Actor Macaulay Culkin was a staple of the 90s and still remains a household name thanks to movies such as Home Alone and My Girl. It cannot be denied that he was one of the most successful child actors of the 90s. While he’s primarily known for the roles he played whilst under the age of 15, Culkin took up acting once again in his adulthood after a nearly 10-year hiatus.
Culkin took a break from acting after Richie Rich when he became emancipated from his parents, before making a return in 2003 with his appearance in Party Monster. While most of his latest movies haven’t fared as well as those released in the 90s, many viewers are still glad to see the former child star continue acting after his hiatus, and most recently, Culkin became a fan-favorite on American Horror Story.
What follows is every single Macaulay Culkin movie ranked from worst to best. Made-for-TV movies are not included in this ranking. Because Culkin was uncredited in Jacob’s Ladder, the 1990 horror film is also not on this list.
It’s rare to come across a viewer who has actually seen Jerusalemski sindrome, a docudrama about the clichéd power of love conquering evil forces. With a meager 3.9 out of 10 on IMDb awarded by less than 250 people, there’s a good chance that viewers would steer clear even if they could find the Croatian film, which is entirely unavailable. The near-complete obscurity and poor reviews cement its place.
In Sex and Breakfast, Macaulay Culkin plays James, a man in a failing relationship with partner Heather (Alexis Dziena). Under their psychologist’s recommendation, they attempt to rekindle their love by swapping partners with another struggling couple. The film, featuring Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Eliza Dushku, is hard to watch for most viewers. With an unrealistic premise leading to an even more unrealistic story, the film scrambles the deeper message it tries too hard to achieve. Barely anyone who has watched Sex and Breakfast actually enjoyed it.
Getting Even with Dad is a lackluster film about Timmy (Culkin), the son of a con artist who tricks his absentee father into spending more time with him by hiding the rare coins he stole. All the characters are poorly written right down to Timmy himself, and viewers (save for the rare few) found them all to be rather annoying. The attempts made at humor in a so-called family comedy also fail dismally.
The movie about a wealthy child named Richie Rich who is forced to save his family is a staple of the 90s. However, looking back, the plot manages to be both contrived and predictable. The primary appeal of the film for adult audiences is nostalgia. Young children are still able to enjoy the movie, but some of the jokes completely fail for kids heading into their early teens, so it doesn’t rank high on being watchable.
The intentionally misspelled movie was shot using an iPhone. There isn’t much in the way of information available about it, and that’s probably a good thing. The tale about Greenstar (Adam Green) traveling around Europe during a ketamine-fueled trip is a bit too vulgar, rubbing anyone who wasn’t a high schooler in 2011 the wrong way. It’s also been largely forgotten with Macaulay Culkin’s appearance being the only thing that still draws any interest.
Changeland was directed by another Buffy alumni Seth Green, who stars in the film as a man taking what was meant to be a couple’s retreat to Thailand with his friend after discovering his wife’s infidelity. The buddy comedy is fairly light-hearted while tackling deeper subject matter but was hit or miss with audiences. While the men are tourists, viewers still expected to see a movie but walked away feeling like they’d watched a tourism ad sponsored by Thailand instead.
Macaulay Culkin plays the titular Nutcracker in this adaption of the Tchaikovsky ballet. It sits almost in the middle of the road because although not bad when examined on its own, comparisons to every other retelling are inescapable. Successful adaptations of stories that have been made and re-made dozens of times must add something new or do something better. This does neither.
See You in the Morning centers around a couple—Larry (Only the Brave’s Jeff Bridges), a divorcee, and Beth (Alice Krige), a widow, who both have two children—trying to make a new relationship work. Culkin plays one of Larry’s children alongside Drew Barrymore. The actors were selected carefully, but the film loses points because many viewers felt that their talents were misused. The opening is fragmented, and the remainder of the film, while realistic and relatable for anyone who has been in a similar situation, is highly predictable.
The part live-action part-animated children’s movie stars Culkin as a timid boy named Richard who trips and hits his head in a library. When he wakes up, he is in a fantastical world where a wizard tells him that to make his way back home, he must pass three tests: horror, adventure, and fantasy. The tests he works through, alongside familiar voices like that of Back to the Future’s Cristopher Lloyd, are reminiscent of various books including Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It's a fun little children’s adventure that’s often remembered fondly by those who watched it throughout the 90s.
In Party Monster, Culkin plays Michael Alig, a real-life club promoter who bragged about killing his roommate/dealer on television. Some audiences considered Culkin’s portrayal of the club kid turned murderer to be fantastic, while others called it one of the worst performances of the year and labeled the biopic as too outrageous. His characterization and the film as a whole have their issues, but it isn’t ranked very low because in an apples-to-oranges situation, those who complain about his performance can’t seem to do so without comparing it to his roles as a child star, which are lightyears away from his character in Party Monster. The criticism that the movie is another flawed Hollywood biopic because it’s too unbelievable is also faulty because the wild activities Alig took part in were actually toned down for the film.
The 1991 romantic comedy Only the Lonely stars John Candy as Danny, a Chicago police officer attempting to balance his relationship with his overbearing, anti-Semitic mother while dating a woman working at a funeral home. The film, directed by Chris Columbus, manages to make it into the top ten thanks to Candy’s memorable performance but isn’t placed higher because it plays out much like any other rom-com.
Culkin plays Henry, a young boy whose psychopathic behaviors begin to surface after his cousin Mark (actor Elijah Wood) moves in with his family after the death of his mother. Henry killed his younger brother and attempted to kill his sister before setting his sights on his mother, who has to make a Sophie’s choice in the end, choosing whether to save him or his cousin from falling off a cliff. The Good Son allowed Culkin to show a different side to his acting abilities and is a decent example of an early 90s psychological thriller/horror flick, but audiences felt the story itself was a predictable knockoff of The Bad Seed.
The other one of Adam Green’s films on this list is just above Macaulay Culkin’s horror movie The Good Son. While Adam Green’s Aladdin is notably better than his other film on this list, it’s another example of why Green is better known for the handful of films he has written music for, such as Juno. It’s ranked fairly high because it’s generally a pleasant watch for viewers who enjoy the hyper-sensory, arthouse visuals, but apart from the interesting stylistic choices, it’s fairly mediocre, explaining why audiences tend to be equally split between whether it’s fantastic or terrible.
Levi (Burt Lancaster) invites his family to a reunion for his 77th birthday. His adult children are so wrapped up in their own lives that when Levi’s health declines and he passes away, it is up to his grandchildren to give him the Viking funeral he wanted. It was Culkin’s screen debut and is remembered fondly for being a farewell to Burt Lancaster.
The Hunger Games’ Jena Malone plays Mary, a teenager who gets pregnant while attending a Christian school. Culkin plays the wheelchair-bound brother of one of her friends, all of whom (including Mary) are on missions to “save” other students. The dramedy about teenagers struggling to come to terms with their relationships with spirituality, sex, family, and friendships strikes a chord with many viewers, and the darkly comedic tone makes the deep subject matter funny and approachable. The main critique viewers have had with Saved! is that some of the dialogue isn’t as funny as writers intended, particularly in cases where it’s clear that writer Michael Urban and writer/director Brian Dannelly struggled with writing lines for teens.
Home Alone 2 was once again directed by Chris Columbus and is nearly as memorable as the first Home Alone. It maintains much of the family fun of the original, changing up the setting from the Chicago suburbs to New York City, so it makes sense the film is ranked almost as high when compared to Culkin’s other films. However, while the story still sets the mood for the holiday season, it doesn’t quite capture the same magic, which is why it’s only number four on this list.
The tale of a girl with a fear of death and a boy who is allergic to everything is primarily known for the tragic death of Thomas J. Sennett (Culkin), after he is attacked by a swarm of bees attempting to retrieve a mood ring for his friend Vada (Anna Chlumsky). Released between the two Culkin Home Alone installments, his character is stung to death after returning to the site of a beehive he’d recently knocked from a tree. While the film manages to blend both tragedy and comedy in a story told from the perspective of a child, some found that Vada’s grief wasn’t adequately portrayed. She is shown moving past her childhood fears and trauma in the coming of age film in too literal of a way: riding off with a new best friend rather than working through her grief.
Uncle Buck is one of the most well-known Culkin movies for good reason. The family-friendly John Hughes 80s movie once again stars John Candy, whose personality electrifies the screen. After a death in the family requires the attention of parents Bob (Garrett M. Brown) and Cindy (Elaine Bromka), they begrudgingly place the care of their three children in the hands of Bob’s brother Buck. The movie remains a family favorite over three decades after its release. John Candy is featured in three of the films on this list, all of which give audiences a healthy dose of nostalgia as they look back on the roles of the beloved character actor. The only reason Uncle Buck gets second place is that the first entry is so very good.
It should come as no surprise to many viewers that the Christmas classic that spawned five sequels is at the top of this list. Home Alone has wormed its way into the hearts of millions of people who tune in for the family favorite every holiday season. Even My Girl was able to benefit from the popularity of this film by putting Culkin on all the posters next to Chlumsky. His scenes are also the most memorable and well-known in that movie, and it’s all thanks to the popularity of this tight-budget movie that almost wasn’t made. Home Alone (and its immediate sequel) helped to define the remainder of the 90s, and while the franchise took a bit of a nosedive with its later entries, many audiences still view the first film as being synonymous with the Christmas season. As a result, it’s no wonder why the story of eight-year-old Kevin McCallister saving his home from a couple of bumbling burglars is Macaulay Culkin’s best movie.
