The 10 Worst Christmas Movie Sequels Ranked

“Home Alone 3” is a decent film. The movie that came after that, the made-for-television, ABC special “Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House,” is absolutely not. Proving that you can’t bank a home run off of a familiar character, “Home Alone 4” flounders in its attempt to put a new spin on Kevin’s story. Erasing the big, happy family image of “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2,” the McCallisters are now, seemingly, a middle-class family about to be knee-deep in a divorce. 

Patriarch Peter (Jason Beghe) is leaving his wife Kate (Clare Carey) for Natalie (Joanna Going), a young, rich socialite. In the wake of his dad’s midlife crisis abandonment, Kevin (Mike Weinberg) decides he wants to cash in on the adultery and divorce by spending Christmas with them. Kate obliges, for some reason, and Kevin is soon reveling in the riches of a gigantic bedroom brimming with video games, toys, and at least 20 television monitors on the wall.

There’s a kidnapping plot, an inside job that involves the mother (Barbara Babcock) of Wet Bandit alumni Marv (French Stewart), and a cringey montage of Kevin, Peter, and Natalie putting up the Christmas tree. The booby traps Kevin sets up are not all that fun or terrorizing. Stewart’s rendition of Marv looks and dresses almost identically as Joe Pesci did as Harry in the first two films. It’s a mess.