Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), the most self-reliant and resourceful child in America, is back, this time on his own in the city that never sleeps. So are the "wet bandits" (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), now known as the "sticky bandits," who take more knockout blows to the head than Mike Tyson's last 30 opponents. An officious concierge (Tim Curry) joins the group of baddies Kevin has to dispatch, having his own share of pratfalls, so all the ingredients are present for a successful sequel to one of the most unexpectedly profitable blockbusters to come down the pike -- right? New York works as a setting for these hijinks, and the sequel replicates the guilty pleasures of the first film pretty well. In fact, it's almost a carbon copy; Culkin's famous Edvard Munch-style scream shows up repeatedly, and there's another misunderstood stranger whom Kevin first fears, a bag lady (Brenda Fricker) covered in pigeons, who gives the film its obligatory dose of sentimentality. As ever, Kevin is a regular MacGyver with the booby traps, scampering through a house under renovation and leaving rainstorms of paint buckets and wrenches to bludgeon the by-now brain-damaged Pesci and Stern. Formula drives box office, and by following it scientifically, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York added another 175 million dollars to the franchise war chest. However, an ill-considered 1997 third installment, minus all the principal stars, proved that massive head wounds lose their humor value at some point. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide