Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

An uncynical sequel that actually deserves its assured success.

Although it's slavishly similar to the original Home Alone, which was a colossal hit, this sequel has lots of color and Christmas warmth to recommend it.

Less a sequel, more a virtual remake of Home Alone, this "John Hughes production" follows the same route as its money-spinning predecessor, wheeling out the well-worn precocious-kid-on-his-todd scenario with scant regard for originality.

Filmmakers John Hughes and Chris Columbus go for repetition over comedy.

The action has been transferred from suburbia to New York City, but otherwise the filmmakers stick like glue to the formula of the original: a little boy from a well-to-do family left on his own is threatened by low-life working-class crooks whom he repeatedly foils and tortures, and upscale property values prevail.

A film bursting with enthusiasm for a fresh, appealing fantasy has been replaced by one most eager to maintain the status quo.

The John Hughes script must have taken him all of thirty minutes to write – simply a matter of a few name and location changes. It wasn't a good script the first time, either.

It was a great film, although it was a copy of its predecessor, but it thrilled me just as much as the first one.

It is a masterpiece, it onesup the original home alone, and has a funny plot, the plot also has a good universal theme.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York has it’s good and bad scenes as yes it does have some repetitive moments but it does make up with some hilarious moments from the duo Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.

Pretty much a rehash of the original with the same characters & story, just this time it's in a different city.

Writer John Hughes and director Chris Columbus go back to the well, very quickly, for this derivative sequel/remake. Strike while the swinging iron's hot, I suppose, and while the child star can still pass for a nine-year-old. It's basically the first film all over again, with a few negligible tweaks to satisfy convention, less emphasis on the errant family (Catherine O'Hara is now officially the worst mother in America, no need to dwell on it) and a renewed sense of brutality in all the scoundrel-punishing booby traps. Rather than scarred for life, just about every one of these pitfalls would leave poor Harry and Marv pushing daisies. It's a weird level-up for a family movie, downright mean-spirited at times, but that particular brand of action is saved for the closing twenty minutes and almost entirely self-contained. The rest of the running time is rehash central, with repeat gags and plot points played over a different backdrop, plus the added bonus of Tim Curry and Rob Schneider as a pair of bumbling, high-class hotel clerks. In the end, Home Alone 2 is nothing magical, just a transparent sequel with enough influential industry minds behind it to avoid being sent straight to VHS.