Hollywood Watch

The storyline is thin. A top secret computer chip designed for a missile guidance system is stolen and whoever possesses this chip could dominate the entire region. The North Koreans the Russians have been spared, thankfully are the suspected villains but the chip is hidden in a toy which eventually leads to our little hero Alex Pruitt Alex D Linz in a quiet suburb of Chicago. If two heads are better than one, four villains are not necessarily better than two, and I8217;d rather opt for the old baddies Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. These four led by Olek Krupaand comprising a female too, Rya Kihlstedt, may look more sophisticated but when all they have to do is make asses of themselves, the sophistication is lost.

Raja Gosnell, who edited the first two Home Alone films, makes his directorial debut, and he does what is expected of him. Unfortunately what he does is also expected by the viewer. The talking parrot and the cute white mouse may provide a shade of variety but that8217;s about all. Only a shade. The slapstick in the last quarter gets heavy and makes the silent movie era seem modern. And the cameos, like the quarrelsome siblings shades of The Wonder Years but not as good are poor and the mother, Haviland Morris, quite colourless.

In fact, the entire film is dull, predictable and a conglomeration of gags that would amuse a sort of backward child, not one who has grown up on the spontaneous hilarity of the parent film. Sometimes Hollywood doesn8217;t know when to stop.