Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is, to date, the only sequel to the 1990 original that I’ve seen. I may, as a result of the annual madness, which compels me to create this redundant festive countdown, force myself to watch the other four entries in the series. But I don’t need to watch any of them to know that they are not true sequels so much as misguided reboots attempting to cash in on the success of the first two movies.
But the first sequel, is a genuine sequel and one which I loved almost as much as the original when I was the target audience of the films. While I caught the first one one via video rental, I was very much armed with a ticket to my local multiplex as soon as the second movie was released. As an adult, I can see that Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is largely a rehash of its predecessor but with the cartoon violence dialled up to eleven. At the time it came out, though, I completely fell for the fallacy that bigger means better, and may have briefly thought the second movie was an improvement on the original.
It is not. I can’t shake off my nostalgic affection for it (as soon as I was able to, my pocket money afforded me a VHS copy to keep the first movie company and just like the first movie, it saw regular rotation in my childhood viewing schedule), but it is evidently not as good as the first movie.
However, Culkin is still prodigiously charismatic, and Pesci and Stern clearly have enormous fun as the bungling Harry and Marv, who completely fail to learn all of the lessons of the first movie and once again fall foul of the wit of a small child.
Tim Curry is a nice addition as the overzealous hotel manager who takes on the role of a minor adversary to Culkin’s Kevin.
And there is of course an infamous cameo by a certain Donald Trump, which is possibly more amusing to the modern viewer than it was at the time.
Ultimately, whatever flaws this movie may have, it’s arguably as good a sequel as anyone could realistically have hoped for and it’s generally inconceivable these days that I’ll sit through the first movie without immediately watching the second.
Score for Christmasishness
I’m not sure I put too compelling a case for considering the original Home Alone as being Christmas(ish) rather than an outright Christmas movie. Mainly my argument hinged on the fact that I tended to watch that film all year round as a kid, and that is also true of the sequel. But if anything, the second movie is even more steeped in Christmasishness than the first, and frankly any suggestion that it isn’t actually a fully fledged Christmas film should be met with scorn and ridicule.
James Proclaims! 