Review: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Macaulay Culkin is back as 10 year-old Kevin, who through a series of mishaps ends up on the wrong plane. His family (including parents Catherine O’Hara and John Heard) are set to vacation in Miami, but Kevin straggling behind, mistakenly boards a plane for New York. All alone in a big, not always friendly city he has to fend for himself. He does have his father’s credit cards though, so he’s able to check into the Plaza Hotel (with then-owner Donald Trump having a walk-on as himself), much to the suspicion of the hotel staff played by Tim Curry, Dana Ivey, and bellhop Rob Schneider. Eventually Kevin runs into a couple of familiar faces from back home…would-be robbers Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), who plan to rob a big toy store run by kindly old Eddie Bracken. The burglars want to settle a score with young Kevin, who in turn wants to stop them from robbing the store. Brenda Fricker plays a ‘Bird Lady’ who haunts Central Park.

 

On the one hand, this 1992 sequel from director Chris Columbus (“Mrs. Doubtfire”) and writer John Hughes (writer-director of “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) is a shameless rehash of the original film (from the same writer-director team and mostly the same cast), with lesser results. On the other hand, it’s quite amazing how close the film comes to working despite being so incredibly lazy on all fronts. Honestly, this is the same film with different window dressing and lesser results. No one has learnt a goddamn thing from last time here. Not the parents, not the rest of the arsehole relatives, not young Kevin, and certainly not the idiot would-be robbers. Even the John Williams (“Jaws”, “Star Wars”, “Superman”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) music score is the exact goddamn same music score as last time. The only real difference here is that Kevin gets lost instead of being left behind at home. For a film that is close to 2 hours in length, that’s just not enough to make it worthwhile. And yet, it’s still sorta watchable in a lazy, non-think kind of way.

 

The way Kevin gets separated from his family in this one is more plausible but only if viewed in a vacuum. If you take into account what happened last time, there’s no way the family would allow this to happen after what happened last time. The idea of a little kid being lost in such a huge city with tall buildings, creepy alleys and lots of crime is a worthy one…just not as a sequel to “Home Alone”. Instead of Roberts Blossom’s supposedly creepy neighbour we get Brenda Fricker’s terrifying-looking ‘Bird Lady’. Ralph Foody once again plays a gangster on TV for Kevin to use for misdirection. It’s the same damn movie. In fact, the ‘Bird Lady’ and her big scene appears at the exact same point in the story that Roberts Blossom’s big scene occurs (despite the two films being different in length). It even gets accompanied by the exact same music as was used for that moment in the first film as Kevin gets prepared to defend himself from the goons.

 

Any originality in the film comes from the performances by Tim Curry, Dana Ivey, and Rob Schneider. Yes, they’re the victims of the ‘gangster on TV’ treatment, but at least their characters have no counterparts in the first film. Ivey and Schneider are perfect casting, and as usual Tim Curry is wonderfully odious, snooty, and ultimately spineless. There are few pleasures in life like watching Tim Curry be Tim Curry. This isn’t the best example of that (“The Three Musketeers” and “Stephen King’s IT” are probably better examples), but he’s hilariously insincere nonetheless. They’re a fun trio, and sorely missing in most of the second half. Some will find Eddie Bracken a little too twinkle-eyed for their tastes as a kindly old toy store owner, but I think he’s sweet. There’s undeniably some fun stuff, like a clever use of an inflatable clown and a tape recorder even if they’re essentially part of a re-tread from the ruse in first film. Gerry Bamman is in perfect form as jerky Uncle Frank, whilst Devin Ratray is in peak douchebag form as bullying older brother Buzz. The biggest surprise for me was after seeing this film a few times over the last 25 years (Yes, it’s that old and you’re even older most likely) I only just noticed the cameo by a blonde Ally Sheedy as an airline receptionist.

 

I cannot in good conscience fully recommend this film. It’s the same damn film, right down to star Culkin offering up largely the same mannerisms and catch phrases as last time. It’s one of the more shameless sequels you’ll come across, really and it’s at least 20 minutes too long to boot. Meanwhile, after all that Kevin goes through in these two films, I like to think of the subsequent ‘bad seed’ film “The Good Son” as the real “Home Alone 3”. Kevin would be messed the hell up after these experiences. Yes, this film is a pretty easy watch, although I’d argue the violence against the robbers almost looks like Kevin is trying to kill them, albeit after they target him first. The real problem is that it’s a complete re-tread of the first film and therefore feels like zero effort has been put in. Only watch it if there’s nothing else on TV or if you want to see Donald Trump pretend to be helpful and decent for a couple of seconds.

 

Rating: C+