Kangaroo Jack

Kangaroo Jack
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David McNally
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Written by	Steve Bing Barry O' Brien Scott Rosenberg
Starring	Jerry O'Connell Anthony Anderson Estella Warren Michael Shannon Christopher Walken
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Editing by	William Goldenberg Jim May John Murray
Studio	Castle Rock Entertainment Jerry Bruckheimer Films Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	January 17, 2003 (2003-01-17)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States Australia
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$88,929,111

Kangaroo Jack is a 2003 American comedy film directed by David McNally, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Christopher Walken, Estella Warren and Adam Garcia. An animated sequel, Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.!, was produced and released direct-to-video on November 16, 2004.

Plot

In the summer of 1982, a boy named Charlie Carbone (O'Connell) is about to become the stepson of a mobster named Salvatore Maggio (Walken). On that same day, he meets his new best friend, Louis Booker (Anderson), who saves him from drowning. The mobster's apprentice, a recently released ex-con named Frankie Lombardo (Shannon), had tried to drown Charlie intentionally by throwing a football deep into the surf, which would make it look like he wasn't responsible.

Twenty years later, in 2002, Charlie has his own beauty salon. Yet, Sal's goons arrive every week and take at least 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 and many of his stolen goods being recovered by police), Sal gives Charlie and Louis one more chance. Under the instructions of Frankie, they have to deliver a package on the next flight to Sydney, then to Coober Pedy to meet 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. Unbeknown to Charlie and Louis, Sal tells his Capo that he is "cancelling their return trip". On the plane, Louis peeks into the package, only to find $50,000.

Whilst driving through the Australian Outback (on their way to Mr. Smith), Charlie and Louis inadvertently run over a red kangaroo, and seemingly killing it. Louis feels interested and puts his "lucky jacket" on the kangaroo with Charlie's sunglasses; they think that the kangaroo looks like Jackie Leggs, one of Sal's goons. When they are taking the picture, the kangaroo then comes back to consciousness and hops away, with just one problem: The $50,000 was in the jacket. Charlie and Louis hop into the jeep and chase the kangaroo attempting to grab the money from the jacket on the kangaroo, but the ensuing chase ends with the duo driving through a field of termite mounds and crashing into a pile of rocks. When they reach a nearby bar called the Old Alice Inn in Alice Springs Louis calls Mr. Smith (Csokas) and tells him about the situation. Mr. Smith maliciously tells Louis that they had better have his money when he comes after them or he'll kill them and feed them to saltwater crocodiles.

Louis gets advice from a local animal sanctuary and is told by Jessie (Warren) 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 bushplane pilot named Blue (Hunter). 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, Tansy (Roberts), has been taken hostage by Mr. Smith's minions and, upon hearing the location of the aircraft, they destroy the radio, gag Tansy and head off in that direction.

Back in New York City, Sal gets a call from Mr. Smith, saying that Charlie and Louis haven't arrived yet. Thus, Sal sends Frankie and his minions to Australia to look into this. When Frankie and his minions arrive in Sydney, they're met by a man called Mr Jimmy who drives them into the desert.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Louis attempt to reclaim the money, but end up stranded in the desert. They are met with many adversities including a pack of wild dingoes, a sand storm, and then Charlie starts to hallucinate because of the heat. He first sees their jeep and starts to relax in it, but then realizes it is a mirage. They finally get rescued by Jessie, who Charlie thinks is another mirage, so he foolishly grabs her breasts. Jessie knocks him out, and he has a delusion about the kangaroo, who starts rapping in front of him. After he awakens, he asks Jessie to help them find the missing animal. She declines at first, but when Charlie offers to pay her, she graciously accepts. The next morning, they set out on camels to find the kangaroo.

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 on the battle. After getting the money back from the kangaroo, and after Charlie saves Louis from falling off a steep cliff, they learn from Frankie that Sal really sent them to Australia to pay for their own execution. 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 minions and Charlie reclaims Louis' lucky jacket from the kangaroo telling Louis that if he had not put the jacket on the kangaroo, they would' ve delivered the money Smith, and he would've killed them both, Charlie also claims that the jacket is truely luckey.

One year later, Charlie and Jessie are married and sell their new shampoo and they put a picture of Jack on the bottle, Frankie and his men are imprisoned for life which Sal Maggio has also failed at avoiding, and Louis is currently Charlie's advertising partner. As for the kangaroo (now called Kangaroo Jack), he is still hopping around the outback.

Cast

• Jerry O'Connell as Charlie Carbone: A hair-dresser who works at a beauty salon. he main protagoinst
• Anthony Anderson as Louis Booker: Charlie's best friend who saved Charlie's life two decades ago. he is deuteragonist
• Estella Warren as Jessie: Charlie's love interest.
• Michael Shannon as Frankie Lombardo: One of Sal Maggio's minions. true antagoinst he tries to kill Charlie and Louis on Sal's order
• Christopher Walken as Salvatore "Sal" Maggio: Charlie's stepfather and mobster. main antagoinst
• Dyan Cannon as Anna Carbone: Charlie's mother.
• Marton Csokas as Mr. Smith: A serial killer in Australia. secondary antagoinst
• Bill Hunter as Blue: An alcoholic bushplane pilot.
• Tony Nikolakopoulos as Sal's Capo: Sal's minion.
• David Ngoombujarra as AFP Senior Sgt. James "Mr. Jimmy" Inkamala: A tour guide who's actually a police officer.
• Adam Garcia as Kangaroo "Jackie Legs" Jack (voice, uncredited)

Production

Kangaroo Jack is mostly live-action but the kangaroos are computer-animated, the special visual effects were provided by The Secret Lab which closed shortly after the release.

Reception

The film was overwhelmingly panned by critics, earning 8% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Jerry Bruckheimer started working exclusively with Disney following the release of Bad Boys II six months later.

Kangaroo Jack earned two Razzie Award nominations for both Anthony Anderson and Christopher Walken as Worst Supporting Actor. The film has since developed a cult following.

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.

Sequel

An animated sequel, Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.!, was released direct-to-video on November 16, 2004.

External links

• Kangaroo Jack at the Internet Movie Database
• Kangaroo Jack at AllRovi
• Kangaroo Jack at Rotten Tomatoes
• Kangaroo Jack at Box Office Mojo