January 17, 2003
Comedy/Adventure
PG
United States
Director: David McNally
“You better run, you better take cover.”
This story starts out in Brooklyn, New York when Charlie Carbone (Robert Reid) and Louis Booker (Shawn H. Smith) were only ten years old. In the movie, Charlie states that three major things happened that day on the beach. First, his mother, Anna (Dyan Cannon) met Salvatore “Sal” Maggio (Christopher Walken), who is a mob boss and would later become Charlie’s step-father. Second was that Charlie and Louis met for the first time. Finally, Frankie Lombardo (Brian Casey) threw a football into the ocean. Charlie went to get it, ignoring the fact that he couldn’t swim. Louis noticed Charlie was drowning and saved him, and that’s where the friendship started.
Twenty years later, Charlie (Jerry O’Connell) is a hair dresser and Louis (Anthony Anderson) is a guy who’s always looking to make a quick buck. He talks Charlie into helping him move some TV’s. And by “talks into”, I mean Louis guilt-trips him by bringing up the day he saved Charlie’s life – as he did whenever he wanted Charlie to help him with something that Charlie didn’t want to do.
Little do either of them know that the truck they’re moving the TV’s in is stolen, and this leads to a large police chase where the end result is Louis and Charlie unknowingly leading the cops to one of Sal’s warehouses where $4.5 million worth of goods are hidden. As one might imagine, this upsets Sal, but he gives the friends a job to redeem themselves. He calls in Frankie (Michael Shannon), who tells Louis and Charlie that they have to go to Australia and deliver a package to Mr. Smith (Marton Csokas). They agree, feeling rather lucky that Sal didn’t kill them, and head for the glorious Outback.
Everything is going well until, while driving their rented Jeep, Charlie hits a kangaroo. Thinking the kangaroo (who is affectionately dubbed Jackie Legs) is dead, Louis decides to put sunglasses and his lucky jacket on it so they can take pictures. While this is happening, the kangaroo wakes up and takes off.
Charlie, who is relieved he doesn’t have to see the red jacket anymore (because, honestly, he felt the jacket was the worst good luck charm ever), can’t stop laughing. Meanwhile, Louis begins crying and explains to Charlie that the jacket has Mr. Smith’s package in it; a package that holds $50,000. Panicked, they chase after the kangaroo, but crash the Jeep and have to figure out a new way to get the money back.
And that’s pretty much how the rest of the movie goes. Louis and Charlie spend their time trying to chase down Jackie Legs (Adam Garcia) and their adventure is filled with the craziest plot-twists. Like hiring a pilot named Blue (Bill Hunter) and causing him to crash his plane, and seeking help from Jessie (Estella Warren) who knows the wildlife of Australia like the back of her hand. Jessie refuses at first, but then Charlie offers her $2,000 to help with her mission of repopulating the Outback with bilbies and she agrees.
Sal gets a call from Mr. Smith, informing him that Louis and Charlie never showed up with the money, so Sal sends Frankie to Australia to fix the situation. Frankie hires the guide Mr. Jimmy (David Ngoombujarra) to help him, and when Frankie finds out where Charlie and Louis are going to be, he gets rid of Jimmy and goes after the two himself.
Mr. Smith and his goons are ready to kill Charlie, Louis, and Jessie when Frankie shows up. He informs Mr. Smith (complete with a smack in the face from the butt of a rifle) that the contract he had with Sal is terminated and sets off to kill Charlie and Louis, telling them that Sal was very disappointed that they lost the money.
They spot Jackie and ride after him on their camels with Frankie hot on their heels in his Jeep. Frankie flips over the Jeep and Louis manages to catch up to Jackie enough to snatch the package out of the pocket, but doesn’t see the cliff that’s right in front of him. The camel comes to an abrupt stop, sending Louis over it’s head and down the cliff, where he’s holding onto a tree root. Charlie is able to latch some belts to his arm and pulls Charlie back up.
Frankie catches up to them and reveals that Sal wasn’t disappointed that the money was lost; Sal was disappointed because Charlie and Louis weren’t dead. Sal had sent them to Australia to pay Mr. Smith for their own execution. Frankie is just about to finish the job when Mr. Jimmy, who is actually a cop, shows up in a helicopter. Frankie and Mr. Smith are both taken into custody and Jimmy tells Charlie that Mr. Smith was a notorious hitman, who he heard was familiar with the Maggio crime family, and when Frankie hired a guide, Jimmy was there waiting for him.
It all is going well until Charlie finds Louis standing at the edge of the cliff. Louis is convinced that Charlie won’t want him around anymore, saying that, “guilt was the glue holding this friendship together,” and that they were even now that Charlie saved Louis’ life. Charlie pretty much tells Louis that the idea is absurd and they share an “intimate, non-gay moment”.
Jackie comes back and Charlie is able to get the jacket off of him and returns it to Louis, and it all ends happily with Sal going to prison, Charlie and Louis using the $50,000 to start their own hair care line called Lily Berry Shampoo, and Charlie marrying Jessie.
This movie has to be one of the corniest films I’ve ever seen, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t also one of my favorites. It’s so fun and filled with humor, and you really have to love everything that Christopher Walken does. There are a few things that I have to mention, like the pretty obvious (but surprisingly well-done) CGI of Jackie Legs, and the rather ridiculous fact that kangaroos can only travel up to 35 mph, yet no one can catch up to Jackie on a camel or in a Jeep. But those are minor details. It does have some adult tones, but it’s a pretty good family movie that I think everyone will enjoy.
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