Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 10 (slapstick violence, coarse language, sexual references)
This topic contains:
Children under 8 | Not suitable due to slapstick violence, coarse language, and some sexual references. |
Children aged 8–10 | Parental guidance recommended due to slapstick violence, coarse language, and some sexual references. |
Children over the age of 10 | Ok for this age group. |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | Home Alone 3 |
Classification: | PG |
Consumer advice lines: | Low level violence |
Length: | 101 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Released in 1997, Home Alone 3 is the third instalment of the popular movie series, Home Alone. Four members of a North Korean terrorist organisation are smuggling a top-secret, missile-cloaking microchip through airport security. The chip is hidden inside a remote-controlled toy car in an inconspicuous shopping bag. As it goes through airport security checks, it is accidentally picked up by an old woman, Mrs. Hess (Marian Seldes), who is on her way back to her suburban home in Chicago. The four terrorists must follow her to Chicago, find out where she lives and get the microchip back. Back in Chicago, Mrs. Hess gives the toy car to her next-door neighbour, eight-year-old Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz), as payment for clearing the snow from her front path. Shortly afterwards, Alex develops chickenpox and needs to stay at home until the virus passes. With his mother needing to work and his father away, Alex is left all alone at home. Alex loves to make quirky and fun inventions and his room is full of great engineering projects that do useful things, like feed his fish or change the television station on his next-door neighbour’s television set! As he watches in boredom out of his bedroom window, Alex notices suspicious behaviour going on in the neighbourhood whilst everyone is out at work. When both his attempts to alert the police fail and get him into trouble for wasting police time, Alex decides it’s time to take things into his own hands. He uses all his inventing, engineering powers to come up with a series of elaborate booby traps and contraptions to stop the terrorists from breaking into his home and stealing back the microchip. The terrorists get far more than they bargained for and the hilarious slapstick ordeal leaves them in terrible shape!
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Independence; Inventions; Slapstick Comedy; Quarantine; Bravery; Organised Crime.
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
There are many scenes of slapstick violence for comedic effect in this movie as well as several scenes where guns are pointed at people. These scenes include:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
Home Alone 3 follows the basic formula which made the original Home Alone film so popular - a funny, slapstick comedy where the kid gets to beat up the baddies and save the day. Whilst adults might find this a bit silly and the plot tired, many children will love the painful shenanigans and crazy booby-trap inventions. However, the theme of scary terrorists roaming the neighbourhood and threatening a young boy with guns is likely to be a bit much for some children, therefore, the film is unsuitable for children under 8 and parental guidance to 10 is recommended.
The main messages from this movie are that sometimes you just have to take things into your own hands and save the day, and that being creative and clever can be more powerful than being bigger and stronger.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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