Finally! A good sequel

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2014)

Home alone 2: Lost in New York review
Home alone 2 is a Christmas family film made in 1992. The plot was written by John Hughes and was brought to life by Chris Columbus. It's the sequel to warm comedy Home Alone; Kevin McCallister is played by Macaulay Culkin and the criminals are played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Devin Ratray, Kieran Culkin also featured. It was filmed in 3 destinations: Chicago Airport, New York and Miami. It was released on 15th November and was awarded the people's choice award for favourite comedy movie. Despite getting mixed reviews, the film became the second most successful film of 1992 (the most being Aladdin) earning over $173 million in revenue in America alone and over $358 worldwide! The McCallisters plan to spend Christmas in Miami, Kevin (the youngest) sees Florida as the worst place to spend it mostly due to the lack of Christmas trees. During Kevin's Christmas school play his older brother Buzz embarrasses him causing Kev to retaliate and ruin the play. Buzz apologises but Kevin refuses, storms to his bedroom and wishes he could go to his own holiday...not with his family, just like last year. On the eve of the vacation- Kevin's dad: Peter- accidentally resets their alarm clock and causes the family to sleep in the next day. Meanwhile, Kevin's nemesis 'the Wet Bandits' (who now rename themselves 'the Sticky Bandits') escape from jail and are in New York. In confusion and rush to get to the airport on time, Kevin gets on a flight to New York and the rest of the family get on a flight to Miami without realising where their relation is until they land in Florida! Anyway, Kevin tours New York and uses his 'Talkboy' to check into the Plaza Hotel, afterwards he gets scared by a woman covered in pigeons in Central Park. On Christmas Eve, Kevin travels to Duncan's Toy Chest in a limo, there Kevin discovers the money made that day will go to the children's hospital and outside he runs into the Sticky Bandits then they chase him back to his hotel. Mr Hector, the hotel manager confronts him on his credit card, which came up as stolen, Kevin try's to run away but is then captured by his enemies. They talk about plans to rob Duncan's toy chest that night, afterwards Kevin escapes on the back of a horse and carriage. In Florida, the McCallisters find out their son is using Peter's credit card in New York, they then fly to find him. Having noted that his Uncle has a house in the city Kevin tries to visit him, he does find the house but the house is undergoing renovations while his Uncle is on holiday in Paris. Later in Central Park, Kev comes across the pigeon lady again, and when he gets his foot stuck in a rock she helps him instead of hurting him as he expected. He goes with the pigeon lady to her storage room flat above a music hall, whilst listening to music he learns how her life has fallen apart and how she deals with it by the seeking affection from pigeons in the park. Kevin vows to her that he'll be her friend. After leaving the flat, Kevin heads to his Uncle's house and sets booby traps inside, like he did with his own in the previous film, he then goes to the toy store during the Sticky Bandits raid. From there, all Hell breaks lose and I won't reveal any more. I love Christmas films but I have high standards for them, honestly I can't be bothered with Christmas light competitions or cringey reindeer stories. Home Alone is something different, the first film was a breath of fresh air, nobody had covered that story before and I think that's why people flocked to see it instead of the same old Rudolph story that was the appeal factor. I'm not sure how much appeal factor the sequel had though, there's only so many things you can do with a kid being at home by himself, but Home Alone 2 rings the best out of the dry towel that is the Home Alone franchise. On some levels it is repetitive, however it's still really good film and more specifically a really good Christmas film, in fact one of the best in my opinion. Plus, Macaulay Culkan jumped ship at the right moment because the rest of the Home Alone films were truly rubbish, (I think that's about the only thing Macaulay did right in his career other than doing the first 2 films.) RATING: 8.3/10
Best parts: Checking into the Plaza Kicking the Sticky Bandits butts The pigeon lady