“We did it again! ” “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” is one of the most sequel-y sequels you’ll ever see. It’s preposterous and contrived - that's saying something considering the hoops the first adventure had to jump through. If you didn’t like the surprisingly successful 1990 family comedy, there’s nothing here for you. If you place “Home Alone” among your holiday classics, and you want to mix it up by seeing the Wet Bandits get hit in the head by different things… this could be a way to satisfy your craving without watching the exact-exact same movie… again.
One year after the events of “Home Alone”, the McCallister family are on their way to a vacation in Miami when Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) winds up on the wrong plane and lands in New York. With his father’s credit card, he treats himself to a personal vacation at the prestigious Plaza Hotel. Meanwhile, Harry (Daniel Stern) and Marv (Joe Pesci) have escaped from jail and bump into their young nemesis as they are preparing to rob Mr. Duncan’s toy store, whose namesake is getting ready to donate all of the till’s contents to a children’s hospital.
Like the previous movie, the bulk of the running time is dedicated to Kevin indulging in his fantasies. This time, he’s got "unlimited" cash to order violent movies (a sequel to “Angels with Filthy Souls” titled “Angels with Even Filthier Souls”, once again starring Ralph Foody), junk food, room service, and have the hotel’s pool all to himself. There’s a new “Boo Radley” in the form of a pigeon lady living in Central Park (Brenda Fricker) - her story is virtually identical to Old Man Marley’s - and a couple of new antagonists - stupid adults working at the hotel. Using the same kind of trickery as before, Kevin makes fools out of the Plaza Hotel’s concierge (Tim Curry), the bellhop (Rob Schneider), and the desk clerk (Dana Ivey). They’re good for a couple of laughs but you never believe any of their scenes.
And finally, we get to the trademark traps. Kevin tricks the Sticky Bandits (formerly Wet Bandits) into following him into a slapstick house of pain. Marv and Harry get roasted, electrocuted, skewered, clobbered, and pulverized. It’s the exact same thing as before but different because it’s in New York this time?
“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” made me laugh. Tim Curry is quite enjoyable. There’s Christmas sentiment aplenty. Seeing the bad guys howl in exaggerated agony as a preteen lays waste to them through impossibly assembled pitfalls tickles the ribs once more. I still can’t give it a pass. This movie is lazy. It literally repeats what we saw before beat-for-beat and isn’t self-aware enough to justify its copy-paste plot. Between you and me, however, I own this on Blu-ray and watch it every couple of years around Christmas time. It’s a guilty pleasure. (On Blu-ray, December 21, 2019)
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