‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ is in many ways everything you could really want from a sequel. Trading the smaller scale ‘Comfiness’ of the original, for an all together grander experience across the board. As we move from a family friendly and border cartoonish take on the ‘Home Invasion’ genre, with a festive twist. To tales of grand GRAND robbery in the big city itself.

The script gets an extra layer of glossy polish over the original, John Hughes is probably best known for his more ‘personal’ style of writing, tugging at the heartstrings while not being afraid to marry the bittersweet to full on belly laugh comedy. Here? while we DO lose some of that more heartwarming family…ness (for lack of a better word) we instead trade that in for a more slowburn chased comedy in which Kevin has to first of all duck and dive the suspicions of the hotel staff who believe he’s staying there via an illegal credit card. THEN he has to duck and dive the return of Harry and Marv who’ve moved to the big city to try and ‘Go Big’ after a short lived run of house raidings.

Compared to the original? I feel this one uses its time more wisely and manages to keep a consistent pace and tone right across the 3 acts, it rarely feels like it slows down, and even when it does, its usually as a means to ramp up for an increase in pace. One of my main criticisms of the first film was that, clocking in at approx: 1hr and 45 mins, it didnt seem to know what to do with itself in the middle of the film, so it re-ran scenes of the ‘wet bandits’ investigating the houses on the estate and padded the runtime with Kevin grocery shopping or running around in a park. I felt it could have easily lost 15-25 minutes and been just as strong, if not stronger.

‘Lost in New York’? is 2 hours long…And to its credit, it doesnt FEEL 2 hours long…but even so, at 2 hours I find myself really struggling to be able to find the time to work through this one again anytime soon. It definitely could have lose *at least* 10 minutes with nothing of value removed. But I do have to say, it feels like a much more comfortable 2 hours, than the original did at 1:45. it wears its time better and I think giving over nearly 40 JAM PACKED minutes to the bad guys going through the gauntlet again, was absolutely a much wanted reward after an hour+ of slowly building to it.

My other major criticism with the first was that, while the characters did have a *little* bit of depth, I would have personally liked to see them have just a bit more going on…other than Kevin bouncing between ‘rambunctious kid’ and ‘Sad child missing his family’ and the buglars feeling like they had no other depth beyond ‘bumbling theives’

Well; While I wont say I was *completely* won over by them on this outing either, its definitely a step in the right direction, Because the script trades out the more schmaltzy ‘I miss my family’ angle in exchange for a less grounded, more cartoony worldview, it means they’re able to develop the characters into almost charactures of what they were in the first film, Kevin is now a charismatic charmer, the burglars are now LITERAL grumbling idiots who almost on purpose walk into the traps.

Some would say this was regressive, but honestly? I’d rather Hughes pick an emotional lane and explore it, than flip flop between the two and deliver a somewhat shallow experience.

The direction and cine also get a HUGE boost in quality. we have a much more polished and styalized production that really leans into the city as a source of filming inspiration, expect all the major landmarks to make very welcome cameos that look astounding, and even a few celebrity cameos.

Chris Columbus really gets to flex here, after some stunning work in making an ultra christmassy and quaint first offering, here, he’s really let off the leash and you really feel the full size and scale of New York from a kids perspective for pretty much the whole runtime.

To this day, I’ll argue his work around the choreography of shot arrangements for Harry and Marvs pratfalls are some of the most satisfying and painful looking *THUDS* in film history, you REALLY feel the weight of watching the pair fall 2-3 floors onto concrete. Its very impressive.

Composition is rock solid, they done some really nice cool grading on this one, the editing is razor…as I’ve mentioned previously, this took the foundations of the original and MASSIVELY upgraded almost every aspect on an almost microscopic level.

The performances I think are less realistic, but more polished across the board. I’d rather an exaggerated performance in a christmas film, than a muted one that doesnt let the cast shine. And here it really does feel like they were allowed to explore the roles a bit more, with largely positive experiences i’d say.

John Williams is back on scoring duties alongside the likes of Tom Petty and Darlene Love. I love this take on the scoring over the original. Taking the original compositions and reworking them/remixing them into something that again; just feels grander, more intense and is MUCH better utilized across the runtime. I think its great and really helps raise the film to the next level!

All in all? am I annoyed this things 2 hours long? absolutely; its the only thing that really stops it getting the full marks from me. with a shorter runtime this would’ve been the perfect christmas film to chase away the blues. As it stands? this is a BIG improvement over the original on almost every area…like I say; I just wish it was shorter and that they’d maybe leaned even further into the comedic aspect, as I feel Hughes and comedy go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/home-alone-2-lost-in-new-york/