Home Alone consists of pranks and hilarious jinx playing gags. However, we are well aware that in reality these culprits would never make it to the next installment. In addition, young Kevin McAllister would likely face trial.
Just ask Joe Pesci, who played the con man Harry in the first two films. His character will star alongside Daniel Stern as Murray’s accomplice and Macaulay Culkin as Kevin.
In honor of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’s 30th anniversary, Pesci shared that McAllister’s conventional one-liners left him with severe burns.
In the scene in Lost in New York where Harry is once again exposed to the torch, he sustains an injury. Outsmarting a similar prank from the first film, Harry submerges his blazing head into a toilet. But little did he know that that “toilet water” was actually kerosene.
To say the results aren’t good for Harry would be an understatement.
Although Pesci found joy in having a “change of pace” with his label of slapstick, he confessed that the “more physical type of comedy” was “a little more demanding.” Notably, he won an Oscar for his contributions to the drama Goodfellas.
“In addition to the expected bumps, bruises, and general pains that you would associate with that particular type of physical humor,” Pesci said in an interview with PEOPLE. “I did sustain serious burns to the top of my head during the scene where Harry’s hat is set on fire.”
Stunt in Lost in New York
Pesci experienced this stunt himself, but left the really difficult stunts to the pros.
He hesitated when the press asked whether he’d sport a comeback for a future Home Alone franchise film. The 79-year-old said times have evolved. And perhaps viewers aren’t so hauled up with the idea of two older adults assaulting an abandoned kid and getting their ass-s burned by the child.
“While you never say never, I think that it would be difficult to replicate not only the success but also the overall innocence of the originals,” Pesci stated. “It’s a different time now. Attitudes and priorities have changed in 30 years.”
But there’s 2021’s Home Sweet Home Alone – if you want to set your head on fire, metaphorically, of course.
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Released in 1992
20th Century Fox released Home Alone 2: Lost in New York in 1992, directed by Chris Columbus. John Hughes wrote and produced the Christmas comedy.
The film is the follow-up to 1990’s Home Alone. Additionally, it features Culkin, Pesci, Stern, John Heard, Tim Curry, Brenda Fricker, and Catherine O’Hara.
In addition, Lost in New York received critical and commercial success. The film earned roughly $359 million at the global box office and became the third highest-grossing movie in 1992.
But it received some criticism, pointing out its darker tone and violent scenes. Few even highlighted similarities to the first installment.
Later in 1997, the franchise released Home Alone 3 with a set of a new cast. But Devin Ratray returned as Buzz McCallister in Home Sweet Home Alone.
Photo: TMDB
