Chris Columbus directs Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern in this kids comedy sequel where precocious vigilante Kevin gets on the wrong flight and stays at The Plaza.

When sleeper smash Home Alone first came out, my teenage sister begrudgingly dragged me along to see it with her mates on a Saturday out. In the two short years it took for the sequel to be churned out, I was going to the movies by myself, was buying film magazines and this felt like baby stuff I had fully outgrown. So I’d never watched Lost In New York in its entirety until quite recently. I’m not a fan. It follows the recipe of the original pretty slavishly and the movie is overlong from trying to crowbar in every element… only “bigger” and “better”. It could certainly lose all the pigeon lady schmaltz. To give the product some due, Columbus shows a certain degree of ingenuity in how he reverse engineers the unlikely situation of Kevin being lost by his family for a second Christmas in a row and New York will always be the most cinematic Xmas setting… The festive soundtrack is on point, props to Darlene Love. By the time The Wet Bandits are getting bricks to the faces though I had already powered down. Just took too long to get there. Less is more.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Richie Rich (1994)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/