Movie Review: "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992)

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Movie: "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York"
Director: Chris Columbus
Year: 1992
Rating: PG
Running Time: 2 hours

Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) and his family are on their way to another family vacation exactly one year after Kevin was left home alone. This time, he gets lost in the airport and winds up in New York City with only his dad's wallet and his TalkBoy. Kevin secures a hotel room but arouses suspicion from a concierge worker (Tim Curry) and bell boy named Cedric (Rob Schnider). Kevin makes his way around the Big Apple, visiting tourist attractions and toy stores alike, but little does he know that the Wet Bandits Marv (Daniel Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci) have broken out of prison and are planning to rip off a toy store on Christmas eve. Kevin must put a stop to their plan and, once and for all, put the Wet Bandits away for good.

This movie is definitely not as good as the first installment, but it's still a decent Christmas movie. A lot of the plot is simply rehashed and put into a different setting, but this time with even more dangerous booby traps, IE: STAPLES TO THE SKULL AND NUTS. It also seems to be more cartoonish, and Marv even briefly turns into a skeleton while being electrocuted. There's a lot more "mugging" to the camera by the characters involved and it all seems very try-hard.

Plus, can we talk about how completely insanely irresponsible it is of Kevin's parents to misplace him exactly one year after he was left home alone? Good lord, someone take that kid away from his parents since they clearly don't have his best interests at heart. No amount of love at the end of the movie could repair the damage done from being stuck ALONE in one of the largest metropolitan cities in the freakin' world.

That being said, it does have some good Christmasy themes to it, the same as the first, really. Plus, this one has Tim Curry, another flawless human being. He could be The Grinch in real life, look at that smile!

My Rating: 6/10
BigJ's Rating: 6/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 24%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?