The huge success of the first Home Alone film in 1990 just about guaranteed that Hollywood would put out a sequel as quickly as they could. It had been a surprise at the box office, and when it passed $200 million quicker than any other family film, the idea went into writing to get a new one out for the 1992 Christmas season. To those that really loved the first Home Alone film, this was just another chapter in the life of main character Kevin McCallister. In the first film, Kevin was accidentally left behind when his family went off for a Christmas vacation, and was forced to fend for himself and deal with several thieves trying to invade their home. A pretty tough ordeal for any 8-year old, but the blend of humor and pint-sized action worked well, and in turn make the film that smash success that the holiday season had really needed.

This time around, the plot isn't all that much different, so if you are looking for originality, you may be quite disappointed. With another family vacation planned for Miami, Florida over the Christmas season, Kevin boards the wrong plane, and ends up flying to New York City without his family. Now he has to survive life in the Big Apple with no assistance outside of his own wit and ingenuity when it comes to getting out of sticky situations. Little does he know that the thieves from the first film are back in New York, planning to rob a toy store. Now Kevin finds himself in the middle of things, trying to celebrate the season and have fun in the scary city of New York all by himself. He has to make some new friends, and it isn't going to be easy, but for this 10-year old to survive on his own, he is going to go through many interesting ordeals in the process.

Macaulay Culkin returns as Kevin McCallister, the little kid that everyone grew to love for a few years on the big screen. He plays the role of the youngest in the family pretty well, and does well in giving a lot of believability to a story that could have been bogged down by a weak plot-premise. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern also return as the bungling cat-burglars who find that they will have to deal with the kid once again if they want to succeed in their plans. It's good that they returned all of the main characters like this, and it helped that each of them is likeable in their own fashion, without being too far over the top. From one point of view, you may see this as the same film as the original with slight variations, but when I first saw it, I was able to just enjoy the film for what it was, and can still overlook how similar the main premise (kid lost without family) was.

Home Alone 2 was a success in its own right, bringing in a ton of money through both box office receipts and VHS/DVD sales over the years. I also think that the film has held up very well over the years, and it is one that could be just as good in today's market as it was back then. Sure it follows the first one in its central premise, and owes its own outcome to the first film, but I don't think that really matters when you create a story like this that is geared towards younger movie fans. It should be noted that some parents might find some of the things that Kevin does to the burglars to be violent, and some parts might even be scary to little viewers, but I don't that that detracts from the film as a whole. This in my opinion is a great family film that can be watched many times over, and could have a place on the DVD shelf. We aren't talking about a classic, but the film does give a great message about family, and gets my recommendation as a result.












Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD