Publication Date: 10-31-2025

Kangaroo Jack (2003) review

Dir. David McNally

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

I can see it now. In the future, I will give a critically acclaimed or widely regarded film a negative review, which will then prompt a reader to contact me to let me know that my opinion shouldn’t be trusted, let alone worthy of a platform, because I gave Kangaroo Jack a positive review.

If you weren’t born in the 1990s or early 2000s, I can totally see why you don’t enjoy Kangaroo Jack. Moreover, if you were indeed born during that period of time and still don’t like this movie, I still can’t hold much against you. To this day, I can’t remember when I first watched this movie, let alone how I acquired the (full screen) DVD that I still have on my shelf. I do recall it airing prolifically on Cartoon Network in the mid-to-late aughts. I also recall a trip to Enchanted Castle in Lombard, IL as a kid where, instead of playing arcade games, I sat with my father in the restaurant portion of the amusement center to watch the film as it played on an overhead TV. “You can watch TV like a hermit at home, Steven,” my father told me while enjoying a pitcher of beer all by himself. It was 11am on a Monday.

Originally conceived as an R-rated action-comedy in the vein of Midnight Run, brimful of coarse language, sex, and nudity, the poor test screenings resulted in producer Jerry Bruckheimer and company radically reworking the movie to revolve around the kangaroo featured in one of the scenes. After all, Snow Dogs had just made over $100 million in 2002, so clearly the formula was replicable. This black mafia comedy called “Down and Under” eventually became about a talking, rapping CGI kangaroo (as opposed to the animatronic one that was originally used).

The film drew the ire not only from critics, but parents as well, as Kangaroo Jack‘s trailer sold people on the basis that this was a slapstick-laden animal comedy, when in reality, a lot of dark mob elements and rather inappropriate innuendos are still ubiquitous. There’s a scene where Jerry O’Connell grabs Estella Warren’s breasts. Anthony Anderson talks about how Taiwanese Little League players used to call him “Sun Luc Dong.” And, not to mention, the movie is about two guys stupid enough to fly across the world in order to pay for their own hit.

Even with nostalgia-colored glasses on my face, I still think Kangaroo Jack is a ton of fun. Like a lot of guilty pleasures, or films so absurd enough to click, this one has aspects working in its favor, specifically in the realm of cast camaraderie and general goofiness. O’Connell and Anderson make a delightful pair, and even in something as mindless as this, you can see the promise of a young Michael Shannon, who looks like he’s taking this role as seriously as he would his parts in later masterpieces such as Revolutionary Road and 99 Homes.

The story follows childhood friends Charlie (O’Connell) and Louis (Anderson), who are tasked with taking an envelope filled with $50,000 to a shady Australian figure (Marton Csokas) in the middle of the Outback. While driving through the countryside, the two strike a kangaroo with their Jeep. An absent-minded attempt for a photo-op results in the kangaroo regaining consciousness and hopping away with Louis’ jacket, which contains the money. The money was given to Charlie and Louis by Charlie’s stepfather, Sal Maggio (Christopher Walken), whose name already tells you he’s a mobster. Sal has given Charlie the money to open his hair salon, but he also skims 80% of the profits off the top in order to keep him firmly attached to the tit of the family business. When word gets back to Sal that the two morons he trusted with the money could screw up a cup of coffee, Charlie’s stepbrother, Frankie (Michael Shannon), is sent down to the Outback, a place he “detests like a sickness,” in of the film’s many memorable lines.

Also involved in these exploits is Estella Warren’s Jessie, a member of the Outback Wildlife Foundation who lends Charlie and Louis a hand upon learning of their kangaroo problems. It’s abundantly clear that Warren — a former fashion model — was added to the cast for sex appeal alone, as her character is as thin as they come. She could’ve been like Finn Carter’s Rhonda in Tremors if the screenplay (written by Steve Bing and Scott Rosenberg) gave her a shred of a personality that didn’t solely involve her wearing attractive outfits.

The speed at which McNally’s film moves is a big plus too. Sure, part of that comes from the fact that so much of the film was conceived in post — just ask Raja Gosnell, director of Scooby-Doo (2002) what that’s like — but it also adds energy, further boosted by the chemistry between O’Connell and Anderson. There are a flurry of chase sequences in the film, either by way of delivery van, biplane, or Jeep, all of which kinetic and bolstered by the actors’ personalities, namely Anderson, who made a name for himself in the early 2000s doing this loud, roly-poly brand of comedy effectively.

Even as a kid, I found the titular marsupial to be one of the weaker parts of the film. Jackie Legs (voiced by Adam Garcia), as he’s known, only appears in a handful of scenes, and only speaks in two distinct sequences: one, when Charlie is hallucinating, the other right before the end credits in a move clearly made as an add-on to give audiences what they anticipated they were going to see more frequently. Seeing a kangaroo sing “Rapper’s Delight” didn’t trip my trigger as a child, and ironically, probably would’ve made the film less appealing to me if more jokes of that ilk were made.

Something has kept me coming back to revisit Kangaroo Jack every few years. Beyond the obvious connection to my childhood, I also believe it’s the fact that no movie feels this anarchic, both in premise and in conception. These days, a movie is more likely to get scrapped and deleted, or quietly expelled to a streaming service than to get radically reworked into something it isn’t. Further proof this was a one-off that somehow find a way to make many in my generation smile was the fact that the following year, a direct-to-video sequel called Kangaroo Jack: G’Day U.S.A.! was released. It was animated, squeaky clean, and was obviously written with children in mind. I watched it once on Cartoon Network and have barely thought about it since, as I assume many in my age-group did. We recall the original, warts and all.

Starring: Jerry O’Connell, Anthony Anderson, Estella Warren, Christopher Walken, Michael Shannon, Marton Csokas, and Dyan Cannon. Voiced by: Adam Garcia. Directed by: David McNally.