Kangaroo Jack

A batty, bizarre hybrid of Crocodile Dundee and Crocodile Hunter with the general wit and sophistication level of an Eddie Murphy flick, Kangaroo Jack could probably have gotten away with its cheerfully inane brainlessness if it hadn’t been so utterly devoid of even faint traces of humour.

As the title hints, Kangaroo Jack stars a computer-generated marsupial alongside two unappealing nd unfunny second-rate comics (Anderson and O’Connell) whose woefully misbegotten Laurel and Hardy-styled double-act, inspired by a billion white guy/black guy buddy-movies since 48 Hours, provides the apparent centrepiece of the film’s lamentable narrative. White hair-stylist Charlie (O’Connell) and his rotund pal Louis (Anderson, uncle-Tomming it up ith gusto) fall foul of the former’s mafioso bos Salvatore (Christopher Walken) and are forced to deliver $50, 000 to a shady scuzzbag somewhere in Australia. Needless to say, cheerful Louis’ complete retardation ensures that a wild kangaroo runs off with the dosh, forcing the pair to give chase – to utterly tedious effect – for the film’s duration.

Said duration wisely pulls up short of the 90-minute mark, as if even the makers were aware on some level that every painful gag misses the mark hopelessly. This might be the start of Anderson and O’Connell’s decades of world domination. But then again, it might not.