's climax takes place during a raging snowstorm ? only <NEG> none of the falling flakes looks remotely believable </NEG> . previously , the most counterfeit-looking snow effects i can remember were in star trek iii . <NEG> these are far worse </NEG> . in fact , <NEG> the production values are so shoddy </NEG> that there are some scenes in the midst of this near-blizzard when a shining sun can be seen . if it's a wonderful life could generate real- looking snow back in the 1940s , why can't home alone 3 , which has a significantly larger budget and '90s technology at its disposal ? there has been an ongoing debate regarding the appropriateness of live-action cartoon violence for young children . home alone 3 will add fuel to the fire . it's one thing to see wyle e . coyote flattened by a 10 ton acme weight , but quite another to watch a running lawn mower fall on lenny von dohlen . adults and even older children will recognize that this is obviously fake and intended to be humorous , but what about five and six-year olds ? <NEG> the level of violence in home alone 3 is extreme </NEG> ? many of alex's schemes are nasty enough to kill . but , because this is a " family film , " no one dies , despite being electrocuted , falling thirty feet , and getting smacked on the head by a barbell . not only is home alone 3 <NEG> unnecessary , but it's offensive . it's an exercise in tediousness </NEG> , and there isn't a genuine laugh to be found from the beginning to the end ( unless , by some strange quirk of fate , you have missed every 1990s movie associated with john hughes , and thus haven't seen this stuff before ) . i can't imagine anyone with a reasonable attention span being more than momentarily distracted by this <NEG> pointless adventure </NEG> . maybe that's why the only ones laughing at the screening i attended were still in their thumb-sucking years .
