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Travis Willock reviews
(widescreen edition)
Warner Home Entertainment
- Cert: PG
- Cat.no: 27576
- Running time: 89 minutes
- Year: 2003
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 28
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, French, Spanish
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $29.98
- Extras:Outtakes, Dance Grooves, Behind the Gas, Marsupial Magic, Two AudioCommentaries, Theatrical Trailer, Cast & Crew.
Director:
- David McNally
Screenplay:
- Steve Bing and Scott Rosenberg
Cast:
- Charlie: Jerry O’Connell
Louis: Anthony Anderson
Jessie: Estella Warren
Frankie: Michael Shannon
Sal: Christopher Walken
Kids have it bad nowadays.Despite video games and the internet theyhave a piss poor selection of filmmed entertainment. When I was a kidfilms like Willy Wonka and the Chocalate Factory enthralled me, I musthave watched that VHS more than a hundred different times. And thenTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtleswhich I believe still holds the top spot of my films watched the most(Dawn of the Dead may rival that soon). The point to all this nostalgiais that kid films back then were simple but packed a whole lot of charm.Sure for every Problem Child flick you’ve got Bingo or Monkey Troublebut they were fresh and full of laughs.
Fast forward to the 21st Century and what do kids have to look forwardto when they go to the movies? Animated adventures of characters thatthey only cared about ten minutes ago (see the recent “success” orRugrats Go Wild orThe Powerpuff Girls Moviefor evidence on that) trapped in a myriad of flatulent jokes lost in a plethora of commercialism. The only good kids flick out thereright now is the Harry Potter series which I believe has that charm Iremember from the good ole days.
For every filmmaking innovation we have a film like this. A film thatstops dead in the tracks of innovation and blurts out ,“screw you guysI’m going to be a lazy bum and ponder to the lowest common denominatorin entertainment”. This is Kangaroo Jack and this is his failure.
At childhood, Louis (Anthony Anderson) saves Charlie (Jerry O’Connell)from drowning. The two become best friends and twenty years later Louisstill gets favors because of the incident that began it all. WhenCharlie and Louis are chased in a stolen truck with TVs that probablywere’t purchased at Best Buy they inadvertedly lead the “heat” to mobboss Sal’s (Christopher Walken) warehouse of hot goods, Charlie’s stepfather.
Dissappointed in Charile, Sal sends the two to deliver a package to afriend in Australlia. I’m having the time of my life telling you theboring plot to this ridiculous flick by the way. On the plane ride overthey discover that it contains $50,000. Upon landing in theland down under, they accidentally hit a kangaroo. But instead of reporting it or something, what do they do?They actually dress it up and take a picture with him… no kidding. Thekangaroo wakes up and hops off with Louis’ coat which contained saidpackage. Now the two will engage in boring and overly dumb stunts to getit back.
As if the film isn’t bad enough we get little scenes with the kangaroo(who doesn’t actually talk as the promos suggested) going through thejacket. Who the hell cares? It’s CGI too and since this is a kids flickit looks like shit (even more so than Scooby-Doo). Then halfway into theflick we get a scene of flatulent camels. Ok, fart jokes still humor meto some extent but this is too much. Again who the hell cares? Who thehell cares about this movie? How the hell did it even get a green light?Why the hell did I review this?
Real funny guys, let’s take a picture
of ourselves next to a dead kangaroo.
Ok, getting my head on straight. Let’s move to the video qualitydepartment. The bad films always get the best transfers. This is easilyone of the best I’ve seen. Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen thecolors just jump right off screen. Australia looks great with it’s richpalette and blue sky backdrops. A perfect transfer.
The audio also pleases as well (well the movie is still a pain in theass to listen to but the quality of the mastering is there). DolbyDigital 5.1 is the order of the day and you’ll notice a lot of activity.Most of the dialouge is on the center channel of course but the trackoccasionally makes use of the surround channels.
The special features on this disc remind me a lot of the waste of timethat Warner put into the extras for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’sStone. They’re made for kids and you can really tell. But I’m sure acouple of adults will watch it (for reasons better kept unknown in myopinion) so where’s a bone for them?
- Casting Sessions: Uncut: 1 minute cut of fictional Kangaroo auditions. Almost as funny as Bob Saget’srunning commentary on “America’s Funniest Home Videos”. That was some prettythick sarcasm.
- Behind the Gas: The search for the sounds of the camel flatulence.I’m not kidding this is a featurette about finding the right sound for a camelcutting the cheese. Guaranteed to make you lose one percent of yourintelligence upon viewing.
- Jackie Legs’ Dance Grooves: Anamorphic, teaches you to dance like Jackie Legs. Oh I can’t contain myexcitement, no wait I’ll just go play Dance Dance Revolution instead.
- Outtakes: Non-anamorphic. Suprisingly unfunny and bland. 3 minutes long.
- Marsupial Magic: Featurette on the rendering of Jackie Legs. 4 minutes and very simple.
- Audio Commentaries: One track featuring the cast and crew and a second screen-specific commentaryby Kangaroo Jack himself. This thing has Kraft Cheese smeered all over it.
- Misc. Theatrical Trailer: anamorphic, cast & crew
Nothing here at all for us more in depth film fans. The cast and crewcommentary is good… if you like the movie that is. And the KangarooJack commentary… I’ll pass.
Estella Warren – the only good aspect of this film…
Packaging is the dreaded Warner snapper case displaying a zoomed inphoto of the theatrical poster (that kangaroo’s planning something). Thefront menu is animated and each feature upon selection spawns anannoying clip of Jackie Legs. There are 28 chapters.
If this is any indication of the films kids have to look forward to thenI weap for the future. I remember when I was a kid in between viewingsof Homeward Bound I was watching Robocop and Ghostbusters. I’m sure theyget a healthy dose of The Matrix now and then but this oversaturratedcommercialized piece of garbage they call “family entertainment” needsto be retooled. This film is still a kids movie and if you have kidsthen give it a spin for them, they’ll get a kick out of it (no punintended). But for us more experienced filmgoers we have plenty to lookforward to films and things like this to skip entirely..
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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EmailTravis Willock
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.