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Home Alone 2: Lost in New York · The Director's Chair Network

• 1:17 Hello. Hello, I'm Katie and welcome back to Retro Made Your Pop Culture Rewind. 1:23 We are heading back to 1992 today, a year of slapstick traps talk boys and 1:28 Turtle Doves to revisit Home Alone. Two lost in New York. It's bigger, louder, and somehow even more chaotic than the original set 1:36 against the perfect early nineties backdrop of a neon windbreaker Crystal Pepsi and boy bands. 1:43 Just starting to form. Let's see if Kevin's second round of mayhem still holds up, or if the sequel 1:50 should have been left at the plaza. I'm so excited to have a new guest to Retro Made. 1:58 This is our third try. We finally got him on. We have from the Directors Chair Network. 2:04 Also all apologies podcast. Andy, tell us about you and your show, Andy. 2:10 Hi Katie. Glad we finally got to do this. All apologies podcast is I'm a frequent guest host on who are these podcasts, 2:18 which is a far bigger show than my show. And that is a roast style comedy show of ridiculous podcasts making 2:28 fools of themselves on the internet. And I've spun that off into the same format, only targeting 2:36 apology tours from celebrities. We just covered Alec Baldwin Oh we like to look at a lot of, I Joel Osman getting drunk at a ski lodge and arrested 2:48 in a parking lot dash cam type of footage. love it. those are the type of things that we like to cover on all apologies. 2:55 But I'm also doing, Edgar Wright's films for the Directors Chair network. So we've done Shauna, the Dead and Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim and 3:05 I did Edgar Wright's Independent Film Fist Full of Fingers with Ryan, who of course, you know. 3:12 So, that's what I'm up to. And you can find all that at all. Apologies podcast.com As I was getting ready this morning, I listened to the Scott Pilgrim episode. 3:20 Nicely done. Thank you. Yeah, that was, that's my favorite one, obviously. 3:26 Well, I'm a bass player that grew up in the eighties with eight bit Nintendo, so, I'm going to be a fan of Scott Pilgrim. 3:33 Yes. of my favorite movies. Yeah. Awesome. Well this is 92. So what we do here on Retro Made Andy, is we set the stage, go back in 3:42 time to a simpler time, shall we say. So today we're going back to 1992. 3:48 So we are gonna open the time capsule from 1992. 3:54 we have a wheel to spin. I will spin on your behalf. We'll come to a category and I'll ask you some trivia questions. 4:00 We did cover 1992 already with the Beethoven episode. 4:05 I don't know if you're aware that John Hughes wrote Beethoven. No, I didn't, He did. 4:11 Uh, Watch it, so I won't no spoilers, so I didn't see that one yet. 4:16 that wasn't one that you as a kid watched with the big fluffy dog. I don't know why. Yeah. That one missed me. 4:21 Maybe I was a little too old Mm, something that appeared to be a children's movie. 4:27 Is that a definitely a children's. Groden in that? Yep. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Also, I'm not a fan of Charles Groin, 4:34 Okay. Well then, there you go. So that was, so listeners go back and check out some more trivia from 4:39 1992 and Beethoven in that episode. Gonna spin for you. See what we come to 4:49 I make 'em pretty easy. Okay. Boombox, bangers. Great. 4:55 These are the top five songs on the billboard charts for the entire year of 1992. 5:00 Okay. I make 'em a little too easy. But we have four Philadelphia men that were the Kings of r 5:07 and b. Slow jams that might, Boys to Boys to yes. And what's the what's the song? 5:13 92, number one? Slow jam. End of the road. Very good. 5:18 Very good. The number two song celebrated curvy women everywhere with a 5:24 very unforgettable opening line. Do I need to say the opening line? 5:30 baby. Got back, sir. Mixa Yes. I like big. And I cannot lie. 5:36 Yeah. Uhhuh. Oh, that. Well, the yeah, actually there's two kind of opening lines that they could be referring to. You're correct. 5:43 And did you say who the, who the singer was. sir. Mix Okay. Okay. Okay. No cheating here. 5:50 I remember being in like grade school really liking this. This group performed by two backwards clothes wearing teens. 5:59 This energetic rap hit told you exactly what to do twice in its title. 6:05 Yeah. Jump by crisscross. Very good. Were, were you a fan? 6:10 I never wore my clothing backwards. I'll say that, but I think I was a fan of, crisscross as a, as a child. 6:18 Watching children become famous Yep. was fun. 6:24 They're like 12 I re Yeah. Daddy Mac and Mac Daddy. Yeah. 6:30 The number four song is an elegant Ballad by a former Miss America contestant. 6:38 Top the Charts as she sang about life's surprises, reminding us that sometimes the sun goes around the moon. 6:45 Yeah. Vanessa Williams, the best for last. Very good. 6:51 All right, the last one, you're on a roll. This r and b trio from Atlanta harmonized their way through a 92 hit 6:58 that repeated its title three times. Just like the group's name Nearly does 7:06 Hmm. This is a tough one. Atlanta Trio. 7:12 women. say Tony. Tony. Tony. But I don't know the song. It's not Tony, Tony, Tony, but it's in a harmonized their way through 92. 7:22 I think that was kind of a miss that last, the similar to the name, it's, it was off put. 7:29 yeah. Mm-hmm. It is a misdirect. It's letters, the group's name is letters 7:36 Hmm. women. No, really t Close, close. 7:41 Close. That was a TLC. TLC was back then. 7:47 With that, that first album, TLC. And the song is Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby. 7:55 think I know that one. Yeah. You do. with not knowing that Okay. fine. Okay. Okay. 8:00 Not perfect. Everyone, that's what we're trying to say. That's let's, when they did that slam with Michael Jackson. 8:08 Oh, terrible. All right, we're gonna spin again. Let's get another category for you. 8:14 Yeah. Totally tasty. And 8:20 one to me. this is snacks, foods, drinks, stuff like that. 8:26 Hmm. Okay. 92. All right. There's, I, they're so easy. 8:31 This prepackaged meals targeted at kids became incredibly popular in 92, 8:36 offered a combination of crackers, deli meats, cheese, and sometimes sweets in a convenient, portable package. 8:44 What was it? Lunchables, I used to work in a dairy cooler where they stocked Lunchables 8:54 and sometimes they would accidentally get slashed with a box cutter and, 9:01 it would be able to have a snack Accidentally, the Cool. oh my God. I would be the worst employee at a place where there was food that I liked. 9:08 'cause I would accidentally ruin things a lot. Yeah, but that the meat that comes in the lunch bowls is disgusting. 9:15 I don't know I, passes. FDA well, we don't have the strongest of let's, well I'll just leave that there. 9:23 America doesn't have the strongest regulations. But I remember as a kid, 'cause we could not bring our lunch to school. 9:29 I went to a Catholic school. We had to eat at the cafeteria and every once in a blue moon we'd 9:35 have a day where it was a big deal. You could bring your lunch. And I always wanted to bring Lunchables and my mom's like, no, that's so dumb. 9:42 There's four things. It, it's not a good lunch. I remember when I was, I mean this is going even further back, but I also went 9:51 to Catholic school and there was certain days of the month where they would. 9:57 You could opt to have happy meals from McDonald's shipped into the, 10:02 like kindergarten or first grade. It was a big deal to get it, and it was an even bigger deal to not get it, 10:08 which I have a twin brother and young parents, so oftentimes we didn't have 10:13 money for McDonald's lunch at school. But yeah, that, that was a, when you talk about regulations and 10:21 things that shouldn't be fed to children in schools, getting McDonald's. 10:26 school was maybe fun, but Ill conceived. 10:31 Also, was there DoorDash at this time? How's this? I mean, somebody just volunteered to go pick a bunch, 10:39 I, pick a bunch of happy meals up. probably some handshake deal that they had with the, the church and McDonald's 10:46 The church. Love it. Okay, let's see. I mean, there was a lot of junk food from this time that was, marketed towards kids. 10:54 And speaking of which and I, I loved it all. I loved this next one, Totinos. 11:01 This thing, Totino's Blank became widely popular as a convenient snack. 11:07 Click to prepare small bite-sized pizza snacks. Staple for school aged kids and busy families. 11:14 Yeah. Sleepover food. What was it? food. What was the name of it? rolls, 11:20 rolls. Yes. Pizza rolls. God, I loved pizza rolls. Yeah. We didn't, we didn't have those so much in my house. 11:26 I remember trying them though and thinking that they were disgusting. The remember what is it called? 11:33 The gum that had the liquid on the inside. Oh, like Gushers or, oh, so 11:40 yeah. Well, it was like gushers. Yeah. And basically a Totino's pizza roll was just like hot 11:47 a hot version, cat food gushing into your cat food. It's, it sucks. 11:53 Oh, I got her. She's dying everyone. I am dying. No, I I sound a little off. 11:58 I have a cold. I'm sorry, everyone. So I'm hacking up along when I mute. This next one, I gotta say I adored them and my parents were 12:07 like, they're so fake tasting. How do you like these? But, but Chips Ajoy introduced a new version of their iconic chocolate chip 12:17 cookies and they became a huge hit. So the regular chips, Ajoy has a blue bag. 12:23 These had a different texture than the original crispier version. 12:28 Oh yeah. What was this new version and what color bag was it in? 12:34 Hmm. Okay, because I immediately run to and think of soft batch, 12:39 which I think is a different It's a different brand, but you're on the exact right lines. if it's Chips Ahoy, it's, it's like the red chunky. 12:49 What? Soft. Soft batch. Chunky Chips. Ahoy. Yeah, it's chewy, chewy Chips Ahoy is what it was. 12:55 Okay. it was in a red bag and they did taste like plastic a little bit. Like you could taste the chemicals or whatever that was in them. 13:03 But I loved them 'cause I liked that they were soft. I don't know. I man, red bag Chips Ahoy. 13:09 Anyone else? Well, when you're a kid, they feel like sugar is just a dopamine 13:16 spike straight to your brain. You don't even realize that it tastes like your palate matures as an adult. 13:23 'cause I have the same opinion of Oreos, which when I was. Mm. A burnout. 13:28 I would eat a whole sleeve of Oreos and watch The Simpsons and just be 13:33 the, the happiest stoner in town. But now when I eat Oreos, it tastes nothing but like chemicals to me. 13:42 So I can, I could see how, I remember, you know, like I said, I used, I also used to deliver or pick up recycling, you know, adjacent to a garbage man. 13:52 And I would just cake and cookies for breakfast and lunch and just run it off. 13:59 And I would eat soft batch cookies like all day, every day. And the very thought of eating one now is repellent. 14:08 I don't want that in any single way. No, it is kind of wild. I mean, you know, what's kind of sad is that some people's tastes don't mature. 14:16 Some children grow up eating junk food and grow up into adults only wanting that. It's, Yeah. 14:22 sad. Thankfully I eat vegetables. I don't, you know. Lose their teeth and get diabetes? 14:29 Mm-hmm. Okay. There's a couple that are similar. Let's see, were these both 92 now? I'm kind of questioning. 14:34 There were two Pepsi versions that seemed very similar. Okay. We have one that is notorious for being a marketing failure 14:45 despite having a futuristic appeal. It was discontinued after just a year. 14:51 And it's just now considered a curiosity in pop culture nineties. is 92, Mm-hmm. 14:57 I thought that was older. What was it? Chris Crystal Pepsi, right? Well, yeah. 15:02 Okay. So is that the same thing as Pepsi? Clear is. Yeah, I would. 15:08 I would think so. It Pure. to be. Yeah, it's , crystal clear Pepsi marketed as a pure and healthier 15:16 alternative to regular Pepsi, but it did not gain traction. But, as with a lot of things, have you noticed like clearly Canadian is back, 15:26 like some of those throwback brands? It has a resurgence in recent years, thanks to nostalgia for nineties products. 15:34 Yeah, I did. I do remember a couple years ago they reintroduced it just for fun. 15:41 But that's amazing that they would try and market it as something healthy because they took the, the Dooo Brown additive that makes it Coca-Cola color 15:51 out, and suddenly it's a health food. That's ridiculous. One less chemical to, to make, actually, maybe there's probably an, an extra 15:59 chemical to make it clear somehow. I don't know. It's probably harder to Mm-hmm. 'cause Coke syrup is, I mean, the cocoa bean is brown for god's sake. 16:09 Good point. Yeah. Ugh. Well that was our little flashback time capsule from 1992. 16:17 You did well, Andy? Almost. Perfect. Yes. fan and I'll admit that. 16:24 okay. See, I was like, how would you not get that? I'm just kidding. I'm teasing. Alright, so this season on retro we're all about John Hughes. 16:32 Do you have anything to share? I don't know if you're a fan, if you are familiar with John Hughes. What's your history thoughts on John Hughes? 16:41 yeah, John Hughes is definitely an informative artist, 16:47 creator of the eighties. Everybody that grew up then would be aware of it. 16:52 I'm a particular, you know, I'm partial to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I feel like that spoke to me as a child that hated being in school. 17:01 So getting out of it in the most clever ways was delightful for me. 17:07 And then all of the Molly Ringwald er era stuff is, you know, 17:14 memorable and, and debatable. I've, I know Christian Blatt from the Blatt cast and many movie. 17:23 shows has brought up the fact that the Breakfast Club isn't good. And I disagree, so I, excuse me. 17:31 I feel like The Breakfast Club is a movie for teenagers that 17:37 are disgruntled, angsty teens. If you're not an angsty teen, then the Breakfast Club is not for you. 17:43 If you're looking at the Breakfast Club as a grown man, sure you're not gonna think it's good, but if you're looking at it from an alley, alley, sheety type 17:53 of personality, you're gonna love it. So it's, it's for kids, a kids movie for kids, and it still holds up. 18:00 And I was John Benter in high school, so I'll defend that movie and. Oh, I was, I will go hard defending Breakfast Club. 18:07 Breakfast Club is, I think, Hugh's best, best work. Right. It's gonna be, you're, it's gonna be hard to do 18:12 Mm-hmm. a, a series about John Hughes and not to the Breakfast Club is probably 18:19 one of the most popular ones. I mean, he's had, he's had misses and, and there are critiques are to be had 18:25 with some of his movies from that time. But yes, go on. Go on. But I, when we first discussed doing this, I wanted to pick something obscure. 18:34 I, I'm sure everybody wanted to do these, the big guns at, from, at the beginning. 18:40 But talked about doing national lamp, poons class reunion and it's unfindable. 18:48 So, we pivoted to Dutch, which is unfindable. And that was disappointing because I do remember Dutch as a kid and I loved 18:57 at O'Neill and buried with children. So. then you have a young Ethan Emry in that one. 19:03 And , I remembered the movie, I remembered as a younger person 19:11 disappointed that not realizing that an actor could play different traits of a character and watching Dutch and going, this isn't Al Bundy, 19:20 Mm-hmm. funny because it's not Al Bundy. It's Ed O'Neill doing a different thing. But again, you can't do it because it doesn't exist on the internet right now. 19:28 So everybody go by physical media because these movies that you want to talk about are not findable on Netflix. 19:36 but Dutch also stinks. As I was preparing to do that show and I was watching every clip on YouTube, 19:44 I was realizing that John Hughes loves. 19:50 Class warfare. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. of racial diversity, let's say every, everyone's white, but the poor kids 19:58 Yeah. don't get along in Yeah. every John Yes. So 20:03 Well, in, in doing this I, I was less harsh on Dutch because I had probably just come off from some others. 20:10 Tell other terrible crap. you know, I still have several movies to do and there's some really good ones in there. 20:16 But what I'm seeing very much is he has a formula and he 20:22 doesn't sway from it at all, Mm-hmm. And he just kind of regurgitates stuff 20:29 I'm seeing that with Edgar Wright too. There's a lot of beats and themes that. 20:37 I think it's fair to say that when you a creator and you find something that 20:43 works, if it ain't broke, don't fix it and just keep putting something out there 20:48 that was successful and then you try and do that to a varying degree of success. So I, I guess I can understand that, but it are you kind of saving 21:01 your opinion for when you're done, about what you think the best one is Of John Hughes? 21:07 Yeah. Well, I don't think it will change and I haven't like really gone through in my head all of them. 21:12 But it's gotta be Breakfast Club. Really. Okay. And, and correct me if I'm wrong, is Planet Trains and Automobiles. 21:19 John Hughes. Yes. I think that might, might be at the top of my list with Ferris Bueller. 21:25 Oh, interesting. Okay. Ferris Bueller Planes Trains Breakfast Club is up there. 21:31 And then Because of things on this list that I didn't even realize Oh, I know, related. 21:37 same. just write writing, not just Mm-hmm. but also writing. So, yeah, it was interesting to go through the catalog just on paper anyway. 21:46 The John Candy ones, so he had the teen ones where, you know, there's a period of time where he really focused on that teen angst. 21:54 that's seems most synonymous with John Hughes. Yeah. But, and then he had some good success with the kid Fair, including home alone. 22:01 Uncle Buck, like John Candy's in a lot of them. Culkin days. 22:07 yeah. Yeah. And then , it's clear when he doesn't. Put his heart into something. 22:13 It really shows in the quality of the movie as I'm learning going through his work. But without further ado, shall we get into Home Alone? 22:22 Two. Lost in New York. 22:31 I couldn't believe this was still on the list. This Me too. when I picked all these other obscure things. 22:37 I like talking about terrible movies and making fun of those, or seeing something that I hadn't seen before. 22:43 So when I saw Home Alone two on the list, I, it was the most obvious choice. 22:50 I know there's a couples, that I hadn't seen before and it turns out I'm not allowed to see him 22:56 right? Yeah, I know. went back to this. And I even class reunion, I even got a copy at the library and it was 23:04 scratched, so I only saw part of it. So I had to like glue together, clips from YouTube, which there aren't very many. 23:09 So to your point about physical media, but you can't, you only buy ones that you're gonna love and rewatch a lot. 23:14 And I do own the original home alone on DVD, but not, not home alone two, but thankfully it was available to stream 23:22 do you remember, I, I'm not gonna make you say how old you are, but when that came out in theaters in 23:30 90 90. Mm-hmm. home alone, it was such a phenomenon that the, a lot of, they wouldn't 23:39 have these mega plexes back then in my town anyway of upstate New York 23:44 and people would have to wait in line. There's no internet to get tickets in advance. You would have to show up, wait in line, and not get in. 23:52 Oh, no. remember failing to see Home alone several times before I finally got to see it, 23:59 No way. yeah. Yeah. And it was worth, it was worth the wait. Mm-hmm. 24:04 it's an iconic movie that was it. Lightning in a bottle. 24:09 It was a sensation. It put Joe Pesci on the map. It put Macaulay Culkin on the map. 24:15 Put Catherine O'Hara on the map. So, big, big deal. So then I'm sure they, they were running, clamoring to do it all 24:23 over again with Home Loan two. Just in time because he's still cute and young enough for this movie, 24:31 but maybe one more year and it, he wouldn't have been, you know, you gotta Then he goes into obscurity and you go 24:38 Mm-hmm. Richie Rich did. Is that John Hughes? Richie No, no, okay. 24:43 Yeah. I will say that I, I felt like in home loan two McCaulay culkin's acting chops were plused up. 24:49 I feel Yeah. Okay. That's, that's good to hear. So yeah, you guys, this came out November 20th, 1992. 24:56 It's pg I assume the first one was PG also. I think so. 25:02 It has a 6.9 on IMDB, which is quite high. 25:08 Hmm. Chris Columbus is the director here. This is one John Hughes wrote, but did not direct. 25:14 And Chris Columbus has stated in interviews that he considers home alone two better than the original. 25:22 I think a lot of people ha hold that opinion. Who did Chris Columbus direct the first 25:27 Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. I guess maybe I'm in the minority opinion of that after hearing that people thought 25:38 that and then watching this yesterday. With the, a critical eye of, is this better than the first one? 25:45 I would say that I disagree mainly because it suffers from the, oh, 25:50 remember when this happened in the Mm-hmm. Remember when that happened in the first? I think there's, there's good things about it, but when you revisiting 25:58 old jokes, they, it's kind of an obligatory thing that has to happen in a successful, sequel. 26:04 And it's like, yeah, okay. I, I do remember that was funny in the first one. 26:09 But they, what they do get right in this is it nail it like the breadcrumb Rube 26:16 Goldberg way that they establish that this scenario could happen again to this 26:23 Mm-hmm. it just happened. You know, it happens in a believable way where walking into the movie you're like, 26:30 how, how could this kid be left behind again, these or the worst parents ever? And they figure out a way to. 26:37 Get you on board with it. That's a great point. I also, I do not think this is better than the original. 26:43 Thank you. I do not. I mean there, I think there's a very few maybe on one hand the number of sequels 26:51 that are better than the original. He definitely got paid more for this one. 26:56 Um, Columbus and yes, it was. So if you guys haven't seen this movie in 30 ish years or if it's been a 27:05 while, Kevin McAllister's back, but this time he's in New York City with enough cash and credit cards to turn the big apple into his own playground. 27:14 But Kevin won't be alone for long. The notorious wet bandits now they call themselves the sticky bandits. 27:20 Harry, played by Joe Pesci, and Marv played by Daniel Stern. Still smarting. From their last encounter with Kevin, they're bound for New York City too. 27:30 Plotting a huge holiday heist. Kevin's ready to welcome them with another battery of booby traps. 27:36 The bumbling bands will never forget. Uhhuh, there's a lot of, really heavy handed foreshadowing. 27:43 We'll get into the cast of characters, but just really quickly, we do get set up the, it's like the exact same setup , as the original. 27:52 And I found that very comforting. The music, seeing their house, the chaos of you know, of 27:58 the cousins and everything. What did you think about the opening. It's interesting that they bring, there's so many unused cast members, 28:10 these cousins that seemingly could have a bigger in this movie that are 28:17 just, it's, it's gotta be the easiest gig in Hollywood being the, the. Cousin A. 28:23 the second nephew of Kevin McAllister, I don't even know who any of 'em are. 28:29 Like you could not name any of those kids except Buzz and maybe Karen cu. 28:35 I can't even name Karen Culkin's character, the kid that wets Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. nobody wants to sleep with this kid 'cause he wets the bed. 28:43 Yes, Fuller. Fuller is Karen's name. Yep. Thank you. It's awesome to see a, a baby Kieran Culkin in the movie, 28:51 knowing how far he's gone Mm-hmm. you know, be such a big success now. 28:56 And just, I just watched Scott Pilgrim and he's in that as Oh yeah. yeah. 29:02 So it was fun to see that. And they give buzz a lot of at the top of the film, especially when he 29:11 publicly humiliates Kevin, which. I don't understand why Kevin is to blame at that. 29:18 I mean, they do the whole sequence where Buzz does his lawyer thing and convinces everybody that he's not really the villain. 29:27 And that's sort of what drives the wedge between Kevin and his family, which maybe 29:34 is a, a weaker plot point of the movie. And there, there was a couple of times where it was like, this is, not great 29:41 as far as comparing it to the first one. They had to set up the fact that Kevin would be, again, this time up 29:48 in the third floor I hate my family. I wanna go on a vacation by myself. the mom's like, you know, you got your wish last year. 29:55 Maybe you'll get your wish this year. Gee, like it's, it is very heavy. Mm-hmm. but then they kind of fake us out because he, he gets in the 30:02 van, he gets to the airport, even how you know? Yeah. left So that was good. That was good. 30:07 Let's talk about our cast of characters a little bit. Clearly we have Macaulay Culkin back as Kevin. We have Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern back as Harry and Marv, 30:16 and they were the wet bandits. And I don't know why do they call themselves the sticky bandits now? 30:23 Do they have tape around their hand or something? What was the deal with that? Stern's walking around with tape on his hand and he keeps 30:29 snatching hats and gloves, like petty things that are pointless. 30:34 And I don't know why they would probably just so that, It's not the same. and so it would be easier to shoot than having to spill a bunch of water all over 30:44 Mm, set and let the production have to clean it up. The, the production team was like, let's not do that again. 30:49 It's a disaster. And they just figured out an easier, was in the script. thing. 30:54 Yep. so that Mm-hmm. they're escaped convicts now that they don't wanna leave a trail of. 31:01 So they change it up. Maybe. Maybe that's logical. But, I got, I gotta shout out Catherine O'Hara too. 31:07 She looks maybe, maybe this is the best version of Catherine O'Hara to me. She looks really good in this one, I would say, 31:15 I'm glad that you said that. 'cause she, yeah, she's so like fresh and young. I, well, I love her as Moira in Schitt's Creek. 31:23 So that's, that's what I think of her as now. But she's just playing like the straight mom in this, not like her 31:30 other roles is it Christopher Guest that has like best in Show a Mighty Wind? Is that Yeah. 31:35 a a lot of character mm-hmm. or, or Beetlejuice. Yeah. to mind where she's over the top. 31:41 Yeah. is pretty straightforward for her. And John Heard is back. 31:47 So we kind of have everybody's, basically everybody's back. Which I think is helpful. 31:52 I'll go. Yeah. John Heard he's super familiar. Everybody knows him. He's Kevin's dad. He was in Big Awakenings, and then I did read that he was nominated 32:00 for his guest role in The Sopranos. I had forgotten that he was a guest star playing detective Vin Ian 32:09 Hmm. in the Sopranos, I don't remember that. John Heard Devin. I, made that connection when they, they go to Duncan's and I was reminded of FAO 32:18 Schwartz and the movie Big, which features FAO Schwartz the most prominently on film. 32:24 So, yeah, I had that in my notes too. yeah, he, he's good. 32:29 He, he's a very likable father figure as opposed to big where he 32:35 plays a heel and like some other Mm-hmm. where he is played a villain. He's actually pretty likable in this, doing some good work as Kevin's dad. 32:44 It becomes pivotal at the airport mm-hmm. do lose Lose him. he's, yeah, he's important here. 32:50 And I just, just to back all the way up to the beginning, I wanna shout out the John Williams score 32:57 Yes. when Yes. the theme of the movie shows up and the title credits are rolling. 33:02 And you see that Star Wars composer, John Williams did the music for this. 33:07 It really sets a nostalgic tone for me. 33:13 Mm-hmm. watched this movie for 30 years now that score is amazing. 33:19 And John Williams' involvement in this is for, I, I'm a bit of a musician too, 33:26 so I pay a lot of attention to music. And, you know, when people like Danny Elfman, tim Burton's movies or John 33:35 Williams and Jerry Goldsmith too. This kind of like, I, I put those composers together in films that I 33:44 enjoy from this era of movie making. So, yeah. John Williams killing it? 33:50 Great point. Yeah, it did its job very well. I had a comforting like, oh, I'm at home feeling, you know, 33:56 that's, it drew me in that opening. Williams is regarded as one of the most influential, film composers of all time 34:04 Mm-hmm. has influenced a lot of other film composers. I did read also that he was the principal conductor for the 34:11 Boston Pops from 1980 to 1993. Oh, Yeah, yeah. 34:17 And, you know, to your, For. yeah, to your point. Frequent collaborations with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. 34:24 He has won not nominations, but wins 26 Grammys, four Oscars, seven BAFTAs, 34:32 three Emmys, and four Golden Globes. John Williams. Wow. Yeah. You, you put this soundtrack on at Christmas time and it takes 34:41 you right to, a fireplace with a Mm-hmm. and everything that you want your holiday season to be can be summed up 34:51 with the, the theme from home alone. Yep. A hundred percent. iconic. Yeah. 34:56 Yeah. And this movie did well. It was in such short succession to the first one I think that it 35:01 benefited from a lot of the carryover. The character playing Buzz. We talked about him in another episode of a John Hughes. 35:10 He was, was it home alone one because has he been in any, what Yeah, no. Well, aside from that, 'cause we haven't, we haven't actually 35:17 covered home alone one yet. But the actor is Devin. Re he played the babysitter's boyfriend in Dennis the menace. 35:29 Oh, John Hughes wrote that movie. Okay. And we talk about in that episode there's several movies like Beethoven, Dennis 35:37 the Menace, there's a few others that he just kind of threw a bunch of home alone elements in and it just didn't work. 35:44 I like it at all. is what Yeah. Mm-hmm. formula probably. 35:50 All right. We're gonna take a kid that's not McCulley Culkin and just try and make home alone again with Walter Mattau and a lookalike or then baby's day out is probably. 36:01 Lost in New York only. It's an infant instead of Macaulay Mm-hmm. 36:06 arguably, you know, but definitely less successful, Definitely. that movie, 36:11 Mm-hmm. So , Kieran Coken played Fuller. He's the younger cousin. He's not Kevin's brother. 36:17 He's his cousin. Right. Frank's kid. Right. and we all now know Kieran Coken. 36:23 He, he was lesser known at this time, and Frank, uncle Frank is back played by Jerry Baum. 36:30 Baun Baun. That's kind of hard to say for some reason. Do you know him from anything else? 36:35 No, no. But he plays one of the best, you know, heels or un unlikable jerks the 36:44 cheapness, the character work that this actor is doing is fantastic in a 36:50 way that you want to dislike this guy. Agreed. Yep. He he's got that face though. 36:57 You feel like you know him from other things. I did read, he was in the secret of my success with Michael J. Fox. 37:02 I wonder if he was also kind of a sleazy guy in that probably. And then his wife is like this perfect you know, like church lady 37:09 looking woman, which is kind of wild. She's not well known in this Cinta Moses, I just wanted to bring up her because she 37:19 She got a young artist nomination for in this Cent Moss, I guess. 37:25 I don't know why. cousin? Yeah, she was there's far too many cousins and 37:30 Mm-hmm. they're given nothing to do. It's, it's a bizarre They each have five kids. 37:35 Each brother John heard, and, and Unc and Frank they each have five kids would. 37:41 That's a lot. Yeah. I think. Maybe they're there so that it's easy to lose track 37:47 Mm-hmm. That's a great point. reason to have this many people doing nothing Mm-hmm. 37:53 She plays Tracy and she was I dunno if you've ever watched the show, my So called Life on MTV. 37:59 Sure. Yeah. Yeah. She was Delia in three episodes of that. And she was really most known for the show Beakman's World, which I never saw that. 38:07 of it. I don't think I watched it, but and Mr. Duncan is played by Eddie Bracken. Do you know him from anything else? 38:13 Hmm. He looks familiar. And that was, that's a great scene with him and Kevin at the toy store. 38:20 I, I can't think of anything else that I've seen him in off the top of my head It is John Hughes related. That is a marker of John Hughes movies. 38:26 He has his people that he likes, he played the more or less dis Walt 38:31 Disney in while at Wally World in Oh, okay. Yeah. 38:37 Now that's such a short thing right at the end that, now that you 38:43 mention it, yeah, that's uh, awesome. Another beloved where he gets to play a benevolent person that lets your main 38:54 characters off the hook kinda roll, I like that they kind of give him this magical Santa Claus vibe at the end of that scene where he gives Kevin the 39:04 turtle doves and then Kevin sees the portrait and turns around and he's gone. It's just kind of a little nod to Santa Claus or the magic of the 39:13 holiday kinda thing where that makes the movie a little more charming. Absolutely. 39:18 And that's carried over into the end when they are all in this gigantic suite at the plaza. 39:26 Their family is supposed to be going to Florida. But Kevin gets on the wrong plane, goes to New York instead, and their suite 39:32 ends up with a giant Christmas tree and ton of presents and they're from Mr. Mr. Duncan. 39:37 So he really did play Santa Claus. Yeah. That was, those are, and there's a couple of interesting scenes in this. 39:44 One of them is that scene at the toy store with Duncan, and then the other one. It's, I'm watching it and going, why is this, they making such 39:53 a meal out of these scenes. They go on for a long, long time. The conversation that Kevin and Duncan have, and then the conversation 40:02 that Kevin and the bird lady have in the rafters of the theater 40:07 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. her broken heart, and. Kevin trying to coach her back into society when she's a recluse that 40:17 hasn't talked to anybody in two years. It's, kind of a strange to insist on inserting into a movie, but I 40:28 think it gives the, the film heart Mm-hmm. maybe the, the point of these. 40:34 They're trying to inject magic of the season and sympathy and let's all 40:42 help each other kind of holiday vibes. Yeah, because 40:47 I think that's the I, I. on for very long. Am I No, no, you're not. There's a few that go on for a really long time. 40:53 Like that one, had a purpose behind it. It was the impetus of Kevin being like, oh, I'm gonna save the store. 40:58 You know, that isn't soon after that conversation that he like, goes and starts, collecting all his booby trap items. 41:06 Then there are other scenes with Marv and Harry, all of those, like the booby 41:13 traps, essentially a lot of those go on for far too long and for no reason. And they were just, in my opinion, just kind of reusing. 41:21 I really wish they would've got more creative with the booby traps, because did we get anything new really? 41:27 Hmm. know? Yeah. Without the exception of big hole in the floor, like we didn't 41:33 Yes. Yeah. in Kevin's house, so that, that was good. And it does go to a very cartoonish level that I feel was not in 41:45 The first one? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. you're watching these guys take so much abuse a, a normal 41:53 person would not be able to. Especially the brick scene in this Oh my God. Yeah. is one of those bricks and you're potentially dead, but by the time 42:05 they get to the fourth one, it just gets funnier and funnier. And I'm a, I'm a fan of the Three Stooges and Roadrunner cartoons, so I 42:16 did like seeing a lot of this slapstick humor, but I don't know if you've seen 42:22 The Third Home Alone, which probably is, doesn't involve John Hughes and No. 42:28 McCaulay Culkin, and goes all in on the villains and colorful 42:36 crap, and the, the hair frizzing Hmm. when Daniel Stern turns into the skeleton, when he is getting electrocuted, and it 42:45 A lot of that, so much more cartoonish. the failure of the third one. 42:52 But, we're not talking about the third one anyway. The this, the second one just goes, it goes a little over 42:59 right? I mean, it's already making you suspend disbelief that these guys aren't just cutting and running or calling an ambulance because Marv 43:11 has taken a nail gun to the crotch. So I, I would be done after that. You know? That's, 43:17 I, at first I wondered what it was. I was like, is it staples or is it nails? Yeah. 43:22 Yeah. It's fun. I love every time Joe Pesci iss on screen. Mm. remember that this time, Joe Pesci is riding the wave of 43:32 Mm-hmm. and Casino, these home alone films and the Lethal Weapon franchise. 43:40 He's a megastar and. very apparent when you're watching him on screen. 43:47 He's got just this charm that excuses all of his bad behavior 43:54 Great way of putting it. yeah, I just, I just love Joe Peche so much. And Daniel Stern too. 44:00 He's, I think they're a good duo. Joe Peche has a manner of speaking that I just, I am, I'm all for, for some reason 44:07 that, that really new Yorkie, like shady type of guy I can't get enough of it, 44:13 but yeah, Daniel Stern's really good too. The bird lady. some Abbott and Costello vibes. 44:18 Mm. will, to Okay. up talking about those two, you, you got Daniel Stern running around like 44:25 a Lou Costello calling out for Harry. The way that. He would call out for Abbott. 44:31 That was reminded me of when they were in the basement taking all the abuse. 44:36 That tracks. Yeah, they, but Abbott Costello meet the Wolf man kinda, but the 44:42 Wolf man is Kevin McAllister. So I did wanna call out the pigeon lady. 44:49 She's an Irish actress who actually won an Oscar for best supporting in my left foot. 44:56 Yeah, Also, she was in a time to kill, and so I married an ax murderer. Her name is Brenda Fricker. 45:03 And. Apparently that character, the pigeon lady, was based on the old bird 45:09 woman from Mary Poppins in 1964. I could see that. 45:14 It's an interesting. Direction to take from the creepy shovel slayer neighbor in the first one to, and 45:25 this is another trope of John Hughes, the, when I was saying at the top of 45:30 the discussion about class warfare and poverty, there are so many instances in 45:38 different where, particularly Curly Sue and Dutch, where you're confronted with 45:49 and the have-nots, and he just makes you go, you got, you got a pretty good 45:56 person in the movie theater watching this. It could be a lot worse. You could be in Central Park covered in bird shit, and don't 46:05 need that in a Christmas movie. I guess it, it gives Kevin a reason to, it gives him something to fight 46:11 for There's the heart of the movie there, but it's, I don't know. 46:18 What did you think about the character in general? Did you, could you, I felt like if it wasn't in the movie at all, I'd be fine with it. 46:24 Well, there's, she was clearly playing the old neighbor. There has to be someone that is misunderstood. 46:31 She's the standin for the neighbor. Right. And, and that person, for Kevin to learn 46:36 yeah. a character, Yes, I guess. And 'cause , he gives her the half of the dove, the turtle, dove necklace and like 46:45 friendship because in both, so in the original two, like he learns from the, the 46:50 old man and the old man learns from Kevin. And the same is true here. Like it's just the same. 46:57 You had to have that character, that imparts wisdom on Kevin, but then Kevin helps that person, 47:02 Yes. you know, maybe, forget you, and I'll also never see you again. 47:07 well, so my thought on that exactly is, and I just said this in Dutch 47:13 too, like maybe invite her in he leaves his beautiful Christmas plaza 47:21 to go give her the turtle dove. Maybe say, Hey, come join my family celebration for Christmas. 47:26 You're, Yeah. you don't. that gave you all those presents? Maybe introduce your homeless friend to EF Duncan that, and maybe they can 47:36 hook up and she could have a better life Of the movie yeah, the same happened in Dutch. 47:42 I'm like, oh, great, the homeless people drop you off at your mansion. Bye bye now. Invite these people in, or at least pay for them to have a, another 47:51 room that was a missed opportunity. They just go back to their very, these McAllisters are very well off, so 47:58 they just go back to, I think it's a missed opportunity if Fuse is trying to show us, yes, you should be thankful for the things you have, and they 48:06 do learn lessons, but it, it's stops short of like real progress, you know? 48:13 Don't you think? Yes. There's a message with no call to action of let's, at least at the end of Scrooge, 48:22 where the homeless people freeze to death. At the end they all sing together and wanna put a little love in your heart. 48:29 And this is just like, Hey, see ya. I gotta go back to my five star hotel and with my millionaire 48:36 family, and you're not invited. It's kinda shitty, Yeah. kinda, its kinda just kind shitty person. 48:42 As a kid I was like, oh, that's nice. They're friends. But now as an adult I'm like, help her. 48:48 Do something meaningful. Yeah, You give her half of a Christmas ornament, and she's like, what am I supposed to do with this? 48:54 yeah. birds. But it's, Can't even trade this for anything. I gotta buy bird seed for them. 49:00 I, I don't need well, speaking of Joe Peshy being charming in this, he he was nominated for funniest supporting actor in I didn't even know these 49:08 awards existed, American Comedy Awards, but they did at the time. The other day, I want, I Want Academy Award, maybe not Academy Awards or some 49:17 kind of awards, categories that recognize comedy, and 49:22 yeah. Mm-hmm. they're so overlooked I agreed. underappreciated and possibly the most cared about genres of movie. 49:31 Mm-hmm. just get zero recognition. They, they always turn a, a comedy award into 49:41 Like a musical or something. yeah. A vehicle for somebody to get that from Some, remember when Johnny 49:47 Depp won best comedy actor for that piece of crap that he made with 49:53 Angelina, Joe Lee, the tourist. No, I don't, I don't even, I don't think I've seen that movie. No. 49:58 I didn't see it either, but my point is, he was winning comedic awards for a movie that wasn't a 50:05 Mm, they were just trying to figure mm-hmm. give Johnny Depp an award. And it just makes me angry that the two genres that I care the most about 50:14 get zero recognition, almost constantly right. You're right. 50:20 too. Action. They, you gotta die for Heath Ledger to get a. Mm-hmm. for Batman, you know, that, that never, he never would've wanted an Oscar for that 50:30 No. if Mm-hmm. Agreed. So, didn't, didn't they just introduce a stunt work category, like just 50:39 within the last couple years? But yeah I'm not sure, but that, that's long overdue, 50:44 Yeah, yeah, and that's a cool category. I like yeah. But, 50:49 that gets to your action, I guess, a little bit. The movie itself tied with Sister Act for the People's Choice Awards that year. 50:57 Favorite comedy and Macaulay was nominated for the Kids' Choice Awards. And then we talked about that Santa Moses Young artist. 51:05 The budget here is 28,000,004 and a half million of that 51:11 was McCulley Culkin salary. Mm-hmm. Well. I mean, he was a megastar after the first one, so, and then you 51:19 were talking $92 everybody, 4 million for a, for a 9-year-old. 51:25 pretty awesome. point. And I guess that was at that time the biggest salary ever for a child star. 51:32 And it's, this says 45 times his salary for home alone. So Katie sucks at math. 51:38 What, what did he get a hundred thousand dollars for? Home alone. Would that, is that, is that right? 51:44 45. I didn't know where you're, this was gonna be part of the I know, I know. I'm like math. 51:49 I don't know. I can't do math. It was a lot It was a lot. to say. 51:54 I have to make sure to bring up one of my favorite parts of the movie, which is Tim Curry. 52:02 It's, I love clue and. And Legend and Oscar and obviously Rocky Horror Picture 52:11 Love Tim Curry. just seeing him in this is one of the better parts of the movie to me. 52:20 A they beef up the villains that Kevin has to foil. It can't always just 52:26 Mm-hmm. Harry and Marv, I guess. It, they it's a whole hotel staff. Yep. Schneider. 52:31 And the other woman play great, like Cartoonishly smarmy of the hotel. 52:39 she also from the Adams family? That woman who, like one of the front desk people, she looked, 52:46 she wasn't listed in the cast. She looked, yeah, I don't think, is she, she's just in that 52:51 I, I feel like she was like somebody's wife, like cousin, it's wife or something like that at the ball. 52:57 , And Tim Curry being on my brain. In my brain. I always confuse Tim Curry and um, Adam's family. 53:07 What's his name? Who plays Gomez in Adam's family? Oh he's passed away now. 53:13 He was in Street Fighter. M Bison in the Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fighter movie. Yeah. Yeah. 53:18 I don't know him from a lot of things and Raul, Julia, 53:24 Ah, yes. I don't know why in my brain I sometimes confuse Tim Curry and Raul Julia. 53:32 Just me. Oh yeah. I see. I don't know. He's Ralph Julie probably has a larger filmography than I'm aware of. 53:41 I don't really know him from anything other than Adams Stanley and Street Fighter. 53:46 mm-hmm. But Tim, Tim Curry's more, prolific, I Yeah. 53:51 but And he plays the concierge that is very suspicious of Kevin, you guys. That's who Tim Curry plays in this. 53:58 yeah, I let the cross dissolve from the Grinch to Tim Curry when the credit 54:04 card up stolen and when Catherine O'Hara slaps him in the face at, at the hotel. 54:13 These are just I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. favorite moments in the film include Tim Curry, who's always. 54:21 Killing it. And gonna talk about the hotel, we should probably bring up the Trump cameo, 54:28 which has gone on to be edited out a lot of, a lot of televised versions of 54:35 Oh, is that, But yeah, I've seen, I've Okay. this movie on network where they just edit that straight out of the movie. 54:43 But back then it was just a blinking, you missed Yeah, you, it was very interesting to see him just turn up in this movie, but, 54:54 because did he own the hotel at that time? that. Well, that's when I was watching it last night with my wife, she said, that's weird. 55:00 'cause the Trump Hotel is not this hotel. So why is he at a hotel that's not his? 55:06 , The requirement for shooting in the hotel. So he must have had some stake in the Plaza Hotel at the time. 55:12 Oh, so it was a, it, they were obliged to put him in the movie if they wanted to to use the hotel. 55:19 Mm-hmm. I guess. And it is just mm, I iconic New Yorker There's a couple other cameos. 55:24 Rob Schneider is the bellboy, did they call him Cric instead of Cedric? Anyway, yeah. Cedric or, yeah. 55:30 And that's another great tip of the uh, fruit, gum, striped gum back in the day. 55:37 of the shittiest candy ever created. don't know why I loved it though, when I was a kid Everybody likes it. 55:43 And then you put it in for 10 seconds. anything after, well, grand total of five seconds. 55:48 It, It is just funny that, and then. Because it goes from that to the, the comedic beat of him offering the tip. 55:59 That's actual mm-hmm. thinks that he is gonna get gum, so he declines it to the, the, 56:04 Buzz. rule of threes. Why would Buzz give this guy that he's never met that he's chew as a 56:13 kid, obviously older person, that gets what a tip is to pull gum outta your 56:20 mouth and put it in somebody's hand. It, it just didn't make sense It's just Buzz is a dick. 56:26 You know? He's like that Yeah, older brother. It's funny, but it doesn't make sense. Agreed. Agreed. 56:31 Yeah. you, did you track Ali Sheety, another John Hughes lady? Yeah, my, my wife was going off about how bad her teeth were and lose track. 56:45 I think I was taking co, I was taking copious mm-hmm. while I was watching this too, so I could, I was probably Writing, 56:51 that Tim Curry's ever been in when Ali Sheety scene came on and I 56:56 looked up and she goes, blonde. So Yeah. didn't register with me, but I, and my wife was yelling that her 57:03 teeth are jacked and I, and I said, I think that's Ellie Sheie. But that was un I was uncertain. 57:10 So, yeah, it's Definitely, yeah. Ali Shedi, ticket agent all famously in breakfast club. 57:17 And then Chris Columbus was director cameo. Chris Columbus, , is holding a child and pointing to a stack of toys when 57:25 Kevin walks through the toy store. Right. So you, that you're not Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Columbus. 57:31 People don't know that it's Yeah, can't, when you, you have to be recognizable for that 57:37 to be charming in a movie. true, true. Yeah. I think. can pull it off. 57:43 Agreed. I do think a lot of people found this charming. And it also, I think just coming off, in short succession to the first one. 57:50 The first one was a mega hit, so this one also, it made $359 57:56 million, and that's the $92. That's Hmm. pretty enormous. I, I didn't calculate what that would be now, but, 58:03 Yeah. That su, that supersede the first one Hmm. Good question. 58:09 Mm-hmm. Because like I said, the, the first one was a sensation. It was a mega hit. 58:14 People were waiting in line to see it. Me being mm-hmm. and seeing it over and over again, people, people would want to go 58:23 tell their parents about it and bring their parents to see it too. Bring their, you know, everybody wanted to see it twice 58:31 The numbers are a bit all over the place, but the first one made more money than the second one. Yeah. 58:36 okay. Which tr I mean, that makes sense. I, I didn't stand in line to watch it like you did, so 58:42 I be, you weren't a loser like me. I no, I, I don't know. to do. I don't know what I was doing at that time. 58:49 Do you think that they used New York enough? What do you think about the New York backdrop? 58:55 And that's funny. I, that was the very first thing I put in my notes I thought that it 59:02 is minimized for such a iconic city. 59:07 They just do a montage at the top where he goes from uptown to downtown in a matter of seconds. 59:14 And my question was going to, have you been to New York? I have. Mm-hmm. So you know that the way to visit New York is to pick one section that you're 59:23 interested in and basically stay there. You don't wanna be running all over, spending half of your time navigating 59:31 the subway and getting lost in Times Square and ending up in the West Village. 59:39 It's, it's better to just go to Tribeca and spend the weekend there and for 59:48 them to just sort of be like, oh yeah, New York City's very walkable thing. 59:54 You know, they do that. This, it almost gives me anxiety in movies like this. We saw like the fish market, Chinatown, twin Towers, the Statue of Liberty. 1:00:03 And I already was getting anxiety 'cause I'm like, this is not an adult, this is a child trying to do this 1:00:10 Same thing with Ferris Bueller, with Chicago, but they did it better. Like they really showcased Chicago and Ferris Bueller and I, I love Chicago, 1:00:18 but I get anxiety when they do the this in movies where there's a montage of the tourist sites, and it's like, you see the whole city in one day. 1:00:25 I am like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. no, I don't know why. It gives me like an anxious feeling like that's not possible. 1:00:31 How are you? How are, no. Yeah. And the fact that it, it would've been better if it was just kept to, 1:00:38 you know, the Central Park area. And that's overwhelming Mm-hmm. the fact that Kevin is never reduced to tears by the overwhelming, terrifying, 1:00:50 realization of being in this metropolis that's full of lunatics when the, he 1:00:59 gets in the cab and the guy has the, Oh. pale eye and it's, he's, so many reasons 'cause when I, I mentioned 1:01:07 that I was a truck driver and I think it was the first week that I was solo after training to drive. 1:01:14 I had to drive to Maine and then I had to go from Maine to Tennessee. And I Hmm. 1:01:20 via New York City And I got lost in a class, a full-size 1:01:27 tractor trailer down in. Central Park Oh wow. was almost on the verge of tears. 1:01:33 Yeah. So for, for Kevin to not lose his shit is a missed opportunity. 1:01:40 I think it would make the character a little more three-dimensional than this kind of Mary Sue kid that you never think for one second 1:01:48 that he's not gonna be just fine. Yeah. maybe make the character a little more relatable. 1:01:54 But, yeah, the fact that he is in New York, it, it's, it's a good 1:02:01 backdrop to do a part two of this type of film that it's good for that. 1:02:08 But I think it's underutilized in the, the pantheon of films that feature New York. 1:02:16 It's been featured a lot better in other Agreed. That's a really good way of putting it. My anxiety went way down when he was then offered the opportunity to, he gets 1:02:27 a limo with a cheese pizza to himself. He's drinking soda out of champagne flutes and watching the Grinch, and so 1:02:34 he just gets toted around New York and like at the plaza's expense now that Hmm. 1:02:40 I was like, now that sounds like a perfect day. I would love nothing more, except for if that was real champagne and not diet Coke. 1:02:47 that, that's, that's a great point. And that's when they should have showcased New 1:02:52 Yeah. that they did at the top, where he is just kind of like strolling around and he He arrives in New York and then all of a sudden he's here, there and everywhere. 1:02:59 Yeah. Yeah. If he was in the limo, then you could be like, okay, now we're all over Yeah. And that would make a lot more sense. 1:03:05 And it's earned because of the, the scene where he fakes it. And, and that was another thing I'd put in my notes about 1:03:11 Kevin has preconceived that. Somebody will eventually come into this room uninvited. 1:03:20 So I need to make a marionette Mm-hmm. shower and thank God I have my talk boy, which talk boy was basically 1:03:29 the, the hoverboard of this movie. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. this. And he has constructed this fake Uncle Frank to scare Tim Curry out of the room. 1:03:42 And that justifies them giving him all these perks that we were just talking about. But the, was another thing where I was just like, this doesn't make sense that 1:03:50 he would, would get this bozo inflatable thing and then make, the pencils so that 1:03:57 he could control it like the first one. Why would he do that? You know, you just put do not disturb on the door. 1:04:04 Nobody's gonna come in. So. Yeah. It was just a strange thing to, 'cause they wanna make a funny 1:04:11 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But when you really think about it, it didn't make sense. 1:04:16 And then that's how he used the gi 'cause it was the gift from his grandma, like a Oh, she thought you'd be able to use this in the pool. 1:04:23 'cause the family's supposed to be in Florida. Speaking of which, why is this family traveling over Christmas 1:04:29 again after what happened last year? No, stay home. You have a gorgeous house. 1:04:34 Just stay there. The, they're so sick of their awesome mansion. Yeah. 1:04:40 And then when they do go to Florida, the cuts to the family in Florida, I don't know if they aren't at at the place they're supposed 1:04:47 to be, but it seemed shitty. Like just like a crappy motel. Which makes no sense. 'cause this family would've clearly had a nice accommodations lined up. 1:04:57 So is it, what's the story behind that? I mean, I know it's Florida, you know, but 1:05:02 yeah, I think that whatever they have to change plans because they realize Kevin's missing and it's the only thing that they can find last minute. 1:05:10 It must be the But wouldn't they have had reservations? Like the plan was to go to Florida 1:05:16 yeah, why don't they go stay wherever they were gonna stay. they were supposed to end up while they sorted out. 1:05:21 That is interesting. But I did like seeing that shitty green gremlin in the parking lot of the motel that they're in. 1:05:29 And it was a motel. Yeah, definitely. I thought it was a cute little nod having a sequel to the sequel. 1:05:35 A movie within a movie within a movie of the Angels Without Soul. What was it? The Angels With, even Angels with even Filthier Filthier Souls or something. 1:05:45 is that what it Yeah. So, and using his talk voice. So we get a lot of the similar beats from the first one. 1:05:52 Like we kind of need a little bit of that. But I, I wanted more creativity from the pranks. 1:05:58 I think there were some missed opportunities. There could have been a lot more that could have been done because he now has 1:06:04 to foil the hotel people and the robbers. 1:06:09 And So much of it happens the same way. It happens in the in the first one. Yeah. 1:06:14 he slides, he slides into the elevator between the women's legs, the way he slides through the 1:06:20 Mm-hmm. and the on the ice rink, which makes a lot more Mm-hmm. sliding on the floor of a hotel. 1:06:26 Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of it, even the pranks or the the booby traps at the house, a lot are just. 1:06:34 The same. Yeah. one and not many. I did like the, the toilet full of kerosene or what, 1:06:43 yeah. was kind of a different, even though the walking through and the, in the first one, it's the blow torch to the head, and this one, it just kind of 1:06:51 catches his head on fire and then, then he does the handstand in the toilet, which is new, like a fresher take, 1:06:58 That's fair. So it, it's good when, it's good when they made it different and changed 1:07:04 Mm-hmm. And it's famili, but so many people just like comfort food. 1:07:09 It's a comfort food movie where you're seeing something that you already know that you're gonna enjoy. 1:07:15 So, that's why they're, they're writing it in so that you be like, oh yeah, I 1:07:20 liked it when I saw it the first time. So I like it Mm-hmm. too, Mm-hmm. but, I can say that. And I did, and you know, to some degree like even the cheese pizza to himself. 1:07:29 There were, I liked a lot of the carryover. I I guess I wish they would've just taken some of , the stunts up 1:07:35 a notch or maybe had a couple new really cool ones and they didn't. But I was confused. 1:07:41 By, what did the uncle's house have to do with the toy store? 1:07:47 How was him saving the toy store? His point was with all these booby traps and getting the burglars to 1:07:55 save the toy store because at the end of the night, Mr. Mr. Toy store 1:08:01 owner Duncan is going to donate all that money to a children's charity. 1:08:06 Mm-hmm. So they're going to the toy store to rob the toy store. 1:08:11 Is he just trying to run the clock out by bringing them to the uncle's house? 'cause all of the traps were at the uncle's house. 1:08:18 This is a great point that I, that hasn't occurred to me, so I'm. 1:08:25 You're watching my, the gears turn in my head right now. If the third act foiling of Harry and Marv had actually been in the toy 1:08:35 store and he was using and the things in this child's Playland, how, what 1:08:44 better sequence would that have been if he was weaponizing the toy store? 1:08:49 Yeah. would've been such a better So much better. I mean, it, it probably would've been a more expensive and harder to shoot, 1:08:57 which is probably why they just said, oh, my uncle's house is being renovated because I did think that was a good plot. 1:09:03 Di device Mm-hmm. he ends up with the whole sequence where he gets lost in the airport. 1:09:09 The way that they orchestrated that, like he, it's such a kid thing to. 1:09:14 Be like, oh, my toy's outta batteries. I wanted, I need to address this right now. And that's how he loses his track of his family and the guy 1:09:22 wearing the same code as his dad. And he follows that guy. They mix up the, he crashes into the flight attendant, the gate attendant. 1:09:31 All the tickets go everywhere. This is a clever way to facilitate Kevin getting to New York. 1:09:37 Why is the attention that you put into justifying not applied to the writing of 1:09:47 the finale and the way that you and I just created a better ending for this movie, 1:09:53 Yeah. which is speaks to the shortcomings of the movie Mm-hmm. arguing that it's not better than the 1:09:59 Right, but I mean, what were we led to believe though?, What does This house have to do with anything? 1:10:05 It's just a venue to do the same thing from the first one. He lures them there instead 1:10:11 Oh, because, because that was my point. Like the other thing that made the movie make a lot more sense is that he would, 1:10:16 getting the batteries for his toy secures his dad's travel bag that has money, which 1:10:22 Kevin will need to even get anywhere. He would just be at the airport and then the movie would be 1:10:28 Yeah. No money. No. why? Yeah. Yeah. So the, and then he has the address book of where his uncle 1:10:34 Mm-hmm. and, you know, some of these other tools that allow him to find his way around New York. So that, that was a good thing to insert into the plot or, to facilitate the 1:10:44 movie happening and then just drop the ball with, and do the same thing all over again that you did in the first one, only in a, a house of of coal 1:10:55 that no one's ever heard of before. It's just kind of lazy. I think he's meant to be. 'cause they're like, oh, isn't he in Paris? 1:11:01 Oh yeah. But the house is being run by, he was the uncle that they went to visit in the first movie. The fam right. 1:11:07 I'm Is that it? I don't him. The, this family has a lot of money. Or at least two of the brothers do. 1:11:13 Uncle Frank doesn't, but, but 'cause they were gonna go to Paris to, to visit, have Christmas with the, that uncle that apparently 1:11:20 has another home in New York City. Gee, must be nice to be in McAllister, eh? 1:11:25 Was one of my favorite lines in the movie. That's right at the beginning when he, when he is, goes to Uncle Frank. 1:11:31 Oh, I wouldn't wanna ruin your vacation, Mr. Cheapskate. And everybody's appalled by Kevin's smart mouth to his dickhead uncle, 1:11:40 who is a dickhead and deserves He is. So towards the end buzz shows Kevin, the room service bill, he's like, oh my 1:11:49 God, you're gonna be in so much trouble. It was $967, which I looked up today. 1:11:57 That would be about 2232. $2,232. That's really, I honestly would've thought it'd be way higher. 1:12:06 Or am I off on this at the plaza? I, yeah. 1:12:11 $0 of that was spent on the bird lady. Yeah. Come on Kevin. 1:12:19 That's crazy. And, but it's like, yeah. What else are you gonna do if you're a kid in a, a hotel room, but order room 1:12:27 Mm-hmm. So, I, I guess I just thought it would be more, amount of money. I did watch all the way through. 1:12:33 'cause sometimes the, so John Hughes will many times have a post credit scene in his movies. 1:12:39 There was not. Bueller? Yeah. But there was not there are a few bits of trivia here. 1:12:44 The original working title apparently was alone Again. What are your thoughts about that? 1:12:52 Hmm. Not good. Okay. Home alone two. Lost to New Yeah. I'll get either way. 1:12:57 So home alone too Alone again, or it's, you still need home alone in it somewhere. 1:13:02 Yeah. The phone number that was given for the Plaza Hotel in the movie is an actual working number for the Plaza Hotel. 1:13:09 Like whatever it was. That's good. Marketing for the plaza. Yeah. I wonder if it still is that same number. 1:13:15 There's a swimming pool scene. So Kevin does all the things kids love to do at a hotel and want, 1:13:21 including going to the pool. But I guess the Plaza doesn't have a swimming pool located on site. 1:13:29 So that was shot at the Four Seasons in Chicago, the pool scene funny. That's interesting. 1:13:35 Yeah. and more about the plaza. It still to this day, apparently offers the home alone experience around Christmas 1:13:45 where guests can pay to stay in a room. Very similar to the room in which Kevin stayed. Receive home alone gifts, including the movies, take a limousine and 1:13:53 see some of the filming locations, including the toy store upon which Duncan's Toy Chest was based. 1:14:00 Yeah. Is that still exist? That I thought FAO Schwartz was gone? Unless there's a different incarnation of 1:14:07 Yeah. I mean, okay. I don't know when that tidbit was published, so 1:14:13 Oh, okay. for who know? Yeah. Experience that they offered Yeah. Or maybe that's just not part of it, but because it was, 1:14:20 go. yeah. ever had the chance to go to FAO No, a thing? no. Did you? 1:14:26 was, yeah. And it's something else Yeah. mean, they that watch big and you, and you get a really good idea of what it is, 1:14:33 now that we've discussed this, it's such a missed opportunity that they didn't do. The toy store. 1:14:39 the toy store foiling Mm-hmm. Harry. I, why wouldn't you do that? Why? What are you thinking? 1:14:45 'cause Columbus and John Hughes. yeah. You, you wrote it, John, come on. 1:14:50 Ah, yeah, I get frustrated. During this season, I'm probably more often than not, a little 1:14:56 frustrated with John Hughes. He really hits when he hits. And I think this is a hit, like this is a, I I'm not, I I just have fun. 1:15:03 Sometimes when podcasting about a movie, I have fun poking holes in it, where they are. 1:15:09 So I don't want people to get upset with me. I do like this movie, everyone. 1:15:14 but it did, it did drop the ball Mm-hmm. Oh. Have you ever heard of that movie? It's a Dwayne, the Rock Johnson movie called Skyscraper. 1:15:22 Mm-hmm. kind of came out after Jumanji and. 1:15:29 Oh, Andreas and he, it, what's interesting about it is he plays 1:15:34 a vet that ha is missing a leg. So his family is trapped at the top of this smart building skyscraper that is, 1:15:44 has a diehard scenario happening in it. And the movie is called Skyscraper. 1:15:49 The finale takes place at the top of the building and the whole time you 1:15:56 are expecting somebody, a villain or a maybe a, loved one to get thrown 1:16:03 off the building and Dwayne Johnson is going to jump off the skyscraper and rescue somebody that's falling from what's being held up in the movie as 1:16:13 the biggest building in the world. then you get to the end and it's not, it's like a hall of mirrors finale and nobody 1:16:20 falls off the top of the building and. What? feel like you watched this for nothing? 1:16:26 Oh, what a let down. What a let down. this Toy Store finale of Home Alone two now is replacing 1:16:34 Huge missed opportunity. opportunity since skyscraper Okay. Yeah. For real though, 1:16:40 Hmm, I guess, writer and producer John Hughes, like during production of this, 1:16:45 he was already writing script drafts for the third movie in which he wanted 1:16:51 Macaulay to return as a teenager. But I guess when he found out that Macaulay Culkin quit acting in 94, he 1:16:58 had to rewrite the story with a new kid. Yeah. for, for the worst. 1:17:03 Yeah, yeah. that was probably for the best too. You Mm-hmm. Yep. the colleague GaN on to be a, a big meth head or 1:17:12 Yeah, except for 20 years. I don't know man. Tim Curry, Macaulay Coken, and Joe Pesci all in this movie reportedly 1:17:21 turned down roles in the Lion King to do this film instead. 1:17:28 Which is weird because the Lion King didn't come out until 94, Yeah. 1:17:34 but I don't know if it just, work I assume so. Yeah, I assume so. Yeah. don't know, I wasn't that like Matthew Broderick 1:17:42 Mm-hmm. I don't know who they would've been. Tim Curry as a scar Maybe, maybe 1:17:48 what that was gonna Hashi. I could have been one of the hyenas or something like, like I can see, 1:17:53 Yeah. Or timone. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. way too much about the Lion King, apparently. 1:18:00 really good. And then you know who was missing in this movie? We had a cameo in the first movie by a very famous comedian, also frequent 1:18:09 collaborator with John Hughes. John Yeah. John Candy. John Candy was not in this 1:18:16 Yeah. Why? well, the original. sense. I'm glad that you asked Andy. 1:18:23 But see, did, did he die at this point? No, not, oh, yet. Mm yet. The original plan was for John Candy to make a cameo, but I guess he 1:18:31 was bitter about how little money he received from the first film. 1:18:36 hmm. And so he refused to do it. You get what? Get what you're worth. Get John Candy's worth a lot. 1:18:42 Throw him, he is after the, he did you a favor with the first one? agreed. 1:18:47 I would, it would've been awesome if it was the same character. The Polka Came into play somehow. 1:18:52 Yeah. helps out Yeah. That would've been great Agreed. you know, you don't cut the money to John Candy on set for one day. 1:19:03 Yeah, but I guess he was just bitter because they could have given him more like posts like after the fact because Home Alone was such 1:19:10 a hit and he, however much he got paid must not have been very much. backend Yeah, yeah. 1:19:15 Mm-hmm. agent, John Candy. I know. Which is unusual because you usually don't hear about him 1:19:21 kinda holding grudges or anything. It's usually the other way around. John Hughes is usually the one anyway. 1:19:27 Andy that new doc about him. That's out now. There's a New John Candy there on what? 1:19:34 What's it on? Hmm. It might be Prime or Netflix. 1:19:39 One of the big ones, Okay. I'm gonna have to check it out. I do really like John Candy. Who doesn't, I mean, he's, yeah. 1:19:45 I mean, we could have talked for another hour about. Home alone. Two, you know, comparing it to the first one, all of it. 1:19:54 We could have talked forever, but we have to conclude at some point, what are your closing thoughts about Home Alone Two, and then please remind 1:20:01 us where we can find more of you. Yes, I would love to, thoughts about Home Alone. 1:20:07 Two, it's a, it's a fun movie. It's, I was glad to have a reason to rewatch it, and we are approaching 1:20:14 the holiday season, so, oftentimes I will myself watching the original 1:20:20 and not so much the second one. Mm-hmm. I, I was glad to revisit it. 1:20:26 It reminded me of what my talent Joe Peci is and how much 1:20:32 I love Tim Curry and O'Hara. The, all these characters were fun to spend another two hours with, and 1:20:42 even though I don't think it's as good as the first one that doesn't really, 1:20:49 Ruin the viewing experience of the second one. And like I said, there's a lot of creative ways that they the 1:20:58 formula that makes it fun watch. So I would, or anybody that wants to dig into a holiday movie at 1:21:07 the holiday season, this is a very good one to add to the watch list. So, please do. 1:21:14 And then also please go to all apologies podcast.com. Actually, I'm begging everybody to subscribe to our YouTube channel. 1:21:23 So, you can find all apologies podcast on YouTube and hit that subscribe button. 1:21:28 And keep up up with everything that we're releasing there, including the Edgar Wright series, all the Right moves that Ryan Alkin is also hosting 1:21:36 on the Director's Chair podcast network. So check that out as well. 1:21:41 Great for stuff. Yes. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for joining me to talk about this sequel. 1:21:48 And some 92 memories. So it's always fun to kind of go back in time. But that is a wrap on Home Alone. 1:21:54 Two, you guys lost in New York. Proof that light lightning can almost strike twice, especially 1:22:00 when you've got Tim Curry, pigeons and a credit card with no limit. If you enjoyed this trip back to 1992, take a second to rate 1:22:08 and review retro Made seriously. Seriously, it does make a huge difference and helping other 1:22:15 nostalgia nerds like us find the show. Or you can always drop me a line. You can email me, tell me what you think about Home Alone Two versus 1:22:23 Home Alone, the original bonus points. If it involves a talk boy. But until next time, be kind, rewind.