Crackerjack is a 2002 Australian comedy film starring Mick Molloy, Bill Hunter, Frank Wilson, Monica Maughan, Samuel Johnson, Lois Ramsay, Bob Hornery, Judith Lucy, John Clarke and Denis Moore.
Jack Simpson is a young man who works in a dead end office job in the inner city and has scammed his way into getting cheap car parking in the city - close to his office - by joining the local lawn bowl club, Cityside. When the club runs short of players, Jack gets corralled into playing for the club to raise money, or lose his car park. Jack becomes embroiled in the politics of the club and a struggle against a business man who wants to take over the club.
Tropes:
- Bothering by the Book: After being expelled from the club, Jack returns and gleefully points out that under Rule #17, he can't be expelled until the next meeting of the committee, which isn't for another month.
- Bribe Backfire: Bernie Fowler tries to bribe Jack into throwing the bowls tournament. Jack agrees to meet him in the car park, but then tips off Nancy so she can take photographs of the meeting. This proves Bernie was in violation of the restraining order saying he could not be within 500 metres of the Cityside Bowls Club, and that act renders him illegible to hold a gaming licence.
- Brick Joke: Early in the movie, the committee is going through the membership list; looking for people to fill out the team. One of the names read out is Albert Jackson, which the members don't immediately recognise, causing one them to comment that they think he's dead. Much later, when Dave tells Jack he is planning on joining the club, Jack tells him he is already a member, as Jack had used his name as part of his scam to score extra parking spots. When Dave asks him why no one at the club had mentioned this to him, Jack says its because he took it out under Dave's real name: Albert David Jackson.
- Decade-Themed Party:"How about we have a fancy dress party, and we all come dressed like our favourite decade?"
"We tried that before, and everyone dressed like the Fifties." - The Cameo:
- Tony Martin, Mick Molloy's partner on the Martin/Molloy radio show, plays the announcer at the finals of the bowls tournament.
- Pete Smith, veteran TV announcer (most notably for the Aussie Sale of the Century) and the announcer on Martin/Molloy, appears as the pedestrian who tells Jack to "Fuck off!" when he tries to sell him a raffle ticket.
- Down to the Last Play: Stan wins the bowls tournament with the last bowl of the match. However, because he collapsed after bowling it and was unconscious before the bowl came to rest, Bernie Fowler has it declared invalid. The officials decide to allow the next bowler in sequence to make the shot, and that happens to be Jack, who decides to bowl his infamous 'flipper'...
- Embarrassing First Name: When Dave tells Jack he is planning on joining the club, Jack tells him he is already a member, as Jack had used his name as part of his scam to score extra parking spots. When Dave asks him why no one at the club had mentioned this to him, Jack says its because he took it out under Dave's real name: Albert David Jackson.
- Forbidden Chekhov's Gun: Early in the film, Jack tries a "flipper" - in short, a cricket thing transposed to lawn bowls - with disastrous results. He's angrily told never to pull that crap again, but when he has to pull off an almost impossible shot in order to win the championship, he's explicitly instructed to do it.
- Intoxication Ensues: Gwen makes some pumpkin and herb scones using some herbs she finds in the club's fridge. the 'herbs' are actually hydroponic marijuana the greenskeeper has been secretly growing and storing at the club. After she wins the baking contest, most of the club members sample the scones and get ferociously stoned.
- Masquerade Ball: Bernie Fowler takes advantage of Cityside Bowls Club holding a fundraising costume party to defy his restraining order and sneak in dressed in an Elvis Presley costume.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever it was that led to Stan getting his (presumably) Embarrassing Tattoo in Manila.
- One-Word Title
- Orphaned Punchline: Jack walks back into his flat to hear Stan finishing an anecdote to Nance and Dave:...And that's why I'll never get another tattoo in Manila.
- Playing Sick: On the phone, Jack tells Dave that he has told his boss he thinks he is developing a migraine as preparation for bunking off in the afternoon. Unfortunately, this happens to be the phone call his boss recorded for his weekly performance review.
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: Stan is usually the coolest of the old folks in the bowls club, but give him an excuse and he will go off on a long and boring lecture about the most famous game of bowls ever played: that played by Sir Francis Drake on Plymouth Hoe on the morning of his battle against the Spanish Armada and how, on being warned of the approach of the Spanish fleet, Drake remarked that there was plenty of time to finish the game and still beat the Spaniards. At the end of Jack's voiceover during the credit's, Jack starts telling the same story.
- Running Gag: Everyone preferring The Fabulous Fifties.
- Save Our Team: Jack gets initially gets corralled into playing for the club to make up the numbers or lose his membership and thus his car park. Jack becomes embroiled in the politics of the club and a struggle against a businessman who wants to take over the club and fill it full of (more profitable) poker machines.
- Spinning Paper: Done with Nancy Brown's lawn bowls columns to show the progress of Cityside through the bowls tournament.
- The Swear Jar: The bowls club has one.Jack Simpson: Swear jar? What's that?
Gwen: It's a jar you put money in if you say 'fuck'. - Tempting Fate: Lampshaded when Stan says he hopes the next lawnkeeper doesn't get him arrested again (having been briefly blamed by police for the marijuana business). Jack then enters dressed as the lawnkeeper, causing Stan to say he's spoken too soon.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Ends with Jack giving a voiceover explaining what happened to the various characters after the events of the film.
- Wiper Start: Despite his assurances that he used to drive a school bus, Edgar's inexperience in driving the bus shows up when he somehow opens the bus doors while still in motion.
