Run time: 103 mins

This Chris Columbus exploritory slapstick classic comes to Christmas again, and what better way to fall into it than witnessing the antics of a 10-year-old defending his home from a couple of hapless burglars?

Playing out like a live action Tom & Jerry skit for kids, Home Alone finds young Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) accidentally left behind at home as the family jet off to Paris for Christmas.

Generally perceived by his family as a helpless, hopeless little geek, Kevin is at first delighted to be rid of them, gorging on forbidden junk food and violent videos, but when a couple of bandits (Pesci & Stern) begin circling his house, he realises he’s on his own.

Home Alone rapidly transforms in to what could be described as Straw Dogs for kids with nail guns, falling irons and swinging paint tins standing between Kevin and his assailants. Not many films draw such sympathy for the bad guys.

One could argue, writer the late, great John Hughes, doesn’t conjure the same magical script qualities found in Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but Home Alone is too busy setting alight to poor Joe Pesci to bother with tales of morality. (Jack Whiting) Come alone.