Kangaroo Jack ---- **1/2 (out of 5) (2003)
Cast: Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Estella Warren, Christopher Walken, Dyan Cannon
Director(s): David McNally
Screenwriter(s): Steve Bing, Scott Rosenberg
Released on: January 17, 2003
Reviewed on: July 1, 2003
Rated: PG - for language, crude humor, sensuality and violence
I'd have to say that the famous line in the previews of KANGAROO JACK said by Louis would have to be "He took the money... and now he hoppin' away." Yes, that incoherent sentence that is said while Louis is crying hysterically would have to be what sums up this movie for the most part. Supposedly, there's a lot more going on than meets the eye but whatever else was there, I missed it.
The opening scene shows how the star, Charlie, met up with his best friend, Louis. They became friends when Louis saved him from drowning and now they're in their twenties and are still very close. Charlie runs a hair salon in New York and is the stepson of a major mob boss named Salvatore Maggio. Charlie and Louis manage to get on his bad side by accidentally luring the police into an abandoned building where the mob stashes all of their stolen goods. Salvatore gives them a chance to redeem themselves by having them deliver an envelope to a man named Mr. Smith that lives in the outbacks of Australia. On the way there, they discover what the envelope contains: $50,000. After that, the film takes a downward spiral into complete and total ludicrousness with the appearance of a supposedly dead kangaroo that looks like Jackie Legs.
One of the major downfalls of this film is that it just isn't funny. But is it supposed to be funny? I can't really tell. It's hard to detect what genre this kind of film is headed towards. The critics say it's great family entertainment but with all of the crude jokes, I'd say it deserves a PG-13 rating. Maybe they stuck to a no-swearing policy to prevent the need for one and to attract younger audiences. This actually seems logical. This film obviously isn't good enough to bother with, so why not slap a PG rating on it so kids will be able to get in, and we can boost the sales. Who knows? The film doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and we all know that before even walking into the theatre. Hopefully, it will replace the lack of knowledge with some dumb toilet humor that doesn't require a brain at all. Now that's entertainment! Maybe for a few people, but probably not for the masses.
The setting is typical, too. You've got a goofy movie set in Australia. You can milk a lot of humor out of that. So let's spend some time poking fun at Australian accents and making jokes out of a flatulate camel. There was a final revelation at the end that I admit even surprised me a bit and for one reason. When you're watching KANGAROO JACK, there's a certain level of dumb occurrances and humor it maintains throughout the entire viewing, and you don't expect that pace to be disturbed by a revelation of any kind. I admit it started to get entertaining towards the end but by the time it did, all the loose ends were tied up and it was nearly over. I'm definitely not asking it to be any longer than it was. It was long enough, but not long enough to get everything together and satisfy us.
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