10 WORST Actor Replacements In Movies
3. Kevin McCallister - Home Alone 4 (2002)
The first two Home Alone movies (1990/1991) are cherished family Christmas classics, and may they reign forevermore. The rest of the series, however... there’s a reason they don’t get aired too often.
It may be hard to believe, but there are in fact six(!) Home Alone movies, of declining quality, with the most recent franchise instalment dropping like a Yule log in 2021.
While most of us may have assumed that Kevin McCallister (originally played by Macaulay Culkin) ended his adventures with Lost in New York, the character was actually resurrected for a third outing in 2002 for Home Alone 4, with Mike Weinberg taking the role. Taking place a year or two after Kevin’s Big Apple adventure, 4 finds the McCallister family in turbulent times, with Kevin having to choose which divorced parent to spend Christmas with.
Weinberg fails to capture the instant likability and whip-smart attitude that made the role so iconic in the first place. Add this to the fact he looks nothing like Macaulay Culkin, and the result is a character totally devoid of any essential Kevin-ness. As Culkin was way too old to play McCallister (without severely altering the plot), it makes sense that producers had to replace him with younger talent. But, really, it would have made even more sense just to not bother at all.