Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Dear Erica,

Macaulay Culkin is up to his hi-jinks yet again in this remake of the first Home Alone. I call it a remake rather than a sequel since, let's be honest here, it's practically a scene for scene retread. Although I love the original Home Alone, I prefer this one for several reasons. It has three plot devices that I am partial to: Christmas, New York and hotels. I'm a sucker for movies that have virtually any of these dictating the action. New York (Woody Allen and Nora Ephron movies), hotels (Some Like it Hot) and Christmas (insert any Christmas movie here). Put them all together and I will think you have nothing short of a masterpiece. Home Alone 2 scores on all counts.

Catherine O'Hara and John Heard should probably be arrested for reckless endangerment of a child. In the first movie they seem genuinely shocked and horrified to forget their kid when they go on vacation. I get the feeling in this one that, yeah, they feel bad, but he's a big boy and will figure it out. There are a couple obligatory "NOTHING'S GONNA STOP ME FROM FINDING MY CHILD" scenes, but mostly they laugh and reminisce over the last time they put their boy in jeopardy. Love it!

The hotel staff is priceless. Ever since Tim Curry made Clue, he can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. He's particularly funny in this, playing up his British oaf routine to the max. I can safely say this is the only good Rob Schneider movie and (I can't believe I'm saying this) he's really good in his bit part. Dana Ivey manages to take any wee part she is handed and mine it for comedy gold. I actually have a funny story about her. She was slurping soup, all alone, in a swanky New York restaurant one time and everyone could feel her icy chill as she stared silently up from her bowl. Okay, maybe it's not that funny, but I thought I'd share anyway.

With such a great cast in the hotel, it's sort of a shame they brought back Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci as the bad guys. Culkin could have just as easily put the hotel staff through a maze of torture at the Plaza. Perhaps then it wouldn't have seemed like such a repeat of the original. Imagine what he could have done if he somehow rigged a bunch of hotel rooms. No disrespect to Stern or Pesci. They were great in the first one. But did we really need to see them return? Not when we have Tim Curry that could take a paint can to the face.

Along with Christmas Vacation, Jingle All the Way, Christmas With the Kranks and Mixed Nuts, this is the most watched Christmas flick on my shelf. I usually wait until December to break it out, but with the days going by faster and faster it seemed silly to hold off any longer.

Till next time,
Bradley