A sequel can copy a hit and still miss what made it work. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York has the house, the crooks, the kid and the scream. What it does not have is a reason to exist beyond the box office.
The 1992 film runs 120 minutes. Chris Columbus directs. John Hughes wrote and produced it. Macaulay Culkin returns as Kevin McCallister. So do Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as Harry and Marv, the Wet Bandits. It scored 4.6 out of 10 on Metacritic, a 46.
That number is fair. This is a film built to repeat a formula, and it repeats it without shame.
Trailer, via YouTube Movies.
Kevin McCallister Boards the Wrong Plane
The setup is the first film with a new address. The McCallister family plans Christmas in Miami, Florida. Kevin, 10, hates the idea. He wants snow and trees, not Florida sun. At a school Christmas pageant, his oldest brother Buzz humiliates him in front of the audience. Kevin shoves Buzz and knocks over the whole choir, ruining the event.
At home he refuses to apologize. He berates his family for accepting Buzz’s insincere apology. He storms to the attic and wishes he could spend the holiday alone.
Then Peter resets his alarm clock by accident. The family oversleeps. In the rush through the airport, Kevin boards a flight to New York City carrying Peter’s bag, which holds his wallet.
The plot does not need Kevin to be clever here. It needs him to be lucky. He is.
A Hotel Room on His Father’s Credit Card
New York frightens Kevin at first. Then he sees the freedom in it. He tricks a desk clerk at the Plaza Hotel into giving him a room using Peter’s credit card. Tim Curry plays the concierge. Rob Schneider plays Cedric, the bellhop. Dana Ivey plays Hester Stone, the desk clerk. Donald Trump appears as himself, the then owner of the Plaza Hotel, and points Kevin to the lobby.
In Central Park, Kevin is frightened by a homeless woman surrounded by pigeons. Brenda Fricker plays her, the Pigeon Lady.
On Christmas Eve he visits a toy store and meets its owner, Mr. Duncan, played by Eddie Bracken. The store’s Christmas proceeds will go to a children’s hospital. Mr. Duncan gives Kevin a pair of ceramic turtledoves, symbols of eternal friendship, and tells him to give one to someone special.
Outside the store, Kevin runs into Harry and Marv, recently escaped from prison. They threaten him. He flees.
The film wants that turtledove to mean something. It almost does. The Pigeon Lady is the one good idea in the sequel, a lonely person matched to a lonely child. The movie spends its best minutes there and then goes back to the slapstick.
The Wet Bandits Take the Same Beating
The last act is the first film again. Kevin rigs a building with traps. Harry and Marv walk into them. Pesci and Stern are still funny. They are also doing work they already did.
The tagline sells the whole thing: “He’s up past his bedtime in the city that never sleeps.” That is the pitch. Same kid, bigger city.
Hughes finished the script by February 1991, after signing a six-picture deal with 20th Century Fox. Culkin’s return was confirmed in May. The rest of the cast was set soon after. Principal photography ran from December 1991 to May 1992 in Illinois and New York, including Rockefeller Center and the original World Trade Center.
That is a fast turnaround for a film this size. It shows.
What the Sequel Keeps and What It Loses
Home Alone 2 is the only sequel in the franchise to feature most of the cast from the first film. Home Alone 3 (1997) brought a new cast and new characters. The television film Home Alone 4 (2002) recast returning characters with new actors. That makes this one the last time the original group stood together.
It opened in the United States on November 20, 1992. It grossed over $359 million worldwide and finished as the third-highest-grossing film of 1992. Reviews were mixed.
The money says audiences wanted more. The 46 says they got less.
Catherine O’Hara returns as Kate, John Heard as Peter. Devin Ratray returns as Buzz, Gerry Bamman as Uncle Frank. The family is furniture here, moved in and out so Kevin can be alone. The first film made Kevin’s wish for solitude a punishment. The sequel makes it a holiday.
The Verdict on Home Alone 2
Here is what matters. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is not a bad movie. It is an unnecessary one. It takes a story that ended cleanly and runs it again with a larger budget and a worse reason.
The Pigeon Lady is the part worth keeping. Brenda Fricker gives the film its only real feeling, and the turtledoves give it its only image that lasts. Everything around that is noise: the hotel clerks, the bellhop, the traps, the cameo. The movie mistakes more for better.
The traps are the clearest proof. In the first film they were the payoff to a boy defending his house. Here they are a set piece, repeated because the audience liked them. Harry and Marv escape prison off screen so they can be beaten again. Nothing about that is earned.
The 46 out of 100 is not a harsh score. It is an accurate one. This is a sequel that copies the shape of a hit and loses the thing that made the hit matter. The kid is the same. The city is bigger. The film is smaller.
The Numbers Behind Home Alone 2
- Title: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
- Year: 1992
- Director: Chris Columbus
- Writer/Producer: John Hughes
- Runtime: 120 minutes
- Genre: Comedy, Family, Adventure
- US release: November 20, 1992, by 20th Century Fox
- Worldwide gross: over $359 million
- 1992 rank: third-highest-grossing film of the year
- Metacritic: 46/100 — 4.6 of 10
- Tagline: “He’s up past his bedtime in the city that never sleeps.”
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