12 Days of Christmas 2015: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
Directed by: Chris Columbus


With the first Home Alone film being a success, a sequel was in the works to be released just 2 years later. I know what a lot of people are thinking just by looking at the poster, "They lose Macaulay Culkin AGAIN!?!?" Yes they do, but this time it's different. This time, he's in New York all by himself. I know the premise may seem really weak and forced, but to the film's credit, it had a tough act to follow. The first film is such a well-known classic, but also with a very simple plot to follow. In many ways when it comes to film, simple can be most memorable and effective. So when you try to redo the movie with a bigger scope, you're going to have some things that don't work as well and that's definitely the case with Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The film falls victim to a disease called sequel-itis and tries very hard to replicate what the original did so well. However, there are things that the film does really well, and in some ways are more entertaining than the first film. So let's see what works and what doesn't work with Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Macualay Culkin is back as Kevin McCallister, set one year after the events of the first Home Alone. When the first film came out, Culkin was the perfect age for Kevin, able to play him as both adorable and mischievous. For this film, puberty hit Culkin, so I don't really buy him only being 9-years-old. That voice change also, sadly, makes it really hard to not find Kevin annoying. It's a thing that follows child actors in film and TV when they've been playing the part for too long. When a once cute kid loses that novelty, producers will usually try to fix this by bringing in a newer, younger character into the mix. That's the case with Culkin here, just without the younger kid being brought in. When he repeats a lot of the stuff he was doing in the last film, that adorable factor has vanished and he's now bordering on going full sociopath.

Harry and Marv are back, once again played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, but this time they are known as the Sticky Bandits. Once again, these two are great. I'll never get tired of watching Pesci and Stern work together as Harry and Marv. In a world where spin-offs are made for great characters, they normally don't fare out well. But I would definitely see one about Harry and Marv. They are just such lovably idiotic buffoons and it's hilarious to see them get beat up by a little kid throughout these two movies.

One thing that is obnoxious is how much of the first film they try to get away with doing again, an action that exists in franchises (particularly in comedies) called sequel-itis. With the exception of the film's setting, this really can come off as lazy. The family is treating Kevin like scum, again. They lose him, again. Kevin has an adventure away from his family, getting into all kinds of mischief, again. Harry and Marv show up to cause some trouble, so Kevin has a house full of booby traps ready to foil their plans, AGAIN. It really becomes noticeable and you'll probably react one of two ways. If you have fun with it, you'll enjoy the little nods it gives to the first film. If you're a bit more of a critic and cynic like I am, you'll probably be stuck noticing how the once great John Hughes turned in a screenplay that feels so lazily written and slapped together as a film simply to capitalize on the previous film's success.

There is a lot of new stuff added to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York that I really do enjoy. For starters, New York. Yeah, it's a pretty simple concept to put these characters in New York, but it works really well. They take every advantage of taking Kevin everywhere. Central Park, the World Trade Center, Rockefeller Center, and the Plaza Hotel. Speaking of which, the stuff he does in the Plaza Hotel is very fun to watch as he tries to scam a lot of the staff members, particularly a concierge played by Tim Curry. Tim Curry is phenomenal even in his crappiest of films, so I get a kick out of seeing him in everything he's in. There's also a bellhop played by a young Rob Schneider and a cameo appearance from Donald Trump. That cameo alone is worth checking out in a modern day context, as it is funny to think how a candidate currently trying to run for President agreed to make an appearance in a film with Macaulay Culkin. But that's all I get into with politics here, if I went any further it would be silly.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

If you love the first Home Alone and don't mind seeing a lot of it repeated in a different setting, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a film you'll probably have a lot of fun with. The New York setting, the updated traps, and some of the scenes in the Plaza Hotel are sure to have you and your family laughing. It might not hold up quite as well as the first, but there's no harm in checking it out once.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and movie images are copyrighted by 20th Century Fox