Home Sweet Home Alone is the sixth film in the disgraced Home Alone franchise. If the cover isn't enough to tell you not to watch this movie, than this review is. Because let's face it - you predicted this.

There is nothing sweet about Home Sweet Home Alone. It is a dreary, ugly, criminally unfunny trudge through a tired, worn out franchise, having long lost the charm and heart that made the original film so special. Gone is the adorable Macaulay Culkin and the wholesome beauty of the original. Gone also is the creativity and imagination of the original traps. What we have instead is a pair of poor parents trying to reclaim a doll that is rightfully theirs from an insufferably spoiled brat on Christmas Eve in order to save their house from being sold before the New Year. That's right - the kid is the villain in this situation. And boy, is he hateable.

The key element that is missing from this film is a heart. Whereas the original had an underlying message about valuing your family despite their flaws and extending love towards them while you still have them around, this new film completely and utterly lacks any of those sentiments, instead replacing it with a borderline cruel sense of "humor." The term humor feels almost inappropriate, however, as this movie is one of the most joyless productions I have ever laid eyes on.

Ultimately, there are two funny jokes during this dumpster fire of a film - a running gag involving the burglars having too many cartons of milk in their fridge, and a moment of self awareness from the burglar's obnoxious (cousin?) who loudly declares that Hollywood needs to stop remaking the old classics.

I, for one, agree.

And yet, it's not unbearably bad, nor is it good. Instead, it exists as a hollow cash grab written by people without a single funny bone in their entire body. Forced, ugly, and frustratingly mediocre, this is a Christmas film you should probably skip. Just go watch something like "Frozen" or "Noelle," or even better - just watch the original.