Synopsis
Charlie is a hairdresser with a mob boss for a step father; Booker is his best friend and a bumbling idiot. Together they find themselves in the outback of Australia after hitting a kangaroo and loosing $50K of mob money. They need to recover the money from the kangaroo or they are dead. They meet a cast of interesting characters along the way to catching the kangaroo (who they have dubbed Jacky Legs) and manage to get themselves in and out of all kinds of funny situations.
Vid…o
The video quality of this 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen release is average quality. The image contains noticeable edge enhancements and the darker sections at the beginning of the film lack shadow detail. Once we get to Australia we have a bright sharp image with lots of red that give the film a warm inviting look. We get too see sow amazing looking shots of Australia that really show the raw natural beauty of the country. The CGI work with Kangaroo Jack is very well done as well, very fluid movements and natural looking.
Audio
For audio we get a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track of again average quality. The rear surrounds are used for more then just the pumped up pop soundtrack and dialogue is easy to understand. It is just missing that open and airy feeling you get from a well done audio track like the swamp scenes from Adaptation. Bass is on the slight side of things outside of when it is used for the fart gag in this film. Also included are French and Spanish audio tracks with French, English and Spanish subtitles included.
Special Features
This is a kids film so we see a number of kid orientated extras. There are the funny animal actor auditions, a making of concerning the fart gag in this film called “Behind the Gas”, a gag and outtakes real as well as a featurette on the CGI behind Kangaroo Jack. Then we have a dance move instructional where the kids can learn Jackie’s cool Hip Hop dance moves and a commentary for some of the scenes with Kangaroo Jack himself, this was actually kind of fun and the kids will enjoy listening to it. There is also a standard commentary with Jerry O’Connell, Arthur Anderson, Estella Warren, director David McNally and visual effects supervisor Hoyt Yeatman, this was your average somewhat boring commentary with just too much going on to make sense of it half the time.
For DVD-ROM content we have 4 games. Aboriginal Jammer which allows you to make your own songs using four different aboriginal instruments. Kangaroo kickbox where you make Jackie jump and hit targets to see how many points you can get in two minutes. Next there is the Bola Fling you have to throw the Bola at four different targets to see again how many points you can amass in two minutes and lastly we have 5 different jigsaw puzzles to do.
To round things out we have a trailer for the film and cast and crew filmographies. The menus are animated and feature Jackie on-liners they are somewhat annoying to navigate as every time you go to a different item you have to wait for the animation to load and this makes navigation kind of cumbersome. Overall a pretty decent set of extras that the kids will have fun with.
Final Thoughts
I expected this film to be awful and instead found myself having fun and really enjoying it. The jokes are not original but they are well done and pretty funny. The story line is decent and moves quickly with some great looking shots of Australia. Overall this is a pretty decent disc and if you have kids you will enjoy watching it with them.
Special Features List
- Commentary by Kangeroo Jack himself
- Cast & Crew Audio Commentary
- Animal casting sessions
- Gags and outtakes
- Jackie Leg’s dance grooves
- Behind the gas
- Marsupial magic
- DVD-ROM games
Screenshots
