Once again, Kevin's forgetful family leaves home without him (he gets on the plane to New York instead of Miami), and once again they fret while he deals effortlessly with the world. The movie repeats the formula of the best-selling original film. He has soaked the rope in kerosene, and when they're halfway down, he sets it on fire. Take, for example, the scene in "Home Alone 2" where Kevin lures the crooks into trying to crawl down a rope from the top of a four-story townhouse. 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. The problem is, cartoon violence is only funny in cartoons. When little Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) taunts them ("Hey! Up here!"), he sounds like Bugs Bunny, and when they chase him (always unwisely), they're in the tradition of Elmer Fudd. And just like in the cartoons, the crooks are never really hurt they bounce back, dust themselves off, bend their bones back into shape and are ready for the next adventure. As the two hapless mopes fall down ladders and get slammed by bricks and 500-pound bags of cement, and covered with glue and paint and birdseed, you can hear the cackling of the old Looney Tunes heroes in the background. Some of the gags are lifted directly from old color cartoons, and in spirit what we're looking at here are Road Runner adventures, with the crooks playing the role of Wile E. Call me hardhearted, call me cynical, but please don't call me if they make " Home Alone 3." I know, I know - the violence is all a joke. Nor did I enjoy the shameless attempt to leaven the mayhem by including a preachy subplot about the Pigeon Lady of Central Park. I didn't much like the first film, and I don't much like this one, with its sadistic little hero who mercilessly hammers a couple of slow-learning crooks. I have a feeling that "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" is going to be an enormous box office success, but include me out.
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