1191. Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)

Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern

Director: Chris Columbus

Running Time: 120 mins

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York is an American film and the sequel to Home Alone. One year after being left alone at home at Christmas, Kevin finds himself in a similar situation, only this time, he’s all by himself in the Big Apple.

Now, the original Home Alone movie is a Christmas classic that everybody loves, even if it is completely ridiculous. However, I have to say that its sequel, Lost In New York, is actually pretty decent, and arguably better.

The main reason that I found the sequel to be more of a fun watch was simply because it was funnier. The first film has its moments, but I was never really laughing out loud. Here, though, we get a lot more clever jokes, Macaulay Culkin, now two years older, is even funnier and a whole lot more believable to watch, and so it’s simply a more entertaining film.

Also, one great thing about this film is how they address the impossibility of Kevin ever being left home alone again. Unlike most sequels, that would just rehash the same thing as the entire script, this recognises that it is doing the exact same premise, and makes a joke out of it, with various callbacks, particularly in the opening act, as to how they are definitely, definitely not going to leave him behind again this year.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Home Alone movie without that, and Kevin soon gets left behind, but this time by taking the wrong plane, getting on one to New York whilst his family travels to Miami. Although I didn’t find the actual story as exciting as the first film, considering we hadn’t seen this sort of thing before, I thought that the different direction that they took this in was really good, and Kevin’s adventures in New York are so much funnier than anything he did while at home on his own back in Chicago.

It’s not a perfect film, however. Once the first act is over and done with, there are moments where this film leaves comedy completely behind, and attempts to go for a mushy festive message about helping others. The first film managed to make some good sequences without comedy, but those had some emotional intrigue, whereas the non-comedic parts of this are just dull.

And then, the biggest issue comes in the form of the final act. What I said about this recognising it’s a sequel isn’t true the entire way through, as the final act is a long-winded carbon copy of the booby trap sequence from the first film, and so isn’t that impressive, or particularly funny to watch.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, and it’s definitely a funnier film than its predecessor, although its ultimately rehashed premise does prove a little dull come the end, so that’s why it gets a 7.1 from me.