Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Chris Columbus
Produced by John Hughes
Written by John Hughes
Based on Characters
by John Hughes
Starring
Music by John Williams
Cinematography Julio Macat
Edited by Raja Gosnell
Production
company
Hughes Entertainment
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • November 20, 1992 (1992-11-20)
Running time
 120 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20 million[2]
Box office $359 million[3]

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is a 1992 American Christmas 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 Home Alone. Macaulay Culkin reprises his role as Kevin McCallister, while Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern reprise their roles as the Wet Bandits, now known as the Sticky Bandits. Catherine O'Hara, John Heard, Rob Schneider, Tim Curry, and Brenda Fricker are also featured.

The plot is as follows: Kevin and his family decide to take a trip to Florida, but Kevin takes the wrong plane and ends up in New York City. He tries to make do with what he has, such as using his father's credit card to stay at the Plaza Hotel, but is soon confronted by the Wet Bandits and must outrun and out-prank them again.

The film was shot in Winnetka, Illinois; O'Hare International Airport in Chicago; Evanston, Illinois; and New York City (which was star Culkin's hometown at the time). The exterior of Duncan's Toy Chest in New York City was filmed outside of the Rookery Building in downtown Chicago. The exterior of Haven Middle School in Evanston, Illinois is shown prior to the Christmas pageant. The Miami scenes were filmed in Los Angeles, including an exterior of Miami International Airport which was filmed at Los Angeles International Airport. The film became the second most financially successful film of 1992, earning over $173 million in revenue in the United States and $359 million worldwide against a budget of $20 million. The film is also notable for featuring a cameo from future U.S. President Donald Trump, who had owned the Plaza Hotel at the time of the film's production.[4]

Home Alone 3 followed five years later in 1997, but the original cast, composer, and director did not return for that film.

Plot

The McCallister family is preparing to spend Christmas in Miami, gathering at Peter and Kate's home outside of Chicago. Peter and Kate's youngest son, Kevin, sees Florida as contradictory to Christmas, on his opinion of the lack of Christmas trees in Florida. A fight with his older brother Buzz at a school Christmas pageant results in Kevin storming to the third floor of his house shortly afterward. During the night, Peter forgot to resets the alarm clock, causing the entire family to oversleep. At the airport, the family rushes to their plane. Kevin stops to replace the batteries for his Talkboy, carrying Peter's bag which contains the batteries (along with Peter's wallet and large amounts of cash). Losing sight of his family, Kevin inadvertently boards a flight bound for New York City. Kevin decides to have fun with his unexpected adventure and tour the city. While there, Kevin meets a homeless woman tending to pigeons at Central Park, which frightens him. Kevin goes to the Plaza Hotel, where he uses Peter's credit card to check in. Meanwhile, the "Wet Bandits", Harry and Marv, have traveled to New York City after escaping during a prison riot.

On Christmas Eve, Kevin tours the city in a limousine and 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. Kevin donates $20 to the hospital. 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 sign of eternal friendship. After encountering Harry and Marv, Kevin retreats to the Plaza. The hotel's concierge, Mr. Hector, confronts Kevin about the credit card, which has been reported stolen. Kevin flees the hotel after evading Mr. Hector and eventually caught by Harry and Marv once again. They brag about their plan to break into the toy store that night, just before Kevin manages to escape from them.

After landing in Miami, Kate discovers that Kevin is missing. After tracking the whereabouts of the "stolen" credit card, she and the rest of the family fly to New York City to search for Kevin. Meanwhile, Kevin goes to his uncle Rob's townhouse, only to find the house vacant and undergoing renovations, while Rob and his family are in Paris. At Central Park, he encounters and befriends the pigeon lady. They go to Carnegie Hall, where an orchestra is performing. The pigeon lady explains how her life collapsed when the man she loved left her and how she dealt with it by taking care of the pigeons in the park. Kevin reminds the lady that she shouldn't be afraid to trust people, and promises that he will be her friend.

Kevin returns to the townhouse and rigs it with numerous booby traps. He later arrives at the toy store during Harry and Marv's robbery and throws a brick through the window, setting off the store's alarm. Kevin then lures the duo to the townhouse, where they spring the traps and suffer various injuries. While the duo pursues Kevin outside of the townhouse, he calls the police before Harry and Marv catch him and discuss how they will kill him in Central Park. Before they can shoot him, the pigeon lady sneaks in and has the pigeons incapacitate them. Kevin sets off fireworks he had bought earlier to signal the police. The police arrive and arrest Harry and Marv. At the toy store, Mr. Duncan finds a note from Kevin attached to the brick, explaining about what happened.

While searching for Kevin, Kate remembers his fondness for Christmas trees. After observing Kevin making a wish at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Kate meets him there and they reconcile. On Christmas Day, a truckload of gifts arrive at the McCallisters' hotel room from the toy store. Kevin reconciles with the rest of his family and Buzz allows him to open up the first present. Kevin goes to Central Park to give the pigeon lady the second turtledove, reminding her that he will always be her friend. At the Plaza, Buzz receives the bill for Kevin's stay from Cedric and shows it to Peter. Peter suddenly calls out, "Kevin, you spent $967 on room service?!" at which point Kevin runs off to the hotel.

Cast

Main cast

The McCallister family

Other characters

Release

Marketing

Numerous video games 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.[5][6]

The Talkboy cassette recorder was produced as a tie-in for the movie by Tiger Electronics (currently under Hasbro) based on specifications provided by John Hughes and the movie studio, and sold particularly well after the film was released on home video.[7]

American Airlines again had product placement in the film with the McCallisters making their trip on the airline's two Boeing 767-200s. In the first film, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 was used. For the release of the first two films on home video, the airline became a sponsor..

Coca-Cola products make several appearances in the film, including in scenes when Kevin rides a limousine and when Kevin's cousin Fuller wakes up at the Plaza Hotel. Notably, Pepsi products appeared in the first Home Alone film instead.

Box office

Home Alone 2 opened to $31.1 million from 2,222 theaters, averaging $14,008 per site.[8] While it started off better than Home Alone, the final box office gross was much less.[9] $173.6 million was taken in the United States and a total of $359 million worldwide.[3] The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 11, 1992, and topped the country's box office that weekend.[10]

Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 30% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10.[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

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."[13]

Home media

The film was first released on VHS and Laserdisc on July 27, 1993. It was re-released in 1997 along with Home Alone on VHS. It was later released on DVD on October 5, 1999 as a basic package, with no special features other than theatrical trailers for the film and its predecessor and successor. The film was released on Blu-ray in 2009 with no special features, and was released alongside Home Alone in a collection pack the following year. The film was reissued again on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013 and 2015. After the September 11 attacks of 2001, a scene of Kevin visiting the observation deck of the original World Trade Center was edited out of the film.[14]

Music

John Williams 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
Film score by John Williams
Released November 20, 1992
Genre Classical
Length 63:20
Label Arista Records, 20th Century Fox Records
John Williams chronology
Far and Away
(1992)Far and Away1992		 Home Alone 2
(1992)		 Jurassic Park
(1993)Jurassic Park1993
Home Alone chronology
Home Alone
(1990) Home Alone1990		 Home Alone 2
(1992) Home Alone 21992		 Home Alone 3
(1997) Home Alone 31997

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,[15] 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" (3:49)
  2. "Home Alone" (2:01)
  3. "We Overslept Again" (2:46)
  4. "Christmas Star" (3:18)
  5. "Arrival in New York" (1:41)
  6. "Plaza Hotel and Duncan's Toy Store" (3:45)
  7. "Concierge and Race to the Room" (2:04)
  8. "Star of Bethlehem" (3:28)
  9. "The Thieves Return" (4:35)
  10. "Appearance of Pigeon Lady" (3:19)
  11. "Christmas at Carnegie Hall" ("O Come All Ye Faithful" / "O Little Town of Bethlehem" / "Silent Night") (5:02)
  12. "Into the Park" (3:49)
  13. "Haunted Brownstone" (3:01)
  14. "Christmas Star and Preparing the Trap" (4:17)
  15. "To the Plaza Presto" (3:22)
  16. "Reunion at Rockefeller Center" (2:36)
  17. "Kevin's Booby Traps" (3:41)
  18. "Finale" (3:55)
  19. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (2:51)

Soundtrack

Original Soundtrack Album
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Soundtrack Album / Home Alone Christmas
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released November 20, 1992 (Original)
September 16, 1997 (HAC)
Genre Christmas, pop, rock and roll, R&B
Length 39:26
Label Arista Records (Original)
Sony BMG (HAC)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [16]

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" (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, composed by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman)
  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)
Home Alone Christmas track listing
  1. "All Alone on Christmas" (Darlene Love)
  2. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (Alan Jackson)
  3. "My Christmas Tree" (The Fox Albert Choir)
  4. "Somewhere in My Memory" (John Williams)
  5. "Silver Bells" (Atlantic Starr)
  6. "Sleigh Ride" (TLC)
  7. "Christmas All Over Again" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
  8. "Please Come Home for Christmas" (Southside Johnny Lyon)
  9. "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" (John Williams)
  10. "Carol of the Bells" (John Williams)
  11. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Mel Torme)
  12. "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Lisa Fischer)
The Deluxe Edition
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – The Deluxe Edition
Soundtrack album by John Williams
Released November 15, 2002
Genre Classical
Length 1:39:49
Label Varèse Sarabande

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.[17][18]

Disc One
  1. Home Alone (Main Title) (2:07)
  2. This Year's Wish (1:47)
  3. We Overslept Again / Holiday Flight (3:19)
  4. Separate Vacations*(1:58)
  5. Arrival in New York**(2:59)
  6. The Thieves Return (3:28)
  7. Plaza Hotel (3:04)
  8. Concierge (1:31)
  9. Distant Goodnights (Christmas Star) (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:05)
  10. A Day in the City (:59)
  11. Duncan's Toy Store (2:41)
  12. Turtle Doves (1:29)
  13. To the Plaza, Presto (3:27)
  14. Race to the Room / Hot Pursuit (4:08)
  15. Haunted Brownstone (3:02)
  16. Appearance of the Pigeon Lady (3:21)
  17. Christmas at Carnegie Hall (5:15) O Come, All Ye Faithful / O Little Town of Bethlehem / Silent Night
Disc Two
  1. Christmas Star - Preparing the Trap (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (4:22)
  2. Another Christmas in the Trenches (2:33)
  3. Running Through Town (1:16)
  4. Luring the Thieves*(4:02)
  5. Kevin's Booby Traps (7:23)
  6. Down the Rope / Into the Park (5:06)
  7. Reunion at Rockefeller Center / It's Christmas (5:21)
  8. Finale (2:00)
  9. We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Traditional) and Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (2:51)
  10. End Title (1:32)
  11. Holiday Flight (alternate) (2:32)
  12. Suite from "Angels with Filthy Souls II" (:56)
  13. Somewhere in My Memory (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:57)
  14. Star of Bethlehem (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:32)
  15. Christmas Star (Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) (3:23)
  16. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas (orchestra) (2:23)

Novelization

Home Alone 2 was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1992 to coincide with the film. It has an ISBN of 0-590-45717-9. An audiobook version was also released read by Tim Curry (who played the concierge in the film).

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.

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 (This was a trap featured in Home Alone 3).

Sequels

A second sequel, Home Alone 3, followed in 1997. Two additional television movie sequels, Home Alone 4 and Home Alone: The Holiday Heist, would follow in 2002 and 2012, respectively.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "HOME ALONE 2 - LOST IN NEW YORK (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. November 4, 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)". The Numbers. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 23, 2012.
  4. ↑ Langille, Sean. "Never forget Donald Trump's cameo in 'Home Alone 2'". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  5. ↑ Home Alone 2 Lost in New York | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
  6. ↑ Home Alone 2 Action Contraption Game | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
  7. ↑ Reyes, Sonia (16 December 1993). "Talkboy: 'Home Alone 2' Toy Is Hot, Hot, Hot". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  8. ↑ "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - Weekend Box Office Results". Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  9. ↑ "Home Alone Weekend Box Office Results". Retrieved December 24, 2007.
  10. ↑ "Weekend box office 11th December 1992 - 13th December 1992". www.25thframe.co.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  11. ↑ Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) at Rotten Tomatoes
  12. ↑ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  13. ↑ Ebert, Roger (1992-11-20). "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York". rogerebert.com. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  14. ↑ "The Twin Towers: a doomed fate in film". 2011-09-06. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  15. ↑ "Filmtracks: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (John Williams)". Filmtracks. November 11, 2008. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  16. ↑ Birchmeier, Jason. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York at AllMusic. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  17. ↑ Daish, Tom (October 2, 2010). "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - The Deluxe Edition". FilmMusicSite.com. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York -- Screen Archives". Screen Archives. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
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