Home Alone 2 (Fox Blu-ray)
Picture: B Sound: B Extras: D Film: A-
Well, 2 years
after the neglectant McCallisters left their son Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) at
home, they managed to misplace their child once again at the airport; this
time, however, he ended up in New York
City. You would
figure after one horrible incident (with murderous burglars nonetheless) that
the McCallisters would be more watchful of their children; but I guess
not. Home Alone 2: Lost in New
York in this reviewer’s mind is an essential
Christmas film; ranking up there with classics like It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle
on 34th Street.
The film
essentially follows the same premise of the first 1990 film, but changes the
setting to the Big Apple and adds some amazing characters. As the McCallisters are running to catch
their plane to Miami, Florida
Kevin gets lost in the mix; following a man who is wearing the same jacket as
his father to LaGuardia Airport in New
York City. Luckily for Kevin he had been carrying his
father’s bag; in turn having access to his father’s wallet and all his credit
cards. Kevin decides to check into the
Plaza Hotel, but quickly falls under the suspicious and watchful eye of the
concierge (played by the brilliant Tim Curry).
About the
same time Kevin arrived in New York,
so did Harry and Marv, the “Wet Bandits;” having recently escaped from prison
with a plan to rob the city blind.
Shortly after going on a grand limousine tour of the city and the
enormous Duncan’s
Toy Chest, Kevin runs into a couple familiar faces as he literally walks right
into Harry and Marv. The “Wet Bandits”
quickly scoop up the shocked Kevin, but soon the boys fall victim to the
youngster’s sly tricks once again. The
film evolves into a great Christmas tale of hope, family love, slapstick joy
and action packed comedy. While Kevin’s
family looks to track down their, once again, lost son Kevin fights the odds as
he is pinned against not only the big city, but also a thwarting concierge and
a couple of idiotic criminals.
I won’t
lie and say the technical features of this Christmas inspired Blu-ray are
stellar, but they are far from bad. The
picture is presented in a 1080p AVC encoded 1.85 X 1 High Definition widescreen
that has solid colors that reflect the New York City atmosphere, a nice degree
of crispness and solid blacks that do a great job of framing a film that takes
place most of the time at night. There
is a degree of grain that is noticeable, but not distracting and a minor bit of
edge enhancement that in the end means the film needs a few touch ups. The audio is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
lossless mix that highlights the wonderful holiday John Williams score as well
as never forgetting the high degree of background ambience and crisp
dialogue. The audio is pleasing and
makes good use of the surrounds, but nothing about the track is overly
impressive as it is high end adequate.
There are
no extras except a few trailers for the Home
Alone films (1-3); sadly not offering fans anything to dive into and
leaving a classic somewhat empty on Blu-ray.
I would
not say this is a “must have” Blu-ray, but if you don’t own this film already
on DVD then now is a great time to pick up this classic on Blu-ray.
You can
read more about the first film at these links:
Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8058/Home+Alone+%E2%80%93+Family+F
DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4531/Home+Alone+%E2%80%93+Family+F
- Michael P. Dougherty II
