Macauly Caulkin Reviews Crappy Retro Home Alone Video Games For The Holidays
Do you ever find yourself wondering what Macauly Caulkin is up to these days? He rose to notoriety for playing the role of Kevin McCallister in the Christmas movie Home Alone and will forever be best known for that, and was also excellent in Uncle Buck, for which he doesn't get enough recognition. Fast forward to today, however, and the former child star who is now pushing 40 years old is making guest appearances on the popular YouTube series Angry Video Game Nerd.
It's a fitting combination. Whereas Macauly Caulkin was at the height of his stardom in the early-to-mid 1990s, James Rolfe, the Angry Video Game Nerd himself, helped pioneer Internet review videos by revisiting mostly crappy retro games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and other old-school game consoles from around the same era (and earlier).
There's a story of how James Rolfe and Macauly Caulkin teamed up, I'm sure of it, I just don't know what it is. However, what I do know is that these two have an onscreen chemistry. They're both delightfully goofy, and Macauly Caulkin as an adult makes a seamless addition to the AVGN series with its the corny scripts and sometimes raunchy humor.
Naturally, the two have teamed up to review a pile of old Home Alone games. Surprisingly (or maybe not), there are a lot of Home Alone titles spanning several different game systems. There's even a rare version for the PlayStation 2 that was only released in Europe. They're mostly terrible games that pit Caulkin's character in whacky situations, like avoiding vacuum cleaners and apparently evil luggage that for some reason are intent on doing him harm. However, there's a version for the Sega Genesis that isn't all that bad (comparatively).
It's not clear how many guest spots Caulkin will make, though so far he's in at least two. In addition to teaming up with Rolfe to review a bunch of Home Alone games, there's a follow-up episode in which the duo play The Pagemaster, another movie Caulkin starred in, on the Super NES. Mike Matei, who helps produce the AVGN series, also joined them.
For now at least, Caulkin is a welcome presence. I doubt he'll become a regular, though the Home Alone episode quickly became one of the most popular—it's stilling at over 2.6 million views and 177,000 thumbs up votes (to just 2,200 thumbs down votes) just three days after the video posted.
His second appearance in The Pagemaster episode isn't doing quite as well, though it's currently trending at No. 25 in the gaming category. It seems Caulkin still has some star appeal.
