Never mind being Lost in New York, something somewhere got lost in the transition from 1990's functional first outing and the nonentity that is the second.

Rating: 5/10 (8 February 2012)

I'm not sure 1990's Home Alone was crying out for a sequel, nor indeed do I think the first film was produced with that of continuing the misadventures of its young protagonist in mind. Like any scientist experimenting with chemicals and procedure in their laboratory, burrowing away at what it is they do for that elusive formula which will make them famous and, they hope, the world a better place, American director Chris Columbus toyed with this project about a kid stuck at home; his family's mad dash back to him and a pair of crooks looking to rob his mansion of a home before happening upon something with a shelf-life. The first was a sweet enough tale, this idea of a child at home alone after wishing to be as such whilst learning some home-truths about the presence of one's family and, encapsulated in the supposedly serial killing road-sweep, that life beyond one's homely walls was a little different to what one originally thought. Boom! Ideas and chemicals and experimentations forge together to create something audience's respond to, Home Alone being one of the fifteen or so highest grossing films of all time at the time, and thus a sequel is spawned. Cynicism aside, it's important to establish Home Alone 2: Lost in New York exists for the cash and solely for the cash; a filmic formula that was stumbled upon and saw people react.
In truth, Home Alone conformed to that of a closed narrative structure; by which we mean his stance on things were introduced, befell a catalyst which allowed him to address his views and then came around to realise that things weren't so bad when you've got the sort of family young Kevin McCallister had and you're living in the environment that you are. The framework was established; developed and then closed and there was no room for further development. Lost in New York takes everything the first instalment did, as well as the places it took its lead, and incinerates them in a blaze of smoke within about fifteen minutes: this time, his reaction to his realising that he's all alone with time to himself away from his family is greeted with a grin rather than a grimace. He is afraid, but only of getting caught.
Like number one, it's Christmas time and the greater extent of the McCallister family are going nuts over their annual festive holiday. This time it's Florida, and this time Macaulay Culkin's Kevin makes it as far as the airport departure lounge, in what is an improvement of not even getting out of his bedroom the first time round, but gets mixed up in the rush and lands himself on an airliner to New York. Feeding off what had happened back home in regards to Kevin and his managing to fall out with his family over a practical joke at a school choir pageant, access to his father's credit cards and a wad of existing cash draws him into staying at an expensive hotel and gorging himself on the surroundings rather than turn himself in. First and foremost, New York City dwarfs Kevin; a montage getting across the scale of the place in regards to this overtly street-wise youngster is encapsulated in a tracking shot away from The World Trade Centre as Kevin stands atop it.
Alas, a somewhat hackneyed subplot to do with the two burglars from the first one is cooked up; Joe Pesci's Harry and Daniel Stern's Marv have escaped from prison in amidst a riot and have come to New York as if European immigrants at the start of the century seeking opportunity and fresh starts. In direct opposition to his 5-star living in the mean time, however, is chief of the hotel floor Mr. Hector (Curry), whose gurning face is the subject of a dissolve designed to sync up with that of an image of The Grinch on television. Like those aforementioned bandits from the first, he is indeed out to wreck McCallister's Chritsmas cheer upon happening upon Kevin's scheme to live a high life on his father's card and by himself..
Complaints with the first film came with its tendency to place most of its eggs in the basket labelled "final twenty minutes", when a series of stunts and second unit sequences saw Marv and Harry smacked about by a number of booby-traps Kevin had laid for them. Here, one can practically feel Columbus nudging us in the arm and winking at us square in the face as the realisation the film is about to do what everybody responded to the first time, again. It was marginally fun the first time; here, harmless slapstick has crept up a notch to near full on body-horror: where a paint can on the bonce or a pellet gun round to the groin was once as bad as it got, one cannot help but omit gasps of surprise that Stern's character hasn't already been killed five minutes into the final act. This knowing sense about things only really mattering during these sequences is epitomised in Marv's 'knowing' reactions of "Uh-oh!" as something else befalls him - a laughter cue is all that's missing. The somewhat brainless and rather unnecessary sentiment of the whole thing is summarised in the reason for the final act to even happen, that of the fact the criminals have been snapped looting a store thanks to Kevin's Polaroid camera and are desperate not to be incriminated further. For whatever reason, they ditch the successful score and chase him into this dilapidated house of traps having already topped the wanted lists as escaped felons anyway. People say Kevin's intelligence in these films is too "unrealistic" for that of a ten year old; but with competition like this, are we all missing something?