Likable but negligible.
Kangaroo Jack (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:24
Fresh:1
Rotten:23
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
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has an unparalleled knack for assembling Z-grade talent, particularly when operating in family-fun mode.
It's clear it was intended to cash in with audiences of all ages, but the antics are distinctly childish, while the romance is sexually suggestive.
Computer effects have reduced a magnificent animal to a cartoon comic foil with human expressions and a yen for red licorice.
[O'Connell and Anderson] are mere pawns in the larcenous career of Jerry Bruckheimer, who will carry on making a plethora of movies that are anathema to anyone with half a brain.
Take a camcorder to the zoo and make your own kangaroo movie. Trust me, it will be far superior.
Little more than an exercise in pockmarked dialogue, lame stereotype riding and even worse pacing.
Will parents be able to sit through Kangaroo Jack without plunging sharp sticks into their eyes? The short answer? Yes. Barely.
An action comedy that's as idiotic as it sounds. Still, it's also harmless enough entertainment for its intended preteen audience.
Though the comedy is feeble, the dramatic elements -- including the budding romance between Charlie and Jessie -- cross the pain threshold.
This is barely enough story ... to sustain a Three Stooges short, let alone an 88-minute movie.
There is something crass and ugly about the way Kangaroo Jack develops its hackneyed, potentially amusing premise.
Young children will like the hubbub and probably the flatulence, but grim-faced grown-ups might share sentiments with grizzled Australian character actor Bill Hunter, who plays a pilot... 'I should have never left the pub.'
There is, it turns out, a limit to how many times you can hear 'g'day mate' or Men at Work's 1982 hit 'Down Under.'
Parents, take heed: Kangaroo Jack -- filled with Mafioso heists and hit men, camel flatulence and at least one wet T-shirt soak -- will hop right over the perplexed heads of your little darlings.
The film's crude humor and violence -- cartoonish, but still violent -- should offend parents of younger kids. Yet its ultra-broad, pratfall-filled comedy will satisfy only the most indiscriminate teens.
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