By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Parents, beware.

Jerry Bruckheimer, master of the schlock blockbuster ("Con Air," "Gone in Sixty Seconds"), has decided there's money to be made in the kids-film market. Hence "Kangaroo Jack," a movie that encapsulates all that is vulgar, stupid and repellent about the Hollywood mind-set. But it does have nice scenery and cute kangaroos.

Remember the bad parts of last summer's "Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course?" The parts where Steve isn't doing his TV show and, instead, is being chased all over the Outback by the bad guys? Well, that's pretty much "Kangaroo Jack."

Charlie (Jerry O'Connell) and Louis (Anthony Anderson) are longtime best pals. Charlie's been set up in a hair salon by his godfather stepfather, Sal (Christopher Walken, getting some pocket change), the mob boss who's married to Charlie's mom (Dyan Cannon, whose photo on Sal's desk has more screen time than she does). Louis, however, is always getting into trouble, and this time he's run afoul of Sal's operation.

The boys are given one last chance: deliver 50 grand to a mystery man in Australia. No sooner do they get into their jeep than they run over a kangaroo. Thinking it's dead, they have a jolly time putting Louis' lucky jacket on the corpse and posing with it. Only, the animal is not dead and hops off with Louis' jacket • and the money. They've got to tie that kangaroo down ... or else.

The young kids at last weekend's preview were happy with the scatological humor (camel flatulence and the like) and they enjoyed the CGI kangaroo, which breaks into "Rapper's Delight" in a fantasy sequence along the lines of the cocktail-hour huskies in last year's "Snow Dogs."

But they got awfully quiet when Charlie walks up to a gorgeous American (Estella Warren) who works at a wildlife preserve and grabs her breasts, thinking she's a mirage. They were even quieter during a wet-T-shirt-under-the-waterfall bit that looks like part of a photo spread for Playboy's Miss January.

This is the sort of movie that makes you wonder if the right-wing zealots who blame Hollywood for everything might have a point. Without the salacious stuff, "Kangaroo Jack" would be an essentially harmless kiddie B-movie. But apparently, that's too square for the happening folks around the swimming pool. As a result, this kangaroo comedy isn't worth jack.