Two childhood friends — a New York hairstylist and a wanna-be musician — get mixed-up with the mob and are forced to deliver $50,000 to Australia, but things go all wrong when the money is lost to a wild kangaroo.
Fun adventure in the Outback
RELEASED IN 2003 and directed by David McNally, "Kangaroo Jack" is a family-friendly adventure/comedy about two Brooklyn friends (Jerry O'Connell and Anthony Anderson) who are commissioned by a mob boss (Christopher Walken) to deliver $50,000 to a shady character in the Outback. The operation goes awry when a kangaroo inadvertently runs off with one of the guys’ jacket… and the money. Michael Shannon is on hand as a mob heavy.
This is a likable, amusing adventure flick with the typical eye-rolling kid humor (e.g. fart jokes). It’s fun, harmless hokum highlighted by spectacular Australian cinematography and the beautiful Estella Warren as an Outback preservationist. The humorous camaraderie of the protagonists is another highpoint. But the story isn’t as compelling as I hoped it would be and the camera never really captures Estella’s beauty beyond her lovely face and pulchritude.
THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 29 minutes and was shot in Australia and Brooklyn with reshoots done in Los Angeles.
GRADE: C+
