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Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

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Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York promotional movie poster
Directed byChris Columbus
Written byJohn Hughes
Produced byJohn Hughes
StarringMacaulay Culkin
Joe Pesci
Daniel Stern
Catherine O'Hara
John Heard
Tim Curry
CinematographyJulio Macat
Edited byRaja Gosnell
Music byJohn Williams
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
November 20, 1992
Running time
120 min.
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$358,991,681

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is the 1992 sequel to the 1990 film Home Alone, written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern. Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Devin Ratray, Kieran Culkin, Gerry Bamman, Tim Curry, Rob Schneider, Dana Ivey, and Brenda Fricker co-star.

Eddie Bracken, Ally Sheedy, Bob Eubanks and Donald Trump make cameo appearances. The movie was filmed in Winnetka, Illinois, O'Hare Airport in Chicago, Miami and New York City (which was star Culkin's hometown at the time).

Home Alone 3 followed in 1997 and Home Alone 4 followed in 2002; both without Macaulay Culkin or any of the original cast.

Plot

Macaulay Culkin stars as Kevin McCallister, who once again is separated from his family during one of their Christmas travels. This time his family travels to Miami, Florida. At O'Hare International Airport, Kevin loses sight of his family while replacing the batteries in his Talkboy (taking his father's bag in the process), and gets on a different flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York City after following a man who is wearing the same coat as his dad. While there, he decides to make the most of, as he puts it, "the greatest accident of my life".

While Kevin has not made it to Miami, his luggage had. Kevin's bag is pulled from the carousel and passed down the line to his cousin, Fuller who realizes that Kevin isn't there. The bag is passed back up the line with the news that "Kevin's not here". When the bag gets back to the front of the line where his mother, Kate and father, Peter are; reality sinks in and Kate faints in the airport. The Miami Airport security staff decides to call O'Hare believing Kevin was still there.

In New York, Kevin decides he needs a place to stay, and decides on the Plaza Hotel, using Peter's credit card to check in. The English concierge, Mr. Hector (played by Tim Curry), is suspicious of him the entire time he sees him there, going as far as to try and break into his room to prove Kevin a fraud. Along the way Kevin meets several people, including a lady (played by Brenda Fricker) who enjoys caring for pigeons but creeps Kevin out at first.

Back in Miami the McCallisters are trying to figure out where Kevin could be because he isn't at O'Hare Airport. After being asked to see a photo of their son, Peter realizes that Kevin has his wallet and therefore can be tracked if he uses Peter's credit card (which he has, to no one's knowledge).

Meanwhile, Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), the "Wet Bandits" from the first film, have broken out of prison in Chicago and have found their way to New York trying to find a new target. Marv also comes up with a new nickname for the duo, the "Sticky Bandits", based on his ability to steal things with the use of double-sided masking tape. Harry is not amused.

During one of his days at the Plaza; Kevin decides to hire a limousine to take him around town and makes a stop at Duncan's Toy Chest, a toy store modeled after FAO Schwarz. He makes a few purchases and becomes friends with the store's owner who gives him a pair of turtledove ornaments as a gift after Kevin donates money to Mr. Duncan's children's hospital fund.

Kevin's plan begin to fall apart after he leaves. First, he runs into Harry and Marv on the street outside the store; only being able to escape after littering a sidewalk with fake pearls which cause Harry and Marv to slip and fall. However, once Kevin gets back to the Plaza, Mr. Hector informs him that he is aware of the credit card Kevin used being stolen and begins to chase him through the hotel. Kevin is able to escape by employing a trick he used in the first film - by playing a gangster movie at full volume (this time, Angels with Even Filthier Souls). He uses the service staircase, but once again is caught by Harry and Marv. On the way, Marv tells Kevin of the planned burglary unaware that Kevin is recording the conversation. Kevin then escapes Harry and Marv again and goes into Central Park hiding in the back of a hansom cab.

In Miami, the family who is staying in a flea-bitten motel causing them to share one room receive word on where Kevin is. However, Kate and Peter are told that Kevin escaped and is at large. They decide to leave at that moment and head to New York as soon as possible. Once they arrive, Peter and Kate confront the staff at the Plaza for letting Kevin get away. The staff offers the McCallisters a complimentary suite as a token of apology. Kate then decides to roam the streets looking for Kevin (against the advice of both Peter and the staff) while the rest of the family and their luggage are taken up to the suite.

Kevin, meanwhile, begins walking through Central Park at night, coming across several homeless people and prostitutes along the way. Scared out of his mind, he then confronts the pigeon lady again but gets his foot stuck between two rocks when he tries to run away. After she frees him, he apologizes for running and the two go to Lincoln Center to watch an orchestra play Christmas music from a loft. Kevin learns that the pigeon lady's life has fallen apart due to a lack of trust in people and a lack of friends and promises to be her friend if she needs one. While on his way he stops at the Children's Hospital and remembers both what Mr. Duncan and Marv told him. He then heads to his aunt and uncle's renovated penthouse near the park and commences "Operation Ho-Ho-Ho"; setting up more elaborate booby traps. Once that's done he heads to Duncan's Toy Chest in time to see Harry and Marv start stealing money from the cash register and donation box, taking pictures of the two doing it. He then throws a rock (tied with a note to Mr. Duncan which he had written beforehand) through the window to set off the store alarm and alert Harry and Marv. The two thieves begin to chase Kevin who sets up a see-saw outside the window. Harry steps on one end first but before he can warn Marv not to step on the other end; Marv jumps on and launches Harry through the air and smashes the roof of a parked car nearby. This gives Kevin enough of a head start to get to his aunt and uncle's penthouse before the thieves.

The standoff begins by Harry deciding to deal with Kevin saying that he won't hurt him if he gives him the camera he used to take the pictures. Kevin responds by throwing bricks off the roof at Harry and Marv; hitting Marv with all his throws. After the last brick is thrown, Harry angrily storms off to try and break into the penthouse by himself; leaving Marv to recover from his stupor.

After encountering many pratfalls and booby traps themselves, the two decide to team up to try and catch Kevin, but are unable to do so. Once they get upstairs, they notice that Kevin has tied a string from the knob of a door to a tool chest at the top. When Harry pulls the doorknob, he doesn't realize he just pulled the string, and the tool chest takes its descent down the stairs and forcefully breaks the door off its hinges, and pushes the two thieves into the wall behind them. Kevin escapes the penthouse by using a rope he soaked in kerosene. Harry and Marv try to follow him, but Kevin lights the rope on fire and the two fall to the ground. In the process they break a scaffold where several cans of varnish sat; the varnish covers both of them from head to toe.

Kevin escapes into the park, but slips and falls on a patch of ice allowing Harry and Marv to catch him. Just as Harry is about to shoot Kevin, the "pigeon lady" appears and throws birdseed onto the criminals, which sticks to the varnish. This causes dozens of pigeons to swarm the two frightened thieves. Kevin later sets off some firecrackers, which he bought earlier, alerting the police. They arrive, and as the thieves are arrested they come across Kevin's photos and tape, further incriminating them; back at the toy store, Mr. Duncan is informed of the arrests and is given the note tied to the rock Kevin used to scare away the crooks.

Meanwhile, Kate is frantically searching New York City for Kevin. She stumbles across two police officers, and while talking to them she mentions that Kevin deserves to be with his family around his Christmas Tree. Suddenly it dawns on her that Kevin must be at Rockefeller Center, and asks the policemen to take her there. Her intuition proves correct, as Kevin is standing there wishing his mother would appear. The two embrace and apologize to each other, then head back to the hotel.

The next morning, Christmas Day, Mr. Duncan (the owner of Duncan's Toy Chest) sends a whole truckload of presents to Kevin and his family at the Plaza Hotel as a reward for Kevin getting the thieves arrested. Kevin sees the two turtledoves. He goes to see the "pigeon lady" in Central Park, and gives her one of the turtledoves. At the same time, the bellboy (Rob Schneider) comes to the McCallisters' hotel room with Kevin's room service bill. Buzz looks at the bill and says, "Merry Christmas, indeed." Then he sees that they charged them $967.43 on the food Kevin purchased and calls out, "Oh, Dad!" Then Kevin's dad shouts out, "Kevin! You spent $967 on room service?!" Kevin runs back to the hotel, and the credits roll.

Cast

Soundtrack

Track listing

  1. "All Alone On Christmas" (4:14) (Darlene Love)
  2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (2:14) (Alan Jackson)
  3. "Somewhere In My Memory" (3:58) (Bette Midler, composed by John Williams, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse)
  4. "My Christmas Tree" (2:35) (Home Alone Children's Choir)
  5. "Sleigh Ride" (3:44) (TLC)
  6. "Silver Bells" (4:15) (Atlantic Starr)
  7. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (2:40) (John Williams)
  8. "Jingle Bell Rock" (2:09) (Bobby Helms)
  9. "Cool Jerk (Christmas Mix)" (2:39) (The Capitols)
  10. "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" (2:14) (Johnny Mathis)
  11. "Christmas Star" (3:16) (John Williams)
  12. "O Come All Ye Faithful" (3:26) (Lisa Fischer)(Does not appear in the film)

Box office

The movie opened to $31.1 million from 2,222 theaters, averaging $14,008 per site.[1] While it started off better than the original, the final box office gross was much less.[2] $173,585,516 was taken in domestically and $185,406,165 overseas.

Reaction

Critical reaction was highly negative. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times commented that the films gags were overly cartoonish and too sadistic. He also stated that "Cartoon violence is only funny in cartoons. Most of the live-action attempts to duplicate animation have failed, because when flesh-and-blood figures hit the pavement, we can almost hear the bones crunch, and it isn't funny." Another critic called the film "Money grubbing sequilitis at its most pathetic." The film currently holds an 18% "Rotten" rating on movie review website Rotten Tomatoes.

Tie-ins

As with the first Home Alone movie, video games based on the sequel were released by THQ for such systems as the Sega Genesis, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy and personal computers, mostly in late 1992. A separate hand-held game was released by Tiger Electronics.

The Talkboy handheld tape recorder that Kevin used in the film was actually a non-working prop. A huge letter-writing campaign by young fans of the film led Tiger Electronics to produce a fully functional retail version of the recorder in 1993, when the film was first released on home video.

Angels with Even Filthier Souls

Like the film Angels with Filthy Souls in the first film, Kevin watches and uses a video titled Angels with Even Filthier Souls. It is not a real film but specially-created footage. Both movies were a homage to the 1939 film Angels with Dirty Faces.

Plot

Johnny's girlfriend, Susie, entered his room. He asked her where she's been. She told him she's singing at the Blue Monkey. Johnny accused her of cheating on him, smooching with his brother and a lot of people (Snuffy, Al, Leo, Little Moe with the Gimpy Leg, Cheeks, Boney Bob, and Cliff). She told him that he's got her all wrong. He told her that he believes him, but then takes out his Tommy Gun. She begged him and told him that she loved him.

Johnny tells Susie to get out before he counts to three, but he shoots and kills her before he reaches three. At the end of the clip; Johnny says, "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal!" and fired several more shots. Then he says, "And a Happy New Year!" and fires one more shot.

Characters

  • Johnny - (Ralph Foody) mobster boss who accused his girlfriend of cheating on him
  • Susie - (Clare Hoak) Johnny's girlfriend, who's also a Blue Monkey singer.
  • Snuffy, Al, Leo, Little Moe (with the Gimpy Leg), Cheeks, Boney Bob, and Cliff - The people who Johnny thinks Susie is smooching with.
  • Lindy - Referring to Charles Lindbergh. Susie told Johnny that Lindy had to take two airplanes to get across her love if it would be an ocean.

References

  1. ^ "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - Weekend Box Office Results". Retrieved 2007-11-12.
  2. ^ "Home Alone Weekend Box Office Results". Retrieved 2007-12-24.