There really is a nice core to the movie, and O'Connell and Anderson are equally adept at getting laughs by playing up the characters' manic drive to keep going.
Kangaroo Jack (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:110
Fresh:9
Rotten:101
Average Rating:3.3/10
Consensus: The humor is gratingly dumb, and Kangaroo Jack contains too much violence and sexual innuendo for a family movie.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for language, crude humor, sensuality and violence
Runtime: 89 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jan 17, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $66,734,992
Synopsis:
Best friends Charlie Carbone [JERRY O’CONNELL] and Louis Fucci [ANTHONY ANDERSON] are both struggling to get ahead in life – but their approaches couldn’t be more different.
Louis is an eternal...
Best friends Charlie Carbone [JERRY O’CONNELL] and Louis Fucci [ANTHONY ANDERSON] are both struggling to get ahead in life – but their approaches couldn’t be more different.
Louis is an eternal optimist, which is a good thing considering he’s also a magnet for bad luck. Ever since he saved Charlie’s life 20 years ago, Louis has embroiled them in a series of shady get-rich-quick schemes, which has only compounded Charlie’s reputation as the ultimate loser in the eyes of his intimidating stepfather, mob boss Sal Maggio [CHRISTOPHER WALKEN].
More skeptical and low-profile than Louis, Charlie just wants to play by the rules, meet the right girl and make a success of his new business, which is tough with Sal skimming all the profits. But when Louis recruits Charlie to help him escort a truckload of stolen TVs across town, they inadvertently lead police straight to Sal’s warehouse, jam-packed with hot property.
Just when it looks like the guys might wind up sleeping with the fishes, Sal decides to give Charlie and his bumbling sidekick one last chance for redemption. All they have to do is deliver $50,000 cash to one of Sal’s associates in a remote outpost …the Australian Outback.
Goodbye Brooklyn, G’day Sydney!
After an adventurous plane flight and a scary brush with Customs, Charlie and Louis find themselves barrelling down a dusty road in the Aussie wilderness with the 50 grand stuffed in Louis’ lucky red jacket. Looks like things are finally starting to go their way when…THUMP! Their jeep hits a large kangaroo.
As the guys try in vain to revive the lifeless roo, they realize he resembles their buddy “Jackie Legs” back home in Brooklyn. Louis impulsively insists on dressing “Jackie” in his lucky red jacket and snapping a few photos.
Problem is…this kangaroo has a plan of his own.
Before Charlie and Louis can react, the feisty beast springs to life and bounces off across the desert at lightning speed wearing what has just become the most valuable jacket in Australia. To their horror, the kangaroo disappears into the vast scrubland, leaving them with no money, no car and no clue.
Enlisting the aid of Jessie [ESTELLA WARREN], a resourceful American wildlife conservationist, along with a drunken bush pilot and a herd of the most ill-mannered camels that ever lived, Charlie and Louis attempt to track the wily kangaroo across the dense Outback, capture him and retrieve the cash before Sal’s henchmen send them “down under”…permanently.
Starring: Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Christopher Walken, Estella Warren
Starring: Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Christopher Walken, Estella Warren, Dyan Cannon, Marton Csokas, Michael Shannon
Director: David McNally
Director: David McNally
Screenwriter: Steve Bing, Scott Rosenberg
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Composer: Trevor Rabin
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Kangaroo Jack
High-spirited and even endearing...Kangaroo Jack is far better than it has any right to be.
Is it great? No. But it's a good movie for the whole family to lighten up a bit.
Jack is reminiscent of such films as Short Circuit, The Monster Squad and the Don Knotts vehicles of the late Sixties - certainly not the most well constructed pieces of entertainment, but endearing nevertheless.
Brainless and silly and full of pratfalls and physical humour -- all of which will make you giggle in spite of yourself.
The bopping, socking marsupial hero of Kangaroo Jack packs quite a comic wallop.
The film has a lively bounce, brisk pacing and a sense of humor that younger viewers can appreciate.
The stars seem to be having so much fun you can't help chuckling along.
The tykes might laugh in the right places, but this is still horribly formulaic, the humor's dopey and the CGI-animated kangaroo outacts the real people.
There is something crass and ugly about the way Kangaroo Jack develops its hackneyed, potentially amusing premise.
Suffers from a dreary type of adolescence, missing the spirit of adventure or joy of a good children's film and lacking the comic sophistication necessary to make it interesting for grown ups.
Luckily, Australians can't take offence at the lame Aussie "you'd be a banger short of a barbie" stereotypes, because the American characters are just as puerile.
Most people are willing to put up with a bad movie for their kids. But Kangaroo Jack doesn't even manage to hold the attention of easy-to-please youngsters.
The kids might love it, and any chance to soak up Australian beauty is welcomed, but there just isn’t enough hop in the ’roo to hold appeal for very long.
One of the most ill-thought-out cinematic exercises in a very, very long time.
Computer effects have reduced a magnificent animal to a cartoon comic foil with human expressions and a yen for red licorice.
There's more chemistry going on in moldy cheese than between Jerry O'Connell and Anthony Anderson.
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