Stars:
Macaulay Culkin, Joe Peschi, Daniel Stern, Brenda Fricker, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard.

Not-so-choice Dialogue:
* Kevin: "You can mess with a lot of things, but you can't mess with kids on Christmas."

* Marv: "Suck BRICK kid!"

Choice Moments:
* none than I can see.

Conclusions:
* Bums live in the ceiling of Carnagie Hall.
* It is possible to hammer together a movie make completely out of jokes that reference the earlier film.
* Kids lost in New York will only have contact with people who wish him well.
* A small boy can cover the distance of 45 blocks from Carnagie Hill to Rockerfeller Center in a just under five minutes without ever getting winded.
* Despite the fact that it's blocked by buildings, you can still sit at LaGuardia and watch the sunset.
* Hotel room doors close bar and lock themselves.

Review:
Talk about Attack of the Clones.

Maybe the producers were hoping we wouldn't notice. Maybe they were hoping that since the first Home Alone made 43 billion dollars at the box office that we would forgive the fact that they were making the EXACT SAME MOVIE!! Apparently audiences did forgive that little lack of imagination because this film went on to make 44 billion dollars. Who cares? Culkin's benefactors, that's who.

I was not among the mass hoardes who swarmed into this remake in the winter of 1992 but years later I got curious. The reward was not plentiful. Basically Home Alone 2 takes the formula of the earlier film, transports locations and . . . and that's about it. This time Culkin is in New York instead of hanging around the house thereby negating the title (it's too bad they don't send out NSF notices for being creatively bankrupt).

Kevin gets into a fight with his older brother - Again. The family leaves for Christmas vacation - Again. Kevin and his family get separated - Again (he gets on a New York bound flight while the family heads off to Florida). He runs afoul of the two burglars - Again. He sets up a small fortress designed to hurl heavy objects at them - Again. I groan, roll my eyes and check my watch - Again.

Even the kid/adult relationship is the same. One of the few joys of the original was Kevin's relationship with the old man down the street. That formula is recycled with a would-be heart-tugging friendship with a bag lady who lives in the loft above Carnagie Hall. In the movie's single stick-gooey scene he explains to her the importance of human kindness, a lesson that he seems to lose while whacking the crooks in the head with bricks.

The key to the movie's success is the closing sequence in which Kevin gets to drop half of Lowe's inventory on Daniel Stern and Joe Peschi. A laugh-a-minute for some, a wince and a half for me. I'd like to know where he's hiding the staff of handymen to rig up electric cables, and wheelbarrows full of bricks to fall just at the right moment. I'd like to know what mental block is affecting Stern and Peschi that keeps the from simply MOVING OUT OF THE WAY!!!

Home Alone 2 was the last hit for Macaulay Culkin before his father and a string of flops like Getting Even With Dad, The Pagemaster, The Good Son and Richie Rich sent him into the "Where Are They Now" file. For this movie he got 4.5 million dollars. For this do we really need child labor laws?