the amusing thing about a sequel to a sequel is that the formula usually wears off by the time you get to it . as i was watching 'home alone 3' i was surprised at how much charm it had and the harmless fun of a family film had struck the kid in me . macaulay culkin , joe pesci and daniel stern are nowhere to be found in this movie and this one has no connection in relation to the previous two films . although set in a wealthy neighbourhood in a chicago suburb like the first two chapters , this third chapter to the series offers a plot with international intrigue . a computer chip vital to the development of u . s . air force technology has the potential of falling into the wrong hands and miraculously , the chip falls into the innocent hands of a little boy ( alex d . linz ) who doesn't know what he has until late in the movie . four criminals working to smuggle the chip to the eventual buyer trace its whereabouts to linz's neighbourhood and come in direct contact with his house and the attempted recovery of the chip is under way . naturally , you can guess the rest . booby traps abound as linz sets the usual pratfalls in motion complete with dispensing as much pain as the villains deserve . some scenes are obviously a flagrant misconception of how things work . there's a scene where an fbi field office in another city finds out that the chip may be in chicago and they leave on the first plane out . uh , why not make a simple phone call to the chicago office and let them take over . since no one believes linz in his claim of burglars searching the homes in the neighbourhood , he straps a video camera to his remote controlled truck toy and catches the burglars red handed and the truck does things in motion that are totally unbelievable . it pushes open a steel gate , runs over a person and jumps across an alley in daredevil style . kids will love it but adults less cynical of breaking suspension of disbelief rules in the name of making children laugh will enjoy genuine laughs and overlook the flaws . scripted by john hughes who wrote and directed the first two and directed by raja gosnell who served as editor on the first two films , the two of them collaborate here for an installment in the series that hopefully will be the last one and they should quit while they're ahead and not push their luck too far . they got away with this copy cat of the first two films but manage to make it work based on the charm of a new child hero so likable , you'll want to take him home with you after the movie . 
