Film Reviews

Kangaroo Jack

• Rating:
• Director: David McNally.
• Starring: Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Estella Warren, Christopher Walken, Marton Csokas, Dyan Cannon, Michael Shannon.
• Details: US / 89 mins / (G)

When a movie's claim to fame is that it was written by Steve 'What Baby?' Bing, it's a pretty safe bet that the picture in question isn't going to be troubling the Academy's voters any time soon. And so it is with Kangaroo Jack, a comedy so insipid that you actually feel a little sorry for those associated with it. The 'plot' (and that's being kind) follows two morons Charlie (O'Connell) and Louis (Anderson) who have to deliver an envelope full of cash to a mystery man in the Australian Outback. The reason they were sent on this mission in the first place was to appease Charlie's stepfather (Walken, the only vaguely interesting thing about the movie) as they accidentally led the cops to his New York lock up. The two find themselves in even more trouble when a kangaroo (hence the title) absconds with the moolah. How bad can a film be? In future years it is entirely likely that Kangaroo Jack will be something of a barometer when it comes to pure banality. Bankrolled by Jerry Bruckheimer (who should have more sense), the film is a monument to idiocy, lacking anything that could be mistaken for entertainment and offers little to pacify the most undemanding of children.

Review by Garreth Murphy