Comments on: A medical perspective on the injuries sustained by Home Alone's Wet Bandits

By: fergus1948

fergus1948 — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 17:23:00 +0000

OMG! I didn’t think you’d really do it!!!!

By: Marc Tompkins

Marc Tompkins — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 03:51:00 +0000

I’m struggling to recall my high-school physics, but I don’t think water CAN reach 155C except in a pressure cooker – since 100C* is the temperature at which it boils into steam.

*at sea level, of course – YMMV.

By: ChickieD

ChickieD — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:06:00 +0000

Oh, yeah, riiiiiiight. That happened to me once, got to the airport and I was all like, whoopsie, where’s the kid and they were all like, move along lady. Could happen to anyone. Thank god for polka bands.

By: ando bobando

ando bobando — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:36:00 +0000

Well, if we’re going to split hairs, they realised he was missing while they were on the plane, so it was only a span of a few hours. And they couldn’t get a hold of him because there was a big storm and the phone lines were down and all the flights were cancelled. That’s why his mom had to drive home in a van with John Candy and his polka band. It all makes perfect sense. :)

By: ChickieD

ChickieD — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:10:00 +0000

I get that, I really do, but for some reason, watching that movie, I had a hard time getting past it. I think in Harry Potter there is the plausibility of his parents loved him but died and his adopted parents didn’t love him very much. In Home Alone, we’re supposed to accept that his parents are good parents but somehow didn’t really notice that their 9 year old son wasn’t there for a whole weekend. Then they do finally come home and it’s all hugs and tears. WTF? Needed a more plausible setup in my book.

By: ando bobando

ando bobando — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:50:00 +0000

You’re an old-fashioned reactionary!

By: novium

novium — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:01:00 +0000

Well, I don’t know about imitating it, but that’s why I couldn’t watch those movies as a kid- all the pain inflicted on them did look real (even if the effects were unrealistic) and not at all like watching looney-tunes, and so I just couldn’t stand to see that much pain inflicted on real people. It’s different than even the Three Stooges, which never involved burning someone’s face with a hot iron, or if it did, it was never anything I saw the few times I caught it in reruns.
And thinking back to the movie again, it didn’t help that the kid comes across as a creepy little sadist who seems to really enjoy the chance to seriously injure someone.

By: DisGuest

DisGuest — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 01:51:00 +0000

That’s kinda crazy, when a late night show goes to such lengths to be accurate, when the “news” does so much less. Oh Wait.

I’m interested in the Oprah/Letterman interview.

By: robcat2075

robcat2075 — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 01:22:00 +0000

No, he did that. Back when he was on NBC.

(The Jennifer Beals character was a welder by day, ballet wannabe by night)

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:28:00 +0000

It’s a tragically overused plot device. In the Potterverse, wizards live to be about 150, but nobody has parents or grandparents unless the parents are plot devices that override the orphan plot device. Harry’s parents were 20 when he was born but he has no grandparents on either side.

Same thing in LOTR. Almost every major mortal character has one or both parents who died tragically young.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:54:00 +0000

Or the same role that he played in Party Monster, only without designer drugs and sodomy.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:18:00 +0000

Well, I for one loved both Home Alone and Home Alone 2 when I was a little kid, I saw them both in cinemas and many times outside of the cinema. I can’t wait to show my kids this movie in a few years.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:10:00 +0000

It’s a plot device. If the parents are home, there’s no movie. This is the reason Harry Potter is an orphan.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:07:00 +0000

More to the point, the burglars are white.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:07:00 +0000

155C maybe?

By: ChickieD

ChickieD — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:22:00 +0000

I was just coming on to comment similarly. I remember when this came out and it was a huge hit. I didn’t see it right away but when I caught it on video, I just couldn’t believe how this violence both to the child and by him was considered to be hilariously funny – and how many people had paid to watch it in the theaters and thought it knee slapping family fun. I enjoy slapstick but it just piled it on to the point where it went way beyond a pratfall or a funny clonk on the head. And the kid being left alone all weekend, to me, was such negligence and yet it was treated with humor. I know there are lots of kids books where kids are left alone or escape, but I felt like there was something off about the way this was all presented in the movie. It could have been funny I think, but I couldn’t get past it.

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:16:00 +0000

Ah, so in Home Alone he found a morally-justifiable outlet for his sadistic streak, kind of like a young Dexter.

By: fergus1948

fergus1948 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:05:00 +0000

I didn’t take it as an insult. I think we are in agreement my friend.

By: DisGuest

DisGuest — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:58:00 +0000

I know, dammit. But most kids today aren’t gonna do that shit either, even though it’s more “realistically” displayed in the film. At least I hope so.

Plus I haven’t heard of anything remotely like this happening in the news.

By: DisGuest

DisGuest — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:56:00 +0000

I know. I didn’t mean to insult you. I hate The Three Stooges. Just sayin’ that “yesterday” wasn’t so perfect either. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:54:00 +0000

One difference is that most kids instinctively know that a coyote wouldn’t really get flattened into an accordion-like shape if it were hit by a falling anvil. The paint-can-to-the-face gag looked real enough to seem plausible, thus more likely to be imitated.

By: fergus1948

fergus1948 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:50:00 +0000

I agree with you but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. It might help (partly) explain why we live in a seemingly eternally violence-disposed culture.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:50:00 +0000

Somehow I doubt it, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny as the guys in The Full Monty doing the same thing.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:46:00 +0000

So basically Macaulay Culkin was playing the same role he did in The Good Son, just with wackier sound effects.

By: DisGuest

DisGuest — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:43:00 +0000

*See Looney Tunes, The three Stooges, almost every classic nursery rhyme or child’s song in the old fashioned days.

By: DisGuest

DisGuest — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:41:00 +0000

You’re kidding, right?

By: Ian McLoud

Ian McLoud — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:40:00 +0000

As I understand it, ‘Stand Your Ground’ is applicable in public places, not within the privacy of your own residence.

In your own home, I believe one generally has far greater authority to use lethal defense.

Kevin correctly surmised that these two thieves had ultra-violent tendencies. As such, I don’t think he “moved from ‘defending his house’ into sheer malice” – at least not if he wants to avoid Joe Pesci biting off “every one of these little fingers, one at a time.”

By: fergus1948

fergus1948 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:39:00 +0000

I remember getting Home Alone out on video for my kids and was actually horrified by the sheer malevolence and sadism of the kid in the movie. It’s like a kind of ‘Hostel’ for kids.
Call me an old-fashioned reactionary (and I’m sure you’ll think of worse things to add to that too) but it struck me as a really morally questionable movie to have made for kids.

By: robcat2075

robcat2075 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:33:00 +0000

I’m reminded of the time David Letterman had a professional welder on to review the technical authenticity of “Flashdance.”

By: jarmstrong

jarmstrong — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:31:00 +0000

But, these were lethal booby traps which are usually not permitted, right?