An unfunny and fairly tiring sequel that copies its predecessor too much

Rating: 5/10 (7 January 2010)

I saw a bit of this film on TV as a kid, but didn't know it was "Home Alone 2". For many years, I thought maybe it was the original "Home Alone" I was seeing, until last year, when I finally watched that successful family Christmas movie for the first time and didn't recognize any of it. I found the original to be overrated, and couldn't understand why it was such an incredibly huge success at the box office during its theatrical run in 1990, but at least I laughed at times. It's been nearly a year since I saw that one, and I finally found a copy of "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" to rent earlier this week. In my opinion, the original is a mixed blessing, slightly above average, but this 1992 sequel isn't even that. It's basically just average.
This year, the McCallister family in Chicago has another Christmas trip planned, a trip to Miami, Florida. On the day of their flight, the parents, Kate and Peter, once again sleep in and have to hurry, but nobody is left at home this time. However, Kevin, who was the one left at home on the previous trip, is accidentally separated from his family at the airport in Chicago, and gets on the wrong plane! While the rest of the family go to Miami, Kevin ends up in New York City, and the others don't realize he's not with them until they have arrived at their destination! Trying to find him will not be easy, as he is not in Chicago, and his parents don't know where else he could have gone! Meanwhile, Kevin decides to make the best of the situation, and manages to rent out a hotel suite using his father's credit card. Unbeknownst to the lost boy, his old enemies, Harry and Marv, have escaped from prison, and are in the same city as him!
Just like the first film, this sequel begins in the McCallister household, with more unfunny quarrelling in the family, and it's sometimes a little too mean-spirited. The part where Kevin sees his Uncle Frank in the shower is pretty lame, and it's not the only gag in the film that can be described that way. The movie continues to be very straight-faced for a long time, definitely longer than its predecessor, and never does get as funny. It often seems like they were pathetically trying to replicate the original "Home Alone", which doesn't help. I think I consistently kept a straight face until the part where they've arrived in Miami and Kate McCallister (still played by Catherine O'Hara) faints when she realizes Kevin isn't there. This was the first of several gags that made me smile, but O'Hara certainly doesn't do as much for this film as she did for the original "Home Alone". I came close to laughing for the first time when Kevin uses part of a movie to scare off hotel staff members while he escapes, but I don't think the movie gag ever gets as funny as it does in the previous film. I lightly snickered at the part where Marv falls after entering a home under renovation, not realizing there's no floor in front of him, but I never found any big laughs. In fact, there are hardly any laughs at all, and only occasional gags that made me smile.
Watching this sequel made me think of the "Home Alone 5" joke in the short-lived mid-nineties cartoon series, "The Critic". I think watching "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" helped me get a slightly better understanding of that spoof. This movie does show a lot of repetition after its predecessor. In both films, Kevin is accidentally abandoned by his family, he's afraid of a certain adult stranger he sees more than once but eventually gets to know them and befriends them, he puts Harry and Marv through loads of slapstick mayhem before they finally catch him, and then he is saved by his new friend. Not only is "Home Alone 2" not very original, it's also not very funny. After the first two films in the franchise, "Home Alone 3" was released in 1997, and "Home Alone 4" in 2002. These films both feature different casts (Macaulay Culkin was obviously too old to star in them by the time they were made), and the third one features different characters. The franchise clearly didn't go in the direction predicted in "The Critic", but since the two later movies both seem pretty unpopular, and are apparently worse than this mediocre second film, I really don't think I'll be watching either of them.