Kangaroo Jack [WS]

Overview

Two low-level American crooks head to Australia, where they match wits with a kangaroo (who appears to have an intellectual edge on his pursuers) in this broad comedy. Charlie Carbone (Jerry O'Connell) is a hairdresser from Brooklyn whose best friend, Louis Booker (Anthony Anderson), scrapes together a living moving stolen merchandise. Charlie's stepfather, Sal Maggio (Christopher Walken), is a crime kingpin who has loaned Charlie a lot of money and wants to know when he'll get it back; Sal's not especially fond of Louis, especially after he and Charlie accidentally lead the police to a storehouse of burgled goods owned by Sal. Charlie owes Sal a big favor, and Sal wants Charlie and Louis out of his hair for a while, so Sal sends them to Australia, where they're to deliver a large amount of cash to a mysterious Mr. Smith (Marton Csokas). En route to their meeting in the outback, Charlie and Louis accidentally run over a kangaroo, and the half-bright tourists decide to dress the dead marsupial in sunglasses and Louis' favorite jacket for snapshots. However, the animal wasn't as dead as they imagined, and it soon hops away, shortly after Louis realizes the payment to Mr. Smith was in the pocket. Now Louis and Charlie are out to find the fast-moving critter, with the help of Jessie (Estella Warren), a wildlife expert; Mr. Jimmy (David Ngoombujarra), a wilderness guide; and Blue (Bill Hunter), a pilot familiar with the outback.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/08/2009
UPC:	0883929084722
Original Release:	2002
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:29:00
Sales rank:	16,943

Special Features

Closed Caption; Casting sessions - Uncut: Outrageous animal auditions; Gags and outtakes: Side-splitting cutting room floor stuff; Jackie's Leg's dance grooves: Learn how to do Jackie's cool marsupial moves; Behind the Gas: The sound mixer's job of finding the perfect sound for flatulent camels; Marsupial Magic: How Jackie was transformed from outback wannabe to screen sensation... in his own words; Two audio commentaries, mates: One by Kangaroo Jack himself, the other by Jack's good buddies Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Estella Warren, director David McNally, and visual effects supervisor Hoyt Yeatman; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jerry O'Connell	Charlie Carbone
Anthony Anderson	Louis Booker
Estella Warren	Jessie
Christopher Walken	Sal
Marton Csokas	Mr. Smith
Dyan Cannon	Anna Carbone
Michael Shannon	Frankie Lombardo
Bill Hunter	Blue
David Hgoombujarra	Mr. Jimmy
Mark Sellito	Blasta
Damien Fotiou	Baby J
Christopher Baker	Crumble
Ryan Gibson	Hoon,Sal's Goon No. 1
Denise Roberts	Tansy
Antonio Vitiello	Toot
David Ngoombujarra	Mr. Jimmy
Mario Di Ienno	Tommy
Tony Nikolakopoulos	Sal's Capo
Robert Reid	Young Charlie
Shawn Smith	Young Louis
Brian Casey	Young Frankie
Emma-Jane Fowler	Outback Bartender
Helen Thomson	TV Announcer
John McNeill	Customs Officer
Paul Wilson	Interrogation Room Officer
David Walsman	Beach Lifeguard
Lara Cox	Cute Girl on Plane
Terrell Dixon	NY Cop
Nick Jasprizza	Sal's Goon No. 2
Marco Sellitto	Actor
Trevor Rabin	Composer

Technical Credits

Steve Bing

Scott Rosenberg

Barry O'Brien

David McNally	Director
Steve Bing	Screenwriter
Scott Rosenberg	Screenwriter
Glenn Boswell	Stunts
Jerry Bruckheimer	Producer
Ronna Kress	Casting
Andrew Mason	Executive Producer,Producer
Chad Oman	Executive Producer
Mike Stenson	Executive Producer
Barry Waldman	Executive Producer,Executive Producer
Shauna Wolifson	Casting
Hoyt Yeatman	Special Effects
Barry O'Brien	Screenwriter
Ulrika Akander	Sound Effects
David A. Arnold	Sound Effects
Ron Myrick	Director
KristieAnne Reed	Producer
Shea Adams	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

Critics hopped all over this buddy comedy, but children, lured by the somewhat deceptive previews that played up the antics of the eponymous marsupial, made it a modest box office hit. The fish-out-of water story line finds lifelong Brooklyn buddies Charlie (Jerry O'Connell) and Louis (Anthony Anderson) on a forced errand for the Mob in Australia, where they wind up chasing a runaway kangaroo through the Outback. Charlie's mobster stepfather (the always welcome Christopher Walken) dispatches the pair to deliver $50,000 on a mission of absolution, but in one of those only-in-the-movies mishaps, the pair's 50K winds up in the possession of the titular critter, and the chase is on. The kangaroo has the uncanny ability to anticipate their every move (much like the mouse in Mouse Hunt), and he's a sequel-ready scene-stealer, whether delivering martial-arts kicks, sucking on an atomic fireball jawbreaker, or, in one dream sequence, breaking it down to "Rapper's Delight." A trio of flatulent camels provide the requisite scatological humor in a scene that makes the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles look like a model of decorum. But a comical, computer-generated kangaroo does not a family movie make. A subplot involving Mob goons sent to kill Charlie and Louis plays out with too much menace. And Charlie fondles a ravishing conservationist (Estella Warren), whom he mistakes for a mirage. By the time the camera ogles the former swimmer-turned-model during an impromptu bath in a waterfall, you're thinking "lovely," but a PG-13 rating would have been more appropriate.