A Direct to Video movie starring the Olsen Twins that was released on November 21st of 2000 (when the twins were 14) and was filmed in both the United States and Australia (specifically the city of Sydney).
The movie starts off with talking about the FBI's Witness Protection Program—how it works and what it does to protect the people who're enrolled in the program, including their most interesting case, concerning the Parker-family, particularly Mr. and Mrs. Parker's twin daughters (played by Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen). The twins are 14 and have just started their freshman year of high school and hope to become popular—unfortunately, their first day doesn't go to well: they tried out for their school's cheerleading squad and messed up the pyramid, seriously injuring their school's head cheerleader.
After their disastrous first day of school, the twins witness a jewel heist from a museum in their hometown and testify against the criminal who did it in court—after which, the criminal's uncle (a powerful crime boss) swears revenge on the Parker-family. After that, the Parkers are placed in the FBI's Witness Protection Program—unfortunately for the FBI, the twins are (self-admittedly) blabbermouths, and they keep blowing their family's cover. After being placed in (quite literally) every other part of the world, the Parkers are ultimately placed in Sydney, Australia, with the explicit warning that if the twins screw up this time, their family will be pulled from the program...permanently.
After being placed in Australia, the rest of the movie is mostly about the Parkers (using the cover name "the Turlys") adjusting to Australian culture and the girls (using the cover names "Abby" and "Maddie") doing whatever they can to not blow their cover. The girls end up doing a pretty good job of finally keeping their mouths shut about their family being in the Witness Protection Program and they do manage to make new friends and (as per the standard of DTV-movies starring the Olsen Twins) each of the twins finds a boyfriend.
This film contains examples of:
- Anything but That!: Part of the Failure Montage of the Parkers' relocations has the FBI assigning the family to an Amish community. The twins take all of five seconds to look around, then nodding at each other, and starting to yell to a nearby group of tourists that they are in Witness Protection.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the beginning of the movie, when the twins' parents are getting ready for the day, Mrs. Parker tells her husband how she gets worried about him when he's at work—their conversation initially makes you think that Mr. Parker works as police officer or a firefighter (or at least something along those lines). But when he leaves for work, it turns out the twins' dad works as a mailman and that his main "danger" on the job is having to deal with aggressive dogs.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: As mentioned above, the twins admit to being blabbermouths—it's not until they and their parents are moved to Sydney, Australia and are given the explicit warning that if the twins screw up this time, the FBI's WPP will wash their hands of them and let them suffer whatever comes (up to and including being killed by the criminals that they're hiding from) that the twins finally keep their mouths shut.
- Didn't Think This Through: The twins decide their best bet at luring out Hatchew is by deliberately blabbing about their protected status in the Witness Protection Program, fully expecting them to intervene as they had in all their previous failures to keep quiet. Unfortunately for them, the FBI has gotten so fed up with them that they straight up refuse to show, leaving the girls to fend for themselves when Hatchew confronts them. One of the twins even acknowledges that this was a stupid idea when the agents don't turn up.
- Failure Montage: The FBI's constant relocating of the Parkers (and all because the twins just can't keep their mouths shut about their family being in the Witness Protection Program) is presented as this.
- I Choose to Stay: After the criminals are defeated and taken into custody, the Parkers are given the chance to go back home to America and resume their old lives. But, having gotten used to their lives in Australia, the Parkers ultimately decide that (for now at least) they'd rather stay in Sydney (and reveal their true identities to their Australian-friends).
- Identically Named Group: After the Parkers are placed in Australia and the twins are enrolled at a local school, the first person to befriend them is a girl who goes by "Sheila." She introduces the twins to her group of friends, all of whom are girls who also go by "Sheila."
- Land Down Under: Some of Australian stereotypes in the film include a kangaroo, a bunch of girls named "Sheilanote ," and everyone in Australia being into sports like surfing. However, there are some subversions, such as when the twins arrive at their new school and are dressed more like they're going on an African safari and get gawked at by their new schoolmates.
- No Name Given: We never learn the real names of the Parker twins when they lived in the USA. When the FBI send them to Australia, they are given the aliases Maddie Turly and Abby Turly, but a Running Gag is that the twins keep forgetting the names Abby and Maddie because they are not their real names.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the girls deliberately give away their identities in Australia, the head agent has reached the end of his rope and angrily quits his job, even flushing his pager down the toilet when their name rings up for the final time.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: After the criminals are finally defeated, they're arrested by Katie (the lifeguard/head of water sports at the Parker-family's bed-and-breakfast in Australia), who's revealed to be an undercover FBI-agent.
- Witless Protection Program:
- By the time Parkers are placed in Sydney, Australia, the FBI has gotten so fed up with constantly having to relocate them (and all because the twins just can't keep their mouths shut) that they've decided "screw this!" and give them the explicit warning that if Abby and Maddie screw up this time, the WPP will just wash their hands of them and let them suffer whatever comes (up to and including being killed by the criminals that the family is hiding from).
- The criminals do eventually find Abby and Maddie, but not (entirely) because of the twins habit of being blabbermouths—in fact, after being placed in Australia, the twins actually do a pretty good job of keeping their WPP-status a secret (until the above Didn't Think This Through). The main reason that the criminals manage to find the Parkers in Australia is because they had broken into the FBI-office, which contained files on the Parkers' current location.
