Home Alone

The 1.78:1 picture is matted, which means that if you are only familiar with the movie through VHS, then the top and bottom of the picture has been blacked out. Don't worry. This was the intent of director Chris Columbus and the matted version is what he wanted.

Although the DVD is anamorphic - the Region 1 version wasn't - the picture is quite nasty looking. It seems as if any random print was used to produce it. The result is a picture that's dirty, full of grain and too "film-like". It should look so much better on DVD, but sadly not, and what's even weirder is that the aspect ratio seems to shift between 1.78:1 and 1.85:1 is some shots.

Recorded in plain old Dolby Stereo, the DVD presents the film in rather lacklustre surround sound. Sure, it's adequate enough, but John Williams's score should have more dimensionality. If it had been in 5.1, I am certain the effects would have had way more punch during the booby trap scenes. How cool would that be?

One can only wonder what goes through the minds of the people at 20th Century Fox. They take flops like Big Momma's House and give them DVDs, with a decent amount of features, yet movies like Home Alone 1 and 2, which made zillions of dollars worldwide, get...three trailers. One for each movie.

Um...wow!