The Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. Everyone is in such a better mood. The house is decked out in Christmas gear galore (it has been since November 1st). The spirit is flowing through my veins. Now Christmas doesn’t only mean decorations and delicious holiday treats it also means Christmas movie classics. One of my all time favorite Christmas movie has to be Home Alone. It’s hard not to be one of everyone’s favorites, but the question I’m proposing is “Does Home Alone 2: Lost in New York stand alone or is it just a recycled script of the original?”
Before I dive into this debacle I first must say that I do like the sequel to Home Alone (I know I like everything I’ve been writing about, but I have a blog specifically dedicated to holiday content). Let’s look at the similarities and really analyze what’s going on here. John Hughes is one of the most creative and talented writers to ever pen a script for the silver screen, but did old Hughesy get lazy with his Holiday hit? We start Home Alone 2 with the McCallisters getting ready for yet another Christmas vacation only this time it isn’t international (seriously what did Kevin’s dad do for work the guy bought plane tickets for his family of 7 and his brothers family of 7 in which 4 of those tickets are first class? Something doesn’t add up). The family is rushing around packing and in the midst of all the hustle and bustle Mr. McCallister unplugs the alarm clock again (first movie a wind storm knocks the power out and the electricity blanks the alarm clock). They make their way to the kids Christmas pageant in which Buzz makes a fool of Kevin during his big solo (why are all the kids together in the pageant they’re all different ages? I need answers) Kevin pushes Buzz and all the kids fall causing a catastrophe of the whole ordeal.
We come home and again it seems the whole family is against Kevin (first movie Kevin attacks buzz for eating his cheese pizza and spills milk all over the passports). Kevin is then told he will be going to the third floor if he doesn’t shape up (Again third floor is where he was forgotten about in the first movie are we seeing the trend yet? I’ll continue). The next morning they wake up to the airport shuttle knocking on the door and freak out “We did it again”. We get the same musical sped up montage. They get on the shuttle and realize Kevin isn’t there (nice parenting). He turns around to surprise his mother that he in fact is. We get to the airport and like any tardy family they frantically run to their gate every man for himself style. Kevin needs batteries for his Talkboy (they made that thing seem so cool, but I had one and it just didn’t live up to the hype). He stops mid sprint to swap out the triple As and loses sight of the fam. Someone Kevin mistakes another guy running to his gate for his dad (What are the odds same coat, same stupid haircut). He follows behind and runs into the lady at the gate spilling the boarding passes everywhere and he’s let on the plane still. He sees the guy mistaken for Peter McCallister (Guy never turns around like come on). Kev takes a seat and doesn’t see anyone of his family members anywhere (no red flags just a shoulder shrug) and the two planes take off in opposite directions.
Jump to Kevin realizes he’s in New York nowhere near his family in Florida. We get the McCallisters at baggage claim and they send Kevin’s bag down the line of people only for Fuller to realize he’s not there. He sends the bag back down and we get the exact same Catherine O’Hara Mrs. McCallister freak out “KEVIN!” (Just like on the plane to Paris in the first movie). Before I go any further you realize this is just the same movie in a different location? You agree…okay, but I’ll still continue and one more thing that I’m baffled by. In the first movie Fuller is downing Pepsi, but in two they change his drink of choice to Coca Cola. Like did Coke offer them more money, did they have a falling out with Pepsi, what the hell happened? I’m getting off topic, but that’s just another thing (I know this came out in 92 and I could google the answers)
Kevin who’s ten or eleven years old just hops in a taxi and runs around New York like a baller. Doesn’t stay at a holiday inn express or a motel six. The dude balls out and goes to the Plaza hotel where he finagles his way into a penthouse suite (luckily for him his dads bag had like $10,000 cash and a black credit card with no spending limit probably). While his family is left crammed into a hotel room wondering if the kid is alive or dead in a ditch somewhere. (Same exact thing as the first movie). Kevin somehow convinces the top flight staff at the Plaza hotel into thinking his dad is there and gets a VIP limo service around the city with a large cheese pizza just for himself (a large cheese pizza just for me sound familiar? Because he hooks himself up with one in the original). Kev asks the limo driver if he knows any good toy stores and the dude happily says yes sir (like this dude creepily knows all the best toy spots sounds a little to catch a predatory). Kevin once again is just throwing money around like it’s his job and buys some souvenirs at the toy store meeting Mr. Duncan himself and throws him a twenty spot for the sick kids at the hospital.
We come outside the toy store and who do we run into? None other than Harry and Marv the wet freaking bandits (What are the chances same city and everything? Statistically that’s like 1 in a billion odds). They grab up Kevin and he hears their plan of robbing the toy store. Once they’re not paying attention he makes his escape and we again get a chase scene just like in the first movie (okay that one I’ll let slide, but still you see there’s more than a handful of similarities). Kevin makes his way back to the hotel, but the concierge finally came to his senses and realized the kid stole the credit card and Kevin slips by them to grab his stuff from the room and we get the Angels with Filthy Souls reference again (Only this time it’s filthier souls). The hotel staff believes someone is shooting at them, but it’s the TV (First movie was the pizza guy, which I don’t understand why he wouldn’t call the cops on a possible death threat on his life?)
The family finally gets word Kevin is in New York so they pack all 14 of them and Peter McCallister once again buys the flights (How much money does this dude have?) Kevin is now fending for himself and runs into Pigeon lady who he screams in her face when she was just trying to help (In the first he screams in the face of the South Bend Shovel Slayer or Old Man Marley). He befriends the bird lady and they check out the radio city music hall where the trans Siberian orchestra or something like that is playing (They just sneak in like it’s nothing? No shot). The bird lady sparks in Kevin the idea to once again defend against the Wet Bandits (Now Sticky bandits). The same way Old man Marley did in Church in you guessed it the first movie.
Kevin walks by the children’s hospital staring in the window (Same way he does in the first on his walk home from church). He runs to his uncle’s house, which is being renovated and devises a plan (just like the first). Also I have to go off on another tangent. Uncle Rob is the home owner, he’s referenced in the first that he has a place in Paris and it’s implied that Peter and Rob work together. With all the money Peter throws around they have to own the company or something along those lines. Uncle Frank is Peter’s brother also so they couldn’t throw their brother a bone and get him a high paying job as well? Maybe that’s why Frank is such an ass, he’s pissed his brothers are making bank and he’s a deadbeat. Alright back to the movie.
We get the house of torture where Marv and Harry are conned into following Kevin from the toy store. They should honestly be dead after all the pain they endure and then finally Kevin makes a run for it (calls the cops like before and tells them he’s going to call the police after he already did just like the first movie are you people seeing this it’s the same movie). Kevin slips and is caught by the now Sticky bandits and lead through central park. He’s then saved by the once thought of creepy bird lady (Shovel Slayer in one). Harry and Marvel are once again arrested and Kevin makes his way to the giant Christmas tree in Rockefeller center. Guess who meets him there? His mom! (Just like the first one she makes her way around the world to come home and find Kevin). The family is brought back together in a giant suite (where fuller gets his own damn bed because the kid pees everywhere and nobody wants to deal with that). Christmas morning Kevin sneaks off only for Mr. McCallister to read his room service bill and scream at him (Just like Buzz in the first).
I know, I know its a lot to process for a movie that’s 28 years old, but the proof is there. They took a phenomenal idea and just rehashed it in the big apple. Now I know I tore it up, but Home Alone 2 is still a great movie. There are tons of laughs the whole family can enjoy and for those cold Christmas nights it’s nice to watch the double feature back to back. I will say to my question I proposed it is just a recycled script of the original, but a majority of sequels are they try to bank off the success of the first and milk it for everything it’s worth. I hope you enjoyed my analysis of the Home Alone sequel and hope you get a chance to watch them both this holiday season (I’ve already watched them both 3 times….quarantine has me losing my mind).
Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!
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