Home Alone 3

Four criminal masterminds working for North Korean terrorists try to recover a microchip that would allow missiles to fly undetected by radar. Doesn't sound like the new Home Alone movie, does it? The ridiculous premise takes a turn for the predictable when the chip falls into the hands of eight-year-old Alex (a surprisingly cute Alex D. Linz), who's home alone with chicken pox. After a first half whose only point is to set up the final showdown, Alex thwarts the inevitable break-in with the standard Rube Goldberg array of pulleys, weights, and high-voltage electrical current.

Once the invasion begins, it's the original Home Alone all over again, except that the bungling burglars have been replaced by highly trained professionals. "We didn't anticipate the defense the boy would mount," the chief bad guy mutters at one point. Despite a few obnoxiously cute moments, Linz takes the reins nicely from a suddenly pubescent Macaulay Culkin. A few small plot twists strive to distinguish this film from its predecessors, but it's basically the same shtick with a different eight year-old. Opens Friday at the Harbour Mall, Lincoln Mall, Meadowbrook, Narragansett, Showcase (Seekonk only), Starcase, Tri-Boro, Westerly and Woonsocket cinemas.

-- Dan Tobin