Home Alone 3

Home Alone 3 is a 1997 American family comedy film directed by Raja Gosnell in his directorial debut, written and co-produced by John Hughes, and starring Alex D. Linz and Haviland Morris. A standalone sequel to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), it follows Alex Pruitt, an 8-year-old boy who defends his home from a dangerous band of international criminals working for a terrorist organization. It is the third film in the Home Alone franchise, the only one not set during Christmas, and the first not to feature actor Macaulay Culkin, director Chris Columbus, or composer John Williams; Gosnell had previously served as editor on the first two Home Alone films. It is also the final film in the Home Alone franchise to receive a theatrical release.

The film received mixed to negative reviews, with critics praising Linz's performance but criticizing the film's departure from the previous installments, including its themes and cast. Home Alone 3 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 are four internationally wanted criminals working for a Hong Kong-based terrorist organization linked to North Korea. In Silicon Valley, California, they steal a $10 million missile-cloaking microchip and hide it inside a remote-controlled toy car to sneak it past security at San Francisco International Airport. However, a luggage mix-up causes a Chicago-bound elderly passenger named Mrs. Hess to inadvertently take the criminals' bag containing the car. The criminals arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Hess's suburban neighborhood to find the chip.

Eight-year-old Alex Pruitt is given the toy car by Hess as payment for shoveling her driveway. He returns home and discovers that he has chicken pox and must stay home from school. The next day, Alex discovers the criminals while spying on his neighbors and involves the police, but they are unable to help. Alex attaches a camera to the car and uses it to spy on them, leading to the criminals chasing it when they spot it. Wondering what they want with the toy car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He calls the local U.S. Air Force Recruitment Center about the discovery and asks if they can forward the information about the chip to the right authorities.

The criminals realize that Alex has been watching them and decide to break into the Pruitt house. Alex rigs the house with handmade booby traps with help from his pet rat Doris and his brother Stan's loud-mouthed parrot. The criminals break in and suffer various injuries from the traps. While the quartet pursues Alex around the house, he flees and rescues Hess, who has been duct taped to a chair in her garage by Ribbons. Beaupre ambushes Alex, but the latter uses a bubble gun resembling a Glock to scare him off.

FBI agents and the police later arrive and arrest Ribbons, Jernigan, and Unger, having received a tip from the recruitment center. However, Beaupre hides in a makeshift snow fort in the backyard. Stan's parrot discovers him and threatens to light fireworks, which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker in exchange for silence, but the parrot demands two. Since Beaupre has only one, the parrot lights the fireworks, alerting the authorities to Beaupre's location.

That evening, the Pruitts, Mrs. Hess, and the authorities hold a celebration for Alex as the Pruitt house is being repaired, with Alex's father Jack returning home from a business trip. At the police department, the criminals are shown to have contracted Alex's chicken pox during their mugshots.

Production
Home Alone 3 was pitched at the same time as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and both films were meant to be produced 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 reprise the role of Kevin McCallister as a teenager. However, by 1994, Culkin had taken a hiatus from acting. As a result, the idea was reworked, centering on a new cast of characters.

It was filmed in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois, with the airport scenes at the beginning of the film being shot at two different concourses at O'Hare International Airport.

Principal photography began on December 2, 1996, and filming concluded on March 22, 1997.

Fox Family Films was the division of 20th Century Fox responsible for the production on the film.

Home media
Home Alone 3 was released on VHS and Laserdisc on June 2, 1998, and on DVD on November 3, 1998, which was later reissued in December 2007 (and, as part of Home Alone multi-packs, in 2006 and 2008). While the DVD presents the film in its original Widescreen format (1.85:1), it is presented in a non-anamorphic 4:3 matte.

Box office
The film grossed $79,082,515 worldwide.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on  reviews, with an average rating of. The site's critical consensus reads: "Macaulay Culkin's precocious charisma is sorely missed in this hollow sequel, which doubles down on the broad comedy while lacking all the hallmarks that made the original a classic." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and said that he found it to be "fresh, very funny, and better than the first two."

Accolades
The film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel, losing to Speed 2: Cruise Control.

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