Kangaroo Jack is a 2003 buddy-action movie from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, starring Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Christopher Walken, Estella Warren and Adam Garcia. An animated children's sequel, titled Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.!, was produced and released on video in 2004. The film received extremely negative reviews, earning 8% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Plot
The movie begins in the summer of 1982, where a boy named Charlie Carbone (Jerry O'Connell) is about to become the stepson of a mobster named Salvatore Maggio (Christopher Walken). On that same day, he meets his new best friend, Louis Booker (Anthony Anderson), who saves him from drowning, and the mobster's apprentice, Frankie Lombardo (Michael Shannon).
Now 20 years later in 2002, Charlie has his own beauty salon. Yet, Sal's goons arrive every week and take 80% of the profits, barely letting Charlie keep enough money for future improvements. Louis is still Charlie's best friend. After they botch the job of hiding some stolen goods (resulting in some of Sal's men getting arrested), Sal gives Charlie and Louis one more chance. Under the instructions of Frankie, they have to deliver a package to Sydney, Australia to a man named Mr. Smith . Frankie also tells them that if they should run into any trouble, they should call Mr. Smith at the cell phone number, that he gives them. Unbeknownst to Charlie and Louis, Sal tells his Capo that he is "cancelling their return trip".
Once on the plane, Charlie asks Louis how much time they have, and Louis says that they have 14 hours. Charlie asks Louis when the food is coming. He says that he is starving. Louis tells Charlie not worry; he has got him covered. He takes some candy out of his pocket. Charlie asks Louis if he is 4 years old. Louis tells Charlie that if he is not hungry, he can always put the candy back in his pocket. Charlie tells Louis that he thinks that he will have a giant red candy ball. Louis says that that is a good choice. Unfortunately, the red ball burns Charlie's mouth, and he takes it out of his mouth, panting. He asks Louis what it is, and why his mouth is on fire. Louis tells Charlie that that is the new Super Atomic Jaw Buster (extra hot). Charlie asks Louis if he is trying to kill him. Louis takes a taste of the red ball, but it doesn't burn his mouth. Louis tells Charlie that there is nothing wrong with the red ball. He tells Charlie to stop acting like a baby, and puts the candy back in his pocket. Charlie tells Louis to let him up. Louis asks Charlie why. Charlie tells Louis that he is going to the bathroom. As Charlie leaves, Louis peeks into the package, only to find $50,000. Of course they're surprised.
On their way to Mr. Smith, Charlie and Louis accidentally run over a kangaroo. They step out of the Jeep, and Louis says, "What the hell?". Charlie says that he killed the kangaroo. Louis feel interested and puts his "lucky jacket" on the kangaroo, and with Charlie's sunglasses, they think that the kangaroo looks like Jackie Legs, who is from Kanarsey with the goatee (always wears the sunglasses). When they taking the picture, the kangaroo then comes back to life and hops away, but there is one problem: The $50,000 was in the jacket. Charlie and Louis hop into the jeep and attempt to grab the money from the jacket on the kangaroo, but the ensuing chase ends with the duo running into a field of termite mounds and crashing into a pile of rocks. They know they're in a really big trouble. At a nearby bar, Louis manages to call Mr. Smith (Marton Csokas) and tell him about the situation. Mr. Smith tells Louis that they had better have his money when he comes after them, which he does.
Louis gets advice from a local animal sanctuary and is told that the best way to catch the kangaroo is to shoot it with a Tranquillizer dart fired from the air. They enlist the help of an alcoholic pilot named Blue (Bill Hunter), in order to fulfill this. Unfortunately, an unexpected jolt causes Louis to shoot Blue with the dart rather than the kangaroo, and the plane crashes. When Blue radios for help, his air traffic controller has been taken hostage by Mr. Smith's goons and, upon hearing the location of the aircraft, they destroy the radio, gag the air traffic controller and head off in that direction.
Back in New York, Sal gets a call from Mr. Smith, saying that Charlie and Louis haven't arrived yet. Thus, Sal sends Frankie and some men to Australia to look into this. When Frankie and his men arrive in Sydney, they are met by a man called Mr Jimmy who drives them into the desert.
Meanwhile, one of the attempts to reclaim the money strands Charlie and Louis in the desert. They finally get help from a woman named Jessie (Estella Warren) to help them catch the kangaroo at the nearest valley.
Quite unexpectedly, they get attacked by Mr. Smith and his henchmen. Charlie and Louis outsmart them, only to find that Frankie and the men join in the battle.
After getting the money back from the kangaroo, they learn from Frankie that Sal really sent them to Australia to pay for their own execution, but all of a sudden, Mr Jimmy (who turns out to have been an undercover police officer) and the police come at the right moment and arrest Frankie, Mr. Smith, and their respective henchmen and Charlie reclaims Louis' lucky jacket from the kangaroo.
One year later, Charlie and Jessie are married and sell their new shampoo, Sal Maggio is on trial, and Louis is currently Charlie's advertising partner. As for the kangaroo (called Kangaroo Jack), he is still hopping around the outback.
Cast
Box office
The film was released on January 17, 2003 at #1 rank and grossed $16,580,209 in the opening weekend. It grossed $66,934,963 domestically and $21,994,148 foreign for a worldwide total of $88,929,111.[1]
Re-cut
Rumors state that prior to the film's release as an all ages-targeted comedy, it was re-cut from its original R-rated version as the more mature audience oriented action comedy that it was originally intended to be due to extremely poor reception by test audiences. This is briefly discussed on the podcast Jordan, Jesse Go!, hosted by public radio host Jesse Thorn, in episode 39, "Disneyland v. Vegas". Possible evidence of this is its misleading trailer and marketing campaign, which mostly feature a short dream sequence in the film rather than its larger plot or content.
References
External links
