Macauley Culkin has revived his iconic character, Kevin McAllister in 1990 John Hughes classic Home Alone, to plug Google Assistant, and ugh, this is why people don’t like Christmas.
[jwplayer tbeEGOCr]
Take a revered Christmas movie, and an actor down on his luck – okay, this is unsubstantiated, but name the last impressive acting turn Culkin made, I’ll wait – and combine them to prey on the world’s collective sense of nostalgia. Brilliant! Marketing!
Whatever, we’re sucked in, let’s dive into Home Alone Again.
#heygoogle Have you ever wondered what Kevin McCallister is like as an adult? Me neither. But just in case you’re curious you should totally watch this #ad pic.twitter.com/uO9qMPrUT3
— Macaulay Culkin (@IncredibleCulk) December 19, 2018
The ad recreates much of the section of Home Alone where Kevin is having a great time in an empty house – you know after his entire family leave him behind for the holidays and don’t even notice. Except Culkin is now 38 years old, with a couple misdemeanour drug offences under his belt.
It’s all “Mum?… Dad?” and shifty eyes until he uses his Google Assistant set-up to find out what’s in his calendar today. “House to yourself,” is the weird robotic reply. So he does those things kids do, like jumping on beds and watching TV with a massive bowl of icecream and ordering pizza, except weirdly hinged to technology – maybe you shouldn’t be so proud of your filthy animal self for not getting up to answer the door or tipping, Arrested Development Kevin.
👋
— Google (@Google) December 19, 2018
NB: If the conceit of this is that Kevin is an adult now, then why isn’t he doing what all of us do when our sharehouses are totally empty: wander around naked and watch porn without headphones? He’s even having a glass of soft drink with dinner, not three tinnies.
Of course the conclusion is that Google “commence[s] Operation Kevin“, to scare off the wannabe robbers, by creating the illusion that a collection of people are home – I guess they’d be willing to take on Culkin on his own? Just not with his elderly relatives? A better idea to scare them off: playing a full solo Pizza Underground set at full volume. But I guess he was busy finally eating his mac ‘n cheese.
Comedian DeAnne Smith asked the obvious question – does he still live with his folks, and is he still being stalked by the same crims?
He’s housesitting for Mom. And yes?
— Macaulay Culkin (@IncredibleCulk) December 19, 2018
It’s actually an impressive recreation, but God, everything is so connected part of me wondered if this would suddenly turn down an incredibly dark road, where like AI locks him inside and helps the baddies nick stuff – Google has control of his damn doors.
Google also dropped a ‘Making of Home Alone Again‘ clip of goofs where Culkin commended the filmmakers’ attention to detail: “They did a very good job on the set decoration and the props and all the shots were really spot on. I’m hoping that people are really gonna dig it.”
If you want something that I can guarantee you’ll definitely ‘dig’, just watch this uncomfortable gem again instead:
Or try episode one of 2015 webseries Dryvers, where disturbed adult Kevin describes the disturbing psychological consequences of his experience as an eight-year-old, then takes his revenge on a would-be carjacker: