Nobody Spends The Holidays Alone..."Unaccompanied Minors"

Nobody deserves to spend Christmas stuck in an airport.

Nobody.

 

The Story:

5 "Unaccompanied Minors" are snowed in at an airport on their way home for Christmas.  They sneak away from the room where all of the others are being held, and so the adventure begins!  They must outwit and outsmart the airport security and the airport director (Lewis Black) once they discover that all of the other minors, including one little sister, are back safely at the hotel.

An unconventional Christmas movie that owes quite a bit to Home Alone and the John Hughes school of storytelling.

That's a good thing.

The movie also shows the importance of family, especially during the holidays.  Plus, that those families may not always be traditional, and sometimes you might have to make your own family along the way.

Directed by Paul Feig, this is my favorite movie that he's directed.  As I've mentioned, I was underwhelmed with Bridesmaids and The Heat, but I think that has more to do with the scripts than with the director.

The 5 kids are all really good actors that I've seen pop up in a few other things in the years that have passed. 

The name stars of the movie, Lewis Black plays an excellent villain for the movie.  He's exasperated and evil, but like all good Scrooges, he's got a heart buried under the cold exterior.

Joining him as his right hand man is Wilmer Valderrama who gets beaten up for a bit before realizing that following orders is not in his best interest.

Finally, the always reliable Rob Corddry is hilarious as the parent of two of the children.  He drives to the airport to save his kids, and is hilarious in all of his scenes.

Released in 2006, I didn't get around to seeing this one until 2 or 3 years ago.  Searching Netflix for Christmas movies that we hadn't seen yet, this came and was an instant hit with the family. 

I found a copy for sale, and the rest is history.

Final Grade: A

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Already own it, and it gets watched at least once during the holidays... and sometimes outside of the holiday season!