"If you can't board the right plane we'll have to cancel future trips, Kevin!"

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2011)

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a sequel that is almost identical in quality and plot to the first. The first film was a fresh new idea, but often misunderstood by people who weren't taking into consideration it was an exercise in childhood escapism. When you can look past its implausibility, it's a unique and amusing film for many, but different generations and different audiences will gradually differ in responses.
Now we have a sequel, which right off the bat sends me into useless quibbles. He doesn't have a home in New York, so how is he home alone? This could've easily been its own stand alone film if the characters were all different and just be called the film's subtitle "Lost in New York." But would it sell as well? Probably not. So bring back the three actors and we have ourselves a sequel.
The plot seems to be lifted directly from the original film. Due to a severe mix-up at the airport where Kevin (Culkin) follows a man wearing the same coat as his father, he is taken on a flight to New York instead of with his family who is going to Florida for Christmas. Kevin fearlessly checks himself into a hotel, gets settled in, then realizes the criminals he beat the hell out of (Pesci and Stern) in the first film come back and now have placed him back in their cross-hairs.
From there on out the plot becomes more jokes about being hit on the head and running away frantically. I give Macaulay Culkin a boatload of credit for not being one of the childhood actors like the ones on Full House where they spend a lot of their time standing still and looking cute. Culkin provides cute, boyish charm while creating eventful mishaps on screen. Just like in the first film; some antics are funny, some are redundant without being funny.
We also get a strange subplot with an old woman who enjoys feeding pigeons. She has been considered the "old creep" in town and has been shunned by her peers. That's how Kevin feels with his big family most of the time. Their connection is slim, but acceptable. While at the same time it feels almost contrived and not a very needed subplot. It does rest the tired hit-on-the-head jokes that have been hit over our head, pun intended, during the course of the film.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York provides some nice shots of New York, some decently executed dialog, and delightful cameos like Ally Sheedy, Donald Trump, and, my favorite, Tim Curry. The only downside is you're watching the same film. It still fuels the "childhood escapism" tank like I mentioned before, but it does hardly anything new with it. It just rehashes a formula previously seen before. More imagination to the story could've been taken into consideration.
Or maybe, just not have a sequel at all. The first was an unexpected success, it did very well in theaters, and is still played repeatedly during the holiday season. The concept of a child being left alone to fend for himself by accident is a possible thing. Unfortunately, the sequel does little to expand the idea except by removing the four walls barricading the kid in the first film and giving him a full city to work with. A lot happens in this two hours. Quite a lot of things. Plausible or not, it's beginning to get very redundant. I suggest parental counseling and a dog leash.
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern. Directed by: Chris Columbus.