By Geno McGahee
A family movie about a kangaroo in a red hoodie sounded too good to be true. OK, I couldn’t find anything to watch on Netflix, so I just randomly picked KANGAROO JACK, a 2003 film that proved to be a lot better and funnier than I anticipated.
Charlie (Jerry O’Connell) is the stepson of mobster, Salvatore Maggio (Christopher Walken), and is living a very uneventful life as a hairdresser. His friend, Louis (Anthony Anderson) is always getting him into trouble with his money-making schemes, and it hits home when he drives a truck full of stolen TVs and leads the police to Maggio’s warehouse, getting some of his goons arrested.
To make it up to the mob boss, Charlie and Louis must become bagmen and drop of 50 grand to a contact in Australia. Things go wrong when they arrive and strike a kangaroo with their jeep. Thinking that it was dead, Louis puts his lucky jacket on it and takes some pictures, but it comes to life and takes off and the 50 grand is in the pocket. The chase is now on.
The duo goes through some crazy moments before meeting Jessie (Estella Warren), an expert in wildlife and they convince her to help them recover the jacket and money. Estella Warren is one of the hottest chicks ever to walk the earth and was perfect for this role. Sadly, she was not enough to save PLANET OF THE APES…but nothing could. With apes, she can only do so much, but with a kangaroo, she was awesome.
On the trail of the trio are mobsters and the goon that is awaiting the fifty grand. It leads to a big showdown and more funny moments, thanks mostly to the delivery by Anthony Anderson. He was very funny throughout and O’Connell did a great job as well in this department. He was the straight man in this, but he had his fair share of goofy moments.
I really liked KANGAROO JACK, but it nearly lost a point when they had the kangaroo do an Austin Powers impression. I know it was the hot thing around this time, but that time has passed and Michael Myers sucks. I got over it and if I watch it again, I will just shut it off before it gets to that point.
KANGAROO JACK is a family-friendly comedy that is funny. It’s over the top and the humor is your DUMB & DUMBER style humor, but it works, and if you want to see Estella Warren in a white tank top, you can see her here. Like you don’t have a celebrity crush? Grow up for judging me.
Rating: 7.5/10
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