Rating:
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is perhaps the very epitome of that saying about what audiences want from a sequel: more of the same, only different. If you’ve seen Home Alone, you’ve seen Home Alone 2. They differ in the particulars but, rest assured, it’s the same movie.

Fortunately for we audience members, that means that, for the most part, this is a fun movie with a heartwarming Christmas message about acceptance and the importance of family.

Instead of being left behind when his family goes away on Christmas vacation, this time young Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) accidentally boards a plane to New York while the rest of his kith and kin head to Miami. Alone in the Big Apple but, thanks to the machinations of the plot, carrying his father’s credit cards, Kevin reckons he’ll make the best of the situation and enjoy his stay.

So instead of charming sequences of Kevin having the house to himself, we’re treated to charming sequences of Kevin staying in a fancy hotel and shopping in toy stores. All the memorable bits from the first movie are reprised—Kevin outsmarts adults using his wits, Kevin outsmarts adults using an impossibly quickly assembled marionette, Kevin outsmarts adults using dialogue from a gangster movie, etc.

An interesting thing about all the scenes in the hotel is the concierge, played by Tim Curry with his usual infectious gusto. He’s the comic villain of this part of the film, and played as a villain for the following reason: he suspects that Kevin’s story about his father being with him is a lie, that he’s making unauthorized use of a credit card, and that he doesn’t belong in the hotel at all. All of this is true. Kevin is, in fact, committing fraud and deliberately putting one over on the hotel. Poor, put-upon Tim Curry! Sure, Kevin’s breaking the law, but he’s our hero so I guess that makes you the villain. I know you’re just doing your job, but nerts to you anyhow, apparently.

Also revisited from the first picture is the lesson about not judging people before you even get to know them. The first time around it was a creepy old neighbor who turned out to be nice; he and Kevin gave each other some advice and both came away richer for having forged a frienship. This time, it’s a creepy homeless pigeon lady who turns out to be nice; she and Kevin give each other some advice and both come away richer for having forged a friendship. Sure, it’s the same old thing, but it’s dang sweet nonetheless. For the record, the pigeon lady is played by Brenda Fricker, who I freakin’ love thanks to her appearance in the 1994 version of Angels in the Outfield.

Of course, the one disadvantage to this being the same film as its predecessor is that it shares that movie’s flaws. This means we again have the impersonal directing that is Chris Columbus’s stock in trade, but most grievously it means we get a stinker of a third act. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern return as two bumbling crooks who, by a pretty big coincidence, again cross paths with Kevin. The boy once more sets up a series of cartoonish booby traps in an attempt to foil the criminal plot. Pesci and Stern are both wonderful talents and their sequences are those that are most associated with the Home Alone franchise, but these scenes are really just awful.

For ninety minutes, you’re watching a sweet, fun-filled and often emotional Christmas comedy and suddenly the film slams on the brakes and stops dead, to make room for twenty minutes of something else entirely. Pratfall follows pratfall follows electrocution follows conk on the head. Now, I love a violent action movie and I love the played-for-laughs violence of a Warner Bros. cartoon or the Three Stooges. All the bumps and bangs here fancy themselves this latter type of goofy violence, but they aren’t. The violence is played much too straight to be taken the way you would with Curly and Moe, and as a result it’s rather unpleasant, leaving in your mouth a very bad taste indeed. It has no place in an otherwise charming family holiday film.

But overall, the experience of watching Home Alone 2 is as enjoyable and heartwarming as watching the first. Either or both would be a welcome and worthy part of your family’s holiday merrymaking.

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Home Alone
• Jingle All The Way
• The Problem with Home Video
• From Dusk ‘Til Dawn
• The Last House on the Left (Original)