Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York

20th Century-Fox. Dir Chris Columbus; Producer John Hughes; Screenplay John Hughes; Camera Julio Macat; Editor Raja Gosnell; Music John Williams Art Dir Sandy Veneziano

Macaulay Culkin
Joe Pesci
Daniel Stern
Catherine O'Hara
John Heard
Tim Curry

Some day scholars will devote courses to the monstrous box office allure of the original Home Alone, which, at the time, surprised even Fox. For a sequel the studio has simply remade the first movie, but with bigger pratfalls. Pic delivers on that level.

Once again, Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), provoked by his older brother, finds himself in the doghouse just before a family vacation, this time accidentally boarding the wrong plane and ending up in New York while the McCallister brood jets off to Florida. Meanwhile, the inept thieves from the first movie, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), have conveniently escaped from prison and caught a truck that arrives in New York about the same time Kevin does.

Using his dad's credit card, Kevin checks into a ritzy hotel, where he finds more adults to outwit, in this case a snooty concierge (Tim Curry) as well as the equally haughty staff. Ultimately, however, it's again Kevin versus the two bad guys, setting up elaborate traps at his uncle's being-remodeled home.

Under Chris Columbus' careful direction, the wide-eyed Culkin again shows his skill at being an Everykid - cutely precocious, yet still vulnerable to childish whims such as running up a whopping room-service tab on chocolate sundaes.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1992. Running time: 120 MIN.

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