By Kit Bowen
Story
The only way to adequately convey how insanely stupid
Kangaroo Jack is is to simply describe it. Hairdresser Charlie Carbone (
Jerry O'Connell) knows two things: his stepfather Sal (
Christopher Walken) is a mob boss and his best friend Louis (
Anthony Anderson) will find a way to get them both in a lot of trouble. True to form, Louis involves Charlie in a scam that ends up exposing one of Sal's operations to the police. D'oh! Instead of immediately whacking the two dunderheads (which would have been a blessing), Sal sends them on an errand to deliver $50K to a guy in Australia. As Charlie and Louis are driving through the Outback, they accidentally hit a kangaroo, and thinking it's dead, Louis puts his lucky red jacket on the animal to take some souvenir photos. Here's where it gets
really interesting. Much to the surprise of our intrepid Outbackers, Mr. Kangaroo Jack isn't dead, just stunned. He wakes up, kicks the crap out of Charlie and takes off into the wild--with the jacket and the packet of money inside of it. Double d'oh! How ever will they get the money back and save their hides from the menacing mob guys? It's a mystery, but with the help of some colorful Australian denizens, including a pilot (
Bill Hunter) and a beautiful wildlife conservationist (
Estella Warren), maybe they can retrieve the cash and make it out of the Outback alive. One can only hope.
Acting
It would be great to say there's a hysterical new comedic duo on the block, but it wouldn't be true.
O'Connell and
Anderson aren't going to make the cut. Individually, the two have their specialties--
O'Connell is known for playing the cute, likable guy in films such as
Jerry Maguire while
Anderson has played the affable big guy in films like
Barbershop. But together, the chemistry simply doesn't work. First of all, it's very hard to understand why Charlie would maintain this friendship in the first place when Louis does everything he can to ruin Charlie's life. It's very tiresome to watch, actually. Let's see how Louis is going to screw up the next situation. Ha, ha.
Warren (
Driven) does nothing much other than look pretty, while mob guys Frankie the Vermin (
Michael Shannon) and Mr. Smith (
Marton Csokas) grimace and snarl as best they can.
Walken is obviously doing a walk-on for the money. It's just peculiar the choices this eccentric actor makes, appearing in
Kangaroo Jack and last year's abysmal
The Country Bears, but then turning around and giving an Oscar-worthy performance in
Catch Me If You Can. Fascinating man.
Direction
If there is anything redeeming about
Kangaroo Jack, aside from camel-fart jokes and breakdancing kangaroos, it's that it makes the Australian Outback look good. Shot mostly on location, director
David McNally (
Coyote Ugly) has fun showing off the vast landscape and lush flora and fauna. And of course, the kangaroo steals the show. He runs around eating candy out of Louis's jacket pockets, kicking people in the chest and, in one dream sequence, rappin' and breakdancin'. Listen, anything is better than watching the actors muddle through the awful premise. You spend most of the time fidgeting, looking at your watch and wondering when the kangaroo is coming back. Unfortunately, he doesn't show up nearly as often as you would like.