HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK - Blu-ray review

"Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" was panned by just about everybody. The film was ridiculed for its cartoonish violence and recycling of gags from the very successful first film. Critics derailed the "Home Alone" sequel for lacking originality and one critic went as far as suggesting that Macaulay Culkin's character was the true villain as he was the one inflicting gratuitous pain and suffering onto the characters portrayed by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. With a horrendously rotten score of 17% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it seems that not many critics enjoy "Home Alone 2" and the uninspired score of 5.7 on the Internet Movie Database suggests the public in general has not been too receptive of the sequel that went on to gross nearly $175 million dollars at the domestic box office.

So why is it that I've loved and enjoyed this film tremendously from the first time I saw it? I hold "Home Alone 2" in nearly as high regard as I do the first film. I decided to pay close attention to the film and watch it back-to-back with the original for this review of the 1992 picture to perhaps answer this very question. While I've always considered "Waterworld" the worst-reviewed film that I defend whole-heartedly, I never thought much about "Home Alone 2" and have to question why I'm in the vast minority of those that love this sequel. So while watching "Home Alone 2" for the umpteenth time I decided to think of everything I liked and put into perspective the slanderous comments made towards the Chris Columbus film hated by so many.

The movie has been out for nearly two decades and the story of young Kevin McCallister (Culkin) being left behind for a second consecutive Christmas is familiar to most. This time around Kevin boards the wrong airplane and instead of ending up in sunny Miami, he arrives by himself in the metropolis of New York City. John Heard and Catherine O'Hara reprise their roles of Kevin's parents Peter and Kate and the siblings again anchored by Devin Ratray as older brother Buzz and Kieran Culkin starring alongside his older brother as bed-wetting Fuller. They are only supporting characters and Culkin along with the "Wet Bandits" Harry Lyme (Pesci) and Marv Merchant (Daniel Stern) are the stars of the first two "Home Alone" films and without this trio, the first two films would never have found the box office success that they did.

"Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" is a larger film than the first film as the story moves from suburban Chicago to the Big Apple. The bigger set of New York City requires more characters to fill and producer John Hughes adds a few familiar faces to the story. Where the first movie featured a wonderful cameo by the late and great John Candy, "The Breakfast Club" cutie Ally Sheedy has a cameo in this film as well as Donald Trump and Bob Eubanks. Kevin stays at the luxurious Plaza Hotel during his New York stay and the legendary Tim Curry assumes the role of the hotel's concierge. Funnyman Rob Schneider has a smaller role as the bellboy who is given a tip of gum by Kevin. Academy Award winner Brenda Fricker has an important role as a pigeon lady who befriends and helps Kevin during the Christmas holiday.

As the "Wet Bandits" become the "Sticky Bandits," "Home Alone 2" becomes a very hectic and comedic violent film. Poor Daniel Stern's character ends up taking painful spills throughout the film and he and Joe Pesci are put through far more torture than the first film. Watching the film with the intention of finding why other critics despise this film, I can see their point about the cruel violence that is shown from beginning to end. I've always watched the film thinking of it as a live-action cartoon, but if you aren't comfortable with that perspective, "Home Alone 2" can be downright disturbing in its violence. The first film was far more ‘realistic' in what happened to Harry and Marv, but the sequel is so far over the top that it can be painful.

The next point of debate is the originality of the film. Once again, Kevin utilizes an old black and white film to fend off an ‘intruder.' The first film featured the fictitious "Angels with Filthy Souls" and this film includes the fictitious sequel "Angels with Even Filthier Souls." I always liked the joke about a fake sequel within a sequel, but it is rehashing jokes from the first movie. Some of the other gags repeated include burning off Harry's hair and Marv ending up on his back. A second "House of Horrors" is set up to foil the two thieves and many of these details including the map showing Kevin's hijinks are repeated. The first film had Kevin befriend and gain a better understanding of life while helping the elderly neighbor Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom). This time around he befriends the elderly pigeon lady (Fricker). There is a lot of recycling in this film.

So what is it that I like about the film? First of all, I realized some of the moments I thoroughly enjoyed were simply the holiday musical selections set against the backdrop of Manhattan. Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again" while a cab crosses a bridge into the city is perhaps my favorite musical moment in the film. A few other numbers really stood out nicely. The city itself is something I love and I always enjoy going to New York City around Christmastime. Duncan's Toy Store doesn't exist in New York and is nothing like either FAO Schwartz or the Times Square Toys R' Us, but it is a magical place in the film. New York and the locations are a wonderful supporting character of the film. Brenda Fricker and Tim Curry are very good in this film and I enjoy their part in the sequel and Rob Schneider puts forth one of his best performances as a bellboy.

After watching "Home Alone 2" and putting myself to the task of trying to watch the film to realize its flaws and find out just why I have a different opinion has not changed my enjoyment of the film. I still enjoy watching this film once every other year or so around Christmas. It isn't as good as the original, but I find it has enough redeeming qualities to warrant return trips to the Big Apple with Macaulay Culkin. The action and violence are definitely over the top and cartoonish and poor Harry and Marv go through Hell in this film at the hands of young Kevin, but I look at the movie of being a big live action cartoon and know the two Sticky Bandits will heal without any permanent damage. The music and locations are great and while "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" is inferior to the masterful original "Home Alone" and it is relatively unoriginal, I still feel it is a very good sequel.

Video:

I have owned "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" on LaserDisc and on DVD and was excited to learn of its arrival on Blu-ray. One of the reasons I enjoy the film so much is for its striking visuals of New York City and the whimsical set of Duncan's Toy Chest. I anticipated this would be the best looking the city and the film would look as I traveled along with Kevin McCallister. I finished my two hour vacation feeling slightly disappointed in the visuals of "Home Alone 2" as the image quality was soft and overly grainy. The film looked a few years older than its 1992 vintage and the horrible specter of edge enhancement was prevalent through the film. The 1.85:1 framed film is a step up in resolution and coloring over its DVD predecessor, but not by much. The film is cleaner, but it does not appear that Fox went to any great lengths to bring the film into the age of high definition.

Audio:

The songs and sounds of "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" is the other aspect of the film that I've always enjoyed and I had hoped the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix would be a noticeable improvement over the previous DVD. Tom Petty did sound a little clearer and the pigeons seemed a little more numerous as they occupied the rear surrounds, but for the most part I felt that sound was another area where the new Blu-ray was slightly disappointing as it was just a marginal improvement over the previous standard definition version of the film. There was a little more ambience to the big city and a few scenes of comedic violence had more wallop to the .1 LFE channel, but while the mix was clean and clear to the ears, it was average at best. Dialogue was pretty good and the score was solid. There just wasn't a lot of improvement from the days of the 12" LaserDisc.

Extras:

I was really hoping for a few good special features regarding "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." Some good location shot footage of the making-of the film or even some deleted scenes would have been great. I'm sure Rob Schneider would have been up for a few dollars to talk about his involvement in the movie. Mac Culkin isn't exactly setting the world ablaze any more and a retrospective featuring him would have been wonderful. An isolated musical score would have been a nice holiday gift. The film did gross $175 million domestically and that turned a pretty good profit for the studio, but for some reason "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" continues to get snubbed for value added content and all you get are Theatrical Trailers for the first three "Home Alone" films .

Closing:

While proclaiming a love for "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" isn't as tough a sell as my love for "Waterworld," the film is one of those pictures where I am seemingly against the world in my enjoyment. Admittedly, the film is nowhere near as special or expertly crafted as the original and for the most part it does feel like an attempt at cashing in on the success of the first film by simply remaking the first film with a bigger and louder world. The film is very violent, but done so as if it were just a cartoon. It has its flaws, but "Home Alone 2" still has its charm and a lot of that rides on the shoulders of Macaulay Culkin who is remembered almost entirely for his involvement in the first two "Home Alone" films. Sadly, the Blu-ray too feels like a way of cashing in on the success of the first film as it appears to be a higher resolution port of the previous DVD release and there are no extras to offer up a good reason to upgrade. The only real reason to own this is for the other person out there that loves this picture or those who do not have the DVD.