If you have seen the Hangover 2, you already know the premise of the second Home Alone movie. Same situation; different city.
A year after the events of the first Home Alone film 10-year-old Kevin...who was 8 the year before...and his family are going to Miami for vacation this time. The night before, they attend a pageant that Kevin and his siblings are performing in. After Kevin's brother Buzz humiliates him on stage and Kevin retaliates, both are called before the family to apologize. Buzz does, but Kevin refuses, setting up a similar feud as in the previous film.
This time though, Kevin makes it to the airport, but gets separated there and ends up on a flight to New York. He realizes his mistake when he looks out of the airport and sees the New York skyline, including since this was 1992, the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. He goes to the Plaza hotel and fools the workers there into thinking he is there with his dad.
The next day is Christmas Eve, although you don't find that out until later in the film. Kevin goes off to Duncan's Toy Chest, the best toy shop in New York, while the Plaza clerk, played by Tim Curry, discovers that the credit card that Kevin used is not Kevin's. Kevin leaves the toy store and is discovered by the villains from the previous film; the Wet Bandits. They escaped jail and inexplicably plan to rob the toy store that Kevin went to.
The bandits chase Kevin to the hotel, where he is confronted by the hotel staff. After escaping them, he is ambushed by the bandits, but eventually escapes them too by running off into Central Park. There he meets a lady that tends to the pigeons there and they go have a conversation while listening to a symphony play Christmas music, including O Come All Ye Faithful. After this, Kevin decides to stop the bandits from robbing the toy store.
He sets up his uncle's house, which is being refurbished, in similar pitfalls as he had for his house the previous year. He goes to interrupt the robbery and gets the bandits to chase him into the house, who foolishly fall for the same traps as the previous year. He leads them to Central Park, where he is saved by the pigeon lady.
Meanwhile, Kevin's family is in New York and his mother Kate is frantically searching the city for him. She knows that Kevin likes Christmas trees, so she looks for him at Rockefeller Plaza. He is there and they are reunited. The Plaza gave the family a complimentary suite and during the early morning, Mr. Duncan, knowing what Kevin did for his store, delivers gifts to them. Kevin meets the pigeon lady one last time before his father discovers the bill from Kevin's stay in the hotel.
This movie is essentially the same as the previous, except in one area: the scene where the bandits are going through the house is longer and more like a cartoon. I did not like the bandits being in the first film at all and I didn't care for the fact that they were given more screen time in this one. The main element that I did like in the first film, which was Kate's attempts to get back to Kevin, were seriously downplayed to the point where they seemed like an afterthought.
There were nice moments, but on the whole, it is an okay movie and not as good as its predecessors. I have not seen the third, fourth, or *sigh* fifth Home Alone films, as they do not have any of the cast from the original two films...or John Hughes...or Christmas in general. The second film may have been pushing it as it was.
The other five films I will look at:
It's a Wonderful Life
A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
The Polar Express
No comments:
Post a Comment