Blu-Ray Review:

Home Alone

By Jason Gillard

*Screen shots are not from the Blu-Ray source.

Movie

One of my favorite movies at Christmas time has to be Home Alone.  There is just something about the physical comedy in this film that cracks me up.  I am sure most people have seen this movie and if you haven't, where have you been?  The plot is the McCallister family are heading away for the Christmas holidays.  Everyone is running around getting ready to leave on a trip to France.  All Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) seems to be doing is getting in everyone's way.  When he gets blamed for a dinner disaster, he is sent to the attic with no food.  The next morning he is left behind.  When the family is doing a head count a neighbors kid gets mistaken for Kevin.  When Kevin finally wakes up the next day the family is long gone.  Kevin is so happy that he has the house to himself.  He spends his days filling himself with junk food and watching stuff he shouldn't be watching on TV.  Everything is going fine until two burglars target the McCallister household (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern).  Kevin sets out to defend his house and he has more than a few tricks up his sleeve.  I absolutely love this film. It's hilarious to see Pesci and Stern get set on fire and hit in the head.  Stern gets a giant spider on his face in one scene and utters a scream that should be up there with the funniest scream ever uttered.  The movie has a good message and is a ton of fun to watch. 

9 out of 10

Video

Home Alone is presented in 1080p with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  Colours come across bold in most scenes but there is a loss of detail to others. Black levels are pretty solid.  Detail is also pretty good and the inside of the house shows much more detail than in the DVD.  I did notice that the detail in the actors faces was almost non-existent.  It almost looks like they are caked in makeup, making there faces have almost no detail.  Outdoor scenes seem to fair much better though.  Overall this is definitely a visual upgrade to the DVD, but certainly is not the best catalog transfer I have seen.

7.5 out of 10

Audio

Fans are treated to a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track.  I was very surprised at this track because I expected the sound to be centered at the front with very little in the rear surrounds.  Boy was I wrong.  There is a lot of activity in those rear channels.  The bass is also present in more than a few scenes.  Dialogue comes across well and there were only a few scenes where the sound tended to overpower the dialogue.  Overall, you're getting the best sounding version of this film yet.  It's a worthy upgrade to the DVD release.

8 out of 10

Extras

Here is what you get in the way of extras:

Commentary track with Chris Columbus and Macaulay Culkin
1990 Press Featurette
The Making of 'Home Alone'
Mac Cam: Behind the Scenes with Macaulay Culkin
How to Burglar-Proof Your Home: The Stunts of 'Home Alone'
'Home Alone' Around the World
Where's Buzz Now?
Angels With Filthy Souls
Deleted scenes
Blooper reel

First off let me say that none of these features are in high-def and appear to be ported over from the DVD release.  If I had to recommend some of these features I would have to go with the Making of Home Alone and the Commentary track.  The Commentary track is interesting and they both seem to be having a good time talking about their experiences in the film.  They talk about locations and the look and feel of the film.  The Making of Home Alone is mostly just cast and crew interviews talking about their experiences working on the film.  Nothing new there but might be worth it to fans of the film. 

6 out of 10

Overall

This is one of my favorite movies to watch at Christmas and the better transfer and audio make it a fine upgrade to the DVD release.  I can't recommend the movie enough.

8 out of 10

Highly Recommended.

Home Alone Blu-ray is available now from Amazon.com