Kangaroo Jack | | Cast : | Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Estella Warren | | Director : | David McNally (II) | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 17, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | September 14, 2004 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | The worst movie I have ever seen | Content
 | Simply put, Kangaroo Jack was awful. I'll keep this review brief, because so much has already been said about the film, but here are my reasons for hating it so profusely:
1) It was advertised as a talking animal movie (or at least, this was implied by the ads). The only scene in which the "Kangaroo Jack" talks is a very brief one in which one of the characters is hallucinating. KANGAROO JACK IS A COMPLETELY NORMAL KANGAROO IN THE REST OF THE FILM.
2) It has one of the weakest plots ever, and not enough action/jokes/anything to compensate for it. Seriously, this movie is BORING. The only interesting scenes involve Estella Warren, and they're only interesting because she's hot.
3) The jokes simply aren't funny. A twelve-year-old might chuckle at one or two of them; anyone else will likely rip out their ears and scream.
4) Although kids might laugh at the movie's pathetic jokes, the film really isn't even appropriate for children. There's too much crude and sexual humor: from the scene where passengers on an airplane mistakenly think the main characters are playing with poop in the airplane bathroom to the scene where Charlie squeezes one of Jessie's (clothed) breasts.
But the bottom line is that the movie is stupid and boring. Hooray! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 19, 2005 | | Summary | Watch This Movie About a Kangaroo Risk Being Labeled a Kanga-foo' ! | Content
| Few films have been as deeply misunderstood or wrongly criticized as the 2003 film, Kangaroo Jack. I feel that the inordinate amount of hostility directed at the film stems from a fundamental underestimation of the scope of vision. To fully appreciate the film, one must first look past its imputed status as a "children's film" and evaluate it as it really is: a complicated morality tale, a profound meditation on the futility of desire and the dehumanization inherent in trying to maintain an subjective identity within a capitalist system.
The basic outline of the story is that a mob boss (played by Christopher Walken) charges his stepson and his stepson's friend with delivering $50,000 to a man in the Australian Outback. The main thrust of the plot is set into motion when the two protagonists, Charlie and Louis, place a red sweater containing the money on a kangaroo in the desert, and the kangaroo hops off into the desert, forcing the two young protagonists to chase after it. Even early in the movie, a careful viewer can already perceive that a complex iconography is created with great economy and precision. It is important to note that the bright red sweater is not only invested with the protagonist's $50,000, but also has the place name of "Brooklyn" scrawled across its front. Clothes have been a classic means of symbolizing an identity within a role; the sweatshirt with both the place name of Brooklyn and the $50,000 thus becomes a representation of the competing, conflicting, and irreconcilable roles that we as agents within a capitalist system must perform. The movie explores the impossibility of attempting to preserve both a localized identity based on regional loyalties (i.e. "Brooklyn) when we are also compelled to assume an identity as a facilitator of international capitalist transactions (i.e. the $50,000). The kangaroo is thus transmuted from bad CGI animation into a poignant symbol of the alienated self in pursuit of its own alienated psychic elements.
In addition to this theme of the fragmentation of the self when viewed through the prism of a capitalist system of valuation, there is the equally important motif of articulation and communication. Many have critiqued the dialogue as appalling and have brought into question whether the English language is redeemable after what it is subjected to in this film. Indeed, such verbal `gems' as, "I put the money in the jacket, and the jacket on the kangaroo, and now he's hopping away!", would suggest that this film is either the work of an amateur or a person who sold out his artistic ideals long ago. I would like to reevaluate the grounds for such harsh criticism. When each of the earthy and unsophisticated lines is viewed holistically and in the context of the film as a totality, it becomes obvious there is a masterful command of screenwriting at work. The painfully insipid dialogue between the human characters is no doubt intentional. The infantile dialogue is meant to coincide with and emphasize the debasement and degradation of Charlie and Louis. This is to say, in their feverish and fanatical pursuit of the money, Charlie and Louis become slaves to their own desires. At the height of their frenzy, Charlie has a hallucination that the kangaroo is mocking him with a spirited rap. This is the most powerful metaphor of the screenwriter's tragic vision. It is the culmination of a long trajectory that reverses traditional expectations: Charlie and Louis, in fanatical pursuit of the kangaroo's money, have ensured their descent from civilization by forfeiting what makes them rational and civilized; in other words, they have become beasts. In contrast to this, the kangaroo, their quarry, is endowed with speech, the traditional cornerstone of human culture. Empowered with verbal communication, the kangaroo, the animal, is given agency to articulate the bestial and subhuman mentalities of the two protagonists. Truly, this scene moves one to terror and pity as the dialectic between man and beast, subject and object, huntsman and quarry becomes obscured, even obliterated.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 13, 2005 | | Summary | The Number of the Beast | Content
| "Let him who has understanding reckon the number of the Beast, for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and Sixty-Six." Revelation 13:18
I never thought in a million years that I would see "Kangaroo Jack", let alone review it---to say nothing of buying the DVD for the infernal thing. But I have now done all three.
I remember watching the trailer for this thing in some moviehouse in a midwestern town: there I was, chuckling at the mob-heavy introduction, giggling at the wicked Christopher Walken (who does his Christopher Walken baleful-glare-and-purr thing as New York mob boss Sal Maggio)---and suddenly there was a talking, rapping, Ray-Ban wearing kangaroo on the screen. Because my youth slumbers fitfully, and because this Gentle Reviewer misspent said youth (and possibly, when heavily blasted, *saw* rapping Kangaroos back in the Day), I vowed I would never see this deranged flick.
Thank God for HBO! The other morning---or rather, late afternoon---I staggered home, reeling from a night of depravity and debauchery, and stumbled into the huge comfy lounging chair in front of my TV. I watched the last few minutes of a thoroughly wholesome flick about jewel thieves. Then, to my horror, the announcement: next up was "Kangaroo Jack". My body was dead. I couldn't move. It was either get up and grab the remote (a big No-No) or watch helplessly. I chose the latter.
Surprise! "Kangaroo Jack" is the most infernal of inventions, a true harbinger of the Apocalypse and a sign of the End of Days. Having watched it---twice, now---I am convinced that the Antichrist walks among us, not as some blabbering high-profile Prince or Politician, but as some anonymous Suit at Warner Brothers, giggling insanely as he greenlights tools of the Devil like "Kangaroo Jack". Or possibly the Antichrist is Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced this affront to humanity.
But everything said, like most infernal devices spat forth from the Hellpit, "Kangaroo Jack" works. It's inventive. Sparklingly shot with a high degree of aplomb. And look, it works because it conforms to the ancient writings of Aristotle, who in his essay On Comedy listed the four essential elements integral to classic comedic form. They are:
1) Midgets hitting each other with sticks;
2) Anything involving Chris Farley;
3) Big fat men with poor hygiene falling down;
4) A variation on #3: a big fat man with poor hygiene falling down PAIRED with a skinny, serious, "straight guy" who serves as foil to the big fat dude; both are menaced by a) gangsters; b) classic movie monsters; c) anthropomorphic animals;
Happily, "Kangaroo Jack", like a great Chinese dinner, serves up a little #3 and #4 (I can't remember if there was a midget in here. Maybe). Jerry O'Connell plays the straight guy Charlie Carbone, a hairdresser with mob relations who unwittingly leads the cops right to the Mob's local Manhattan warehouse. Bad move. Anthony Anderson plays his best buddy Louis, and plays the fat guy with bad hygiene to O'Connell's straight guy. Basically, Anderson is Costello. What works here is that the two have remarkably good comedic timing: they're funny. Yeah, O'Connell sometimes shoots past funny and into goofy, but Anderson's schtick is impeccable. That counts for a lot.
Mob Boss Sal (Walken) dispatches the two to Australia, to deliver a package (which Louis opens, and which contains 50 grand)to a mysterious Aussie known only as "Mr. Smith" (Marton Csokas, who thinks he's in "The Limey". He's not). Naturally they're doomed. The two hire a landrover, go bouncing over the sand, scream "Land Down Under" (Hades?) at the top of their lungs, and hit a kangaroo.
Now here's where the movie shows its hand as an agent of Hell: what do our two Disney heroes, in this "family" flick, do with the roadkill? They dress it up in Louis's lucky jacket and shades, and take pictures.
That's what I call blindsiding bored, naive parents and burrowing right into that slumbering pineal gland of pure evil every 7-year-old possesses. Guess what you do when you hit a cat, Little Johnny? Yeah, you play dress-up and have a tea party! Brilliant.
Fatality! The Kangaroo, christened "Jackie Legs", isn't totally dead; he gets up, opens up a can of marsupial whup-a** on O'Connell, and takes off into the Outback---carrying the 50 grand in the envelope. The movie just gets more insane from there.
It's enjoyable stuff. It's funny. I laughed. I showed it to my dour, scowling, wicked former Marine drill instructor father, who laughs at absolutely nothing in this life---and he was sniggering. The kangaroo is absolutely adorable when it isn't talking and rapping (and note: the kangaroo raps to O'Connell when he's hallucinating from starvation and thirst---much like the Devil did to St. Anthony in the wilderness. Hmmm). Estella Warren, who plays an American expatriate big into animal husbandry, is 13 stripes and 50 stars of hotness. Rowrrr.
Camera-work by Peter Menzies Junior is just as slick as it needs to be. The kangaroo is fun to watch: frankly, I could have sat back an enjoyed 90 minutes of the funky marsupial rodent galumphing across the Outback. Did I mention Warren is hot? Walken is in this movie---a kid's movie! Walken, who never appears on screen unless he's about to kill someone. Director David McNally has directed only one other movie: "Coyote Ugly". I rest my case.
A word of caution, though: while you simply *must* buy the full DVD (if only to enjoy the feature "Behind the Gas"---about synthetic camel flatulence), if you have young children you must absolutely ensure that they don't try to emulate the hideous child dancer going through the motions on "Jackie Leg's Dance Grooves". Warn them: this is not cool. This is the Devil's work. Showing off Jackie Leg's dance grooves at school will get them beaten and laughed at. Then again, perhaps this is Bruckheimer---and Satan's---will.
G'day, Mate.
JSG |
| Rating | | | Date | May 13, 2005 | | Summary | Just a few quick questions... | Content
| Okay, I don't have a lot of time here, please help quick, this is urgent. I'm about to leave for the video store and need to know a couple of things before I go out and rent this: Okay, here it goes:
First off, is this a real kangaroo appearing in the movie, or a puppet? And what kind is it (tree-kangaroo, red-kangaroo, etc.)?
Most importantly, do you actually get to see the kangaroo get punched? I know they are known for their boxing skills, and I need to know if we get to see someone lay into the kangaroo or not. If not then I'm not so sure I want to get it. If it DOES, then where does the guy punch him (face, chest, groin, neck, etc,)? And please tell me what kind of punch, please (hay-maker, straight-punch, round-house, upper-cut, etc.) and also if it is full-force or looks fake. And if so, also, what happens to it (knocked-out cold, injured, un-phased, etc.)?
Third, I heard the kangaroo raps in the movie. Now I need to know if it is any good or not (amazing, just-ok, terrible, etc.). And also, what rap-band does he sound like (2-pac, Ice-Cube, Baha-Men, etc.)?
In conclusion, if this movie is how I imagine it, then it will be sooooo good. You always see kangaroos with boxing gloves punching things, but you never get to see one get a taste of it's own medicine. And no, this is NOT a joke. Come on guys! Hurry up and let me know! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Later.
howardtuttleman.com
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| Rating | | | Date | April 14, 2005 | | Summary | Its good | Content
| I thought that this movie was good. Not the best but okay. This shoudn't have been a PG movie. Unless they cut out some of the parts. But still i wouldn't buy it, but mabey rent it sometimes. |
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