Kangaroo Jack
The MPAA rated Kangaroo Jack (2003) PG for language, crude
humor, sensuality and violence.
Every good story in Charlie Carbone’s
(Jerry O’Connell) life starts with the words, “Louis
and I”. Regrettably, almost all of these tales seem to
end up with Charlie and Louis (Anthony Anderson) in a lot
of trouble.
As a young boy, Louis saves his
friend from drowning in an ocean undercurrent on a hot summer
day. Twenty years later, Charlie is a hairdresser with his
own little shop in the heart of New York, thanks to his mob
boss stepfather, Sal Maggio (Christopher Walken) who skims
a weekly cut of the earnings. Louis, on the other hand, is
a meat-house worker who takes on questionable part time employment
to stretch his funds.
Stopping by the salon, Louis
persuades Charlie to help him deliver a truckload of hot TVs.
But when police recognize the stolen utility truck, a high-speed
chase ensues and Louis unintentionally leads the police to
a mob warehouse full of stolen goods. After things cool down,
the two friends are forced to accept a job from Sal in order
to redeem themselves.
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Carrying an ordinary brown paper
envelope filled with greenbacks, they catch a plane for the
Outback with instructions to deliver the cash to a Mr. Smith
(Marton Csokas). After Charlie undergoes a strip search at
the Australian customs office, the two foreigners are on their
way. Speeding across the desert to their rendezvous point,
they accidentally hit a wild kangaroo with their jeep. Before
pulling the lifeless animal off the road, they discover this
marsupial looks surprisingly similar to their Brooklyn buddy “Jackie Legs”. Dressing the stunned kangaroo in
Louis’ lucky jacket and a pair of shades, they start
snapping pictures to show the guys back home.
When the grown up Joey suddenly
comes around and bounds off into the wilderness, Charlie and
Louis discover their bundle of bills is stashed in the coat
pocket. Recruiting the help of Jessie (Estella Warren), an
American wild life conversationalist and a grizzled bush pilot
named Blue (Bill Hunter), the two young men start combing
the backwoods in search of the expensive jacket before the
irritated Mr. Smith and his thugs catch up with them.
Better known for adult films
like Black Hawk Down, Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, producer
Jerry Bruckheimer has taken on the task of making a more family
friendly film. However, this script still includes several
sexually suggestive jokes, an alcohol guzzling contest, profanities
and plenty of bathroom/flatulence humor. Both cops and criminals
resort to using guns and during at least one scene; Charlie
is threatened when a knife held at his throat.
Lacking the same kind of educational
morsels found in films like the Crocodile Hunter: Collision
Course, this storyline races through the Outback in an attempt
to show the depth of friendship between Charlie and Louis.
But after watching these two buddies fumble their way through
one adventure after another, I began to think incompetence
is likely the cement that keeps them together
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