Home Alone 2: Lost in New York


Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It is the second film in the Home Alone series and the sequel to the 1990 film Home Alone. The film stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Tim Curry, Brenda Fricker and Catherine O'Hara. The film follows Kevin, a 10-year-old boy, who once again must fend off two burglars, Harry and Marv, after he is mistakenly separated from his family on their Christmas vacation.
Filming for Home Alone 2 took place from December 1991 to May 1992 in Chicago and New York City, including at the Rockefeller Center and the original World Trade Center. The film was released on November 20, 1992, and grossed over $173 million in revenue in the United States and $359 million worldwide against a budget of $28 million. A sequel featuring a new cast of characters, Home Alone 3, followed in 1997.

Plot

The McCallister family is preparing to spend Christmas in Miami, and gathers at Peter and Kate's Chicago home. Peter and Kate's youngest son, Kevin, sees Florida as contradictory to Christmas, due to its lack of Christmas trees. Later, at a school pageant, Kevin's brother Buzz pulls a prank against him, causing Kevin to retaliate and ruin the pageant. Buzz half-heartedly apologizes, but Kevin berates his family before storming to the attic again, wishing to have his own vacation alone. Because Peter had accidentally unplugged the alarm clock, the family oversleeps again and they rush to make their flight.
At the airport, Kevin stops to replace the batteries in his Talkboy with new ones from Peter's bag. Losing sight of his family, Kevin inadvertently boards a flight to New York City after mistakenly following a man who is dressed like Peter. Upon arrival in New York City, Kevin decides to tour the city. While there, Kevin meets a homeless woman tending pigeons in Central Park, which frightens him. Kevin goes to the Plaza Hotel, where he uses Peter's credit card to check-in. Meanwhile, Harry and Marv, now calling themselves the "Sticky Bandits", have traveled to New York as well in a fish truck after recently escaping from a prison in Chicago during a riot, and immediately begin seeking a new target to build up a fortune and then flee the country.
On Christmas Eve, Kevin visits a toy store where he meets its philanthropic owner, Mr. Duncan. Kevin learns that the proceeds from the store's Christmas sales will be donated to a children's hospital, and provides a donation. As a token of appreciation, Mr. Duncan offers Kevin a pair of ceramic turtledoves as a gift, instructing him to give one to another person as a gesture of eternal friendship. After encountering Harry and Marv outside the store, Kevin runs away, and returns to the Plaza. The hotel's concierge confronts Kevin about the credit card, which has been reported stolen. Kevin flees the hotel after evading the staff, but is ambushed by Harry and Marv, who brag about their plan to kill him and break into the toy store at midnight, just before he escapes and flees to Central Park and stows away on the back of a hansom cab.
After landing at Miami International Airport, the rest of the family discovers that Kevin is missing. After tracking the whereabouts of the credit card, they fly to New York. Meanwhile, Kevin goes to his uncle Rob's townhouse, only to find the house vacant and undergoing renovations while Rob and his family are still in Paris. In Central Park, he again encounters and befriends the pigeon lady. They go to Carnegie Hall, where the pigeon lady explains how her life collapsed when her lover left her. Kevin encourages her to trust people again, and promises to be her friend. After considering the pigeon lady's advice that he perform a good deed to make up for his misdeeds, he decides to prevent Harry and Marv from robbing the toy store.
Having rigged the townhouse with booby traps, Kevin arrives at the toy store during Harry and Marv's robbery, takes their picture, and breaks a window, triggering the store's alarm. He then lures them to the townhouse, where they spring the traps and suffer various injuries. While the duo searches for Kevin outside of the townhouse, he calls the police, and lures them into Central Park, where they capture him. Before they can kill him, the pigeon lady intervenes and incapacitates them with birdseed and pigeons. Kevin then sets off fireworks to signal the police, who arrive shortly after to arrest Harry and Marv, finding Kevin's evidence against them. At the toy store, Mr. Duncan finds a note from Kevin, explaining the robbery. Remembering his fondness for Christmas trees, Kate finds Kevin making a wish at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and they reconcile.
On Christmas Day, a truckload of gifts arrive at the McCallisters' hotel room from the toy store as a reward for Kevin foiling the robbery. Kevin reconciles with the rest of his family, and goes to Central Park to give the pigeon lady the second turtledove, cementing their friendship.

Cast

Production

Culkin was paid $4.5 million to appear in the sequel, compared to $110,000 for the original. The total budget was $28 million.
Principal photography took place from December 9, 1991 to May 1, 1992; the film was shot in Winnetka, Illinois, O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Evanston, Illinois, and New York City.

Release

Marketing

Numerous based on Home Alone 2 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. Numerous board games were also released, some based around play cards, while another was a close emulation of the classic Mouse Trap.
The Talkboy cassette recorder was produced as a tie-in for the movie by Tiger Electronics based on specifications provided by John Hughes and the movie studio, and sold particularly well after the film was released on home video. Additional promotional partners included American Airlines in which the McCallisters make their trip on the airline's two Boeing 767-200s, The Coca-Cola Company, Jack in the Box, Hardee's, and Roy Rogers Restaurants.

Home media

The film was first released by Fox Video on VHS and LaserDisc on July 27, 1993. It was later released on DVD on October 5, 1999 as a basic package. The film was released on Blu-ray on October 6, 2009 with no special features, and was released alongside Home Alone in a collection pack on October 5, 2010. The film was reissued again on DVD and Blu-ray on October 6, 2015, alongside all five Home Alone franchise films, titled Home Alone: 25th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Christmas Edition.

Reception

Box office

Home Alone 2 opened to $31.1 million from 2,222 theaters, averaging $14,008 per site. While it started off better than Home Alone, grossing $100 million in 24 days compared to 33 days for the original, the final box office gross was lower with $173.6 million in the United States and Canada and a worldwide total of $359 million, compared to $476 million for the first film. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 11, 1992, and topped the country's box office that weekend. The film is the third highest-grossing film released in 1992 behind The Bodyguard and Aladdin. In the United States and Canada, it grossed more than The Bodyguard and ranked second.

Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 33% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A change of venue – and more sentimentality and violence – can't obscure the fact that Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a less inspired facsimile of its predecessor." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars and 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." Kenneth Turan, reviewing for the Los Angeles Times, claims "Whatever was unforced and funny in the first film has become exaggerated here, whatever was slightly sentimental has been laid on with a trowel. The result, with some exceptions, plays like an over-elaborate parody of the first film, reminding us why we enjoyed it without being able to duplicate its appeal." Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote the sequel "plays like a coarsened, self-parodying version of the original, in which the fantasy elements have become grubbier and more materialistic, the sentimentality more treacly and aggressive, and the slapstick violence—already astonishingly intense in the first film—even more graphic and sadistic." He further criticized the violence by invoking that "Rather than laughs, it provokes gasps of sympathy and amazement, even among the children in the audience. The pleasures here are entirely cruel, with an unhealthy concentration on the suffering of the victims, on the thudding impact of various objects against their heads, on their howls of agony."
Janet Maslin for The New York Times acknowledged that "Home Alone 2 may be lazily conceived, but it is staged with a sense of occasion and a lot of holiday cheer. The return of Mr. Culkin in this role is irresistible, even if this utterly natural comic actor has been given little new to do. Mr. Pesci and Mr. Stern bring great gusto to their characters' stupidity, to the point where they are far funnier just walking and talking than they are being hurt." Reviewing for Time, Richard Schickel noted "Home Alone 2 precisely follows the formula that made its predecessor the biggest grossing comedy in human history. But no, it is not a drag, and it is not a rip-off. Look on it as a twice-told fairy tale." He praised Hughes and Chris Columbus and felt "the details of the situations are developed vividly and originally. And they are presented with an energy and a conviction that sequels usually lack."

Music

returned from the first installment to score Home Alone 2. While the film featured the first film's theme song "Somewhere in My Memory", it also contained its own theme entitled "Christmas Star". Two soundtrack albums of the film were released on November 20, 1992, with one featuring Williams' score and the other featuring contemporary Christmas songs featured in the film. Ten years later, a 2-disc Deluxe Edition of the film score soundtrack was released.

Score

; Original Score
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Score is a 1992 soundtrack composed by John Williams, who also scored the first installment in the franchise. While the soundtrack is mostly a repeat of the first film's material, there are a few new prominent themes such as "Christmas Star" and "Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store". Ultimately, the soundtrack fell out of print.
  1. "Somewhere in My Memory"
  2. "Home Alone"
  3. "We Overslept Again"
  4. "Christmas Star"
  5. "Arrival in New York"
  6. "Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store"
  7. "Concierge and Race to the Room"
  8. "Star of Bethlehem"
  9. "The Thieves Return"
  10. "Appearance of Pigeon Lady"
  11. "Christmas at Carnegie Hall"
  12. "Into the Park"
  13. "Haunted Brownstone"
  14. "Christmas Star and Preparing the Trap"
  15. "To the Plaza Presto"
  16. "Reunion at Rockefeller Center"
  17. "Kevin's Booby Traps"
  18. "Finale"
  19. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas"

    Soundtrack

; Original Soundtrack Album
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Soundtrack Album is a 1992 soundtrack album that contains music from or inspired by Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The album eventually was discontinued and later re-released as Home Alone Christmas in 1997 by Sony BMG with an alternative track listing. Both versions feature tracks of John Williams' score, though the tracks are of different songs between the original album and its re-release.
;Original Soundtrack Album track listing
  1. "All Alone on Christmas"
  2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas"
  3. "Somewhere in My Memory"
  4. "My Christmas Tree"
  5. "Sleigh Ride"
  6. "Silver Bells"
  7. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas"
  8. "Jingle Bell Rock"
  9. "Cool Jerk "
  10. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"
  11. "Christmas Star"
  12. "O Come All Ye Faithful"
;Home Alone Christmas track listing
  1. "All Alone on Christmas"
  2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas"
  3. "My Christmas Tree"
  4. "Somewhere in My Memory"
  5. "Silver Bells"
  6. "Sleigh Ride"
  7. "Christmas All Over Again"
  8. "Please Come Home for Christmas"
  9. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas"
  10. "Carol of the Bells"
  11. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
  12. "O Come All Ye Faithful"
; The Deluxe Edition
On the film's tenth anniversary, Varèse Sarabande released a two-disc special edition soundtrack entitled Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – The Deluxe Edition. The soundtrack contains John Williams' cues found on the previous releases as well as additional compositions that were left out from the final film. This release is also known for resolving a mastering error that caused the music to be inaccurately pitched.
;Disc One
  1. Home Alone
  2. This Year's Wish
  3. We Overslept Again / Holiday Flight
  4. Separate Vacations*
  5. Arrival in New York**
  6. The Thieves Return
  7. Plaza Hotel
  8. Concierge
  9. Distant Goodnights
  10. A Day in the City
  11. Duncan's Toy Store
  12. Turtle Doves
  13. To the Plaza, Presto
  14. Race to the Room / Hot Pursuit
  15. Haunted Brownstone
  16. Appearance of the Pigeon Lady
  17. Christmas at Carnegie Hall O Come, All Ye Faithful / O Little Town of Bethlehem / Silent Night
;Disc Two
  1. Christmas Star – Preparing the Trap
  2. Another Christmas in the Trenches
  3. Running Through Town
  4. Luring the Thieves*
  5. Kevin's Booby Traps
  6. Down the Rope / Into the Park
  7. Reunion at Rockefeller Center / It's Christmas
  8. Finale
  9. We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas
  10. End Title
  11. Holiday Flight
  12. Suite from "Angels with Filthy Souls II"
  13. Somewhere in My Memory
  14. Star of Bethlehem
  15. Christmas Star
  16. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas

    Novelization

Home Alone 2 was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1992 to coincide with the film. The "point" version, which have the same storyline, was also novelized by A.L. Singer. It has an ISBN of 0-590-45717-9. An audiobook version was also released read by Tim Curry.
As in the novelization of the first film, the McCallisters live in Oak Park, Illinois and the crooks are named as Harry Lime and Marv Merchants. The novel also takes place one year after the events of the first film, but the ages of Kevin and his siblings are given as being two years older than the first film.
In the beginning of the novelization, a prologue, which ends up being Marv's nightmare in prison, he and Harry sneak away from the cops and return to Kevin's house to seek revenge on Kevin. Kevin bolts into the garage with Marv and Harry in hot pursuit. Harry and Marv end up triggering extra traps that Kevin had set up in the garage. Kevin watches as Marv ends up triggering a trap where a running lawnmower falls on his head.

Sequels

A second sequel, Home Alone 3, with a new cast followed in 1997. Two additional television movie sequels, ' and ', would follow in 2002 and 2012, respectively.