A young boy is, not for the first time, separated from his family, but this time, he takes it upon himself to bring justice to two familiar criminals.
The Wet Bandits are back... / Picture Credit: 20th Century Studios
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) sees Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) have yet another pre-Christmas argument with his family, namely after his brother Buzz (Devin Ratray) humiliates him in some way.
After being sent to his room for being a bother, just like the year before, Kevin spends the night in the attic room, angry at his family. The following morning, everyone is ready to go to the airport to catch their flight to Miami; luckily, Kevin is already on board – for now.
Once at the airport, Kevin gets separated from his family when he loses his father, and begins to follow a man in the same coat. Long story short, he ends up on a flight to New York, while his relatives head to Florida for the festive season.
From then on, Kevin schemes his way into a luxurious hotel room, and wanders around the Big Apple. However, it’s not an entirely innocent venture, as Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), aka ‘The Wet Bandits’, or as Marv wishes them to be called, ‘The Sticky Bandits’, have just escaped from prison and have their eyes set on a toy store with a lot of cash up for grabs.
What Home Alone 2 does so well is keep some of the tropes from the first movie - such as Kevin using an old black and white movie to ‘speak’ to unassuming adults - and still have an entirely unique situation to work with.
The base narrative is the same, but details have been changed, and it works so well. Instead of being home on his own, Kevin is alone in one of the world’s biggest cities. Kevin is still the same clever, scheming boy, but on a bit of a higher level...
What stands this film apart from the first, is perhaps the hilarity that surrounds Kevin’s inability to simply call the police, but instead use a vacationing relative’s home to create yet another house of horrors for Harry and Marv.
It just seems rather unnecessary, in this situation, for a 10 or 11-year-old child to more or less torture two adults; despite Harry and Marv actually trying to kill Kevin, he could have still called the police instead of spending time masterminding traps. It is, however, hilarious seeing him outsmart them for a second time.
While Home Alone saw Kevin defend his home from burglars, Home Alone 2 saw him more or less go out of his way to exact some form of justice on Harry and Marv, which adds to the humour but does leave you wondering if Kevin has some unresolved issues.
Of course, the physical comedy within Home Alone 2 makes it a wonderful movie with a lot of humour, and one that also has a huge amount of heart. Despite Kevin’s seemingly violent tendencies towards the Bandits, he simply wants to do good in the world.
After becoming friends with the Pigeon Lady (Brenda Fricker) who hangs around Central Park (despite being initially scared of her), Kevin learns about her life and appears to appreciate his family more and more.
He listens intently to her words, and takes life lessons away from what she says, which is rather endearing. Kevin also, before leading Harry and Marv to his new house of terror, stops the two thieves from robbing New York’s biggest toy store.
Another brilliant aspect of this movie, as was with the first, is how comically adult-like Kevin is. He speaks with such poise and confidence, and it’s this that allows him to get himself a room at a posh hotel and make the staff believe his father is already at the establishment.
Kevin is an iconic festive character, due to his grown-up mannerisms, his ability to create dangerous traps when he could simply call 911, and his genuine caring nature to those who are kind to him.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a brilliant holiday movie for the whole family, as we see Kevin apart from his family but on a much bigger scale, and it is the perfect film to put you in the festive spirit.
Watch the trailer for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York below:
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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