Home Alone 2 is the sequel of all sequels. No, it’s not as good as the original but the fact that the filmmakers’, including the late great John Hughes, seem to say, “F*** it, we’ll just do the same movie in a different setting” because basically that’s what this movie is. You have the same set-ups: using a movie to scare the sh** out of people, setting up a house of horrors for our bad guys, a cute and heartfelt ending with the family back together and an adult who Kevin initially thought was scary but in fact is friendly and will help him out of a jam.

Enough with the overanalyzing of a film that for intent and purposes (i.e. cash grab) is kind of fun in that insanely goofy kind of way where one can only admire how dumb these characters really are and just how resourceful Kevin is. I can only imagine Kevin joined the Special Forces or something because the guy is a natural MacGyver.

The story this go around is the same as the original Home Alone: Kevin McCallister (MACAULAY CULKIN) is once again in some deep trouble after his asshole big brother, Buzz, embarrasses him at a Christmas (or is it Holiday?) school event and, rightfully so, retaliates... with unforeseen results. As a consequence, and refusing to apologize, is sent to the attic. This time he makes it to the airport before losing his family and accidentally gets on a flight to New York when the rest are headed to Florida.

After exploring everything New York has to offer, the Kid ingeniously gets a room at a posh hotel using his voice recorder/player. Side note: Let me tell you, I was about 11-12 when this came out and the recorders they sold were crap and one could not get away with the stuff he did... suspension of disbelief or not, it’s the one thing I do remember about seeing this movie back in ’92. In any case, after running into a couple unscrupulous asses working for the hotel (namely TIM CURRY and ROB SCHNEIDER) and his old foes, Harry (JOE PESCI) and Marv (DANIEL STERN), Kevin manages to outsmart them all. Chaos and hilarity ensue.

Home Alone 2 isn’t a particularly good movie as it doesn’t quite measure up to the original despite the similarities, but I will admit to laughing at even the dumbest jokes (love the brick throwing scene) and it’s always great to see the physical comedy of Pesci (Oscar winner mind you) and Stern, both of whom make the movie work, more so than even Culkin.

So, even though it hasn’t held up that well over the years, I still enjoy it for what it is (and isn’t). There’s no pretences about what’s going to happen. You know the plot before the opening. You know what each of them will do, and yet you will still laugh at the same jokes, just in a different setting.

The only features are the trailers for all three Home Alone movies.

Home Alone 2 finally gets a true widescreen transfer (previous DVD releases in the US are non-anamorphic and look like crap), with its original 1.85 aspect ratio and in 1080p high-definition. Given the movie is now 17 years old, it’s not too bad of a transfer with nice colors that weren’t amped up to look pretty for HD. There is quite a bit of noise at times but overall, I am impressed with the transfer as for the most part it’s still smooth.

Fox serves up their standard 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and although you’re not going to get the boom compared to other films with more action, as far as older comedies go, it’s not too bad. Between John Williams’ classic score (the Home Alone suite is instantly recognizable) and the dialogue, this is a good audio track which is evenly distributed through each channel.

Even though this release doesn’t have any ‘true’ features, it is well worth picking up just for the widescreen transfer available for the first time in region 1. The movie itself isn’t the greatest as it does rehash most of the jokes from the original, but at the same time it’s still enjoyable.