WITHOUT A PADDLE (2004) 2 stars out of 4. Starring Seth Green, Matthew Lillard,
Dax Shepard, Ethan Suplee, Abraham Benrubi, Rachel Blanchard and Burt Reynolds.
Story by Fred Wolf and Harris Goldberg & Tom Nursall. Screenplay by Jay Leggett &
Mitch Rouse. Directed by Steven Brill. Rated PG-13.
Without a Paddle is one of those coming-of-age stories about a trio of 30 year olds,
childhood friends, reunited by the untimely death of the fourth member of their
group.
The three are generic characters with stock problems: Dan (Seth Green), the
doctor, is afraid of everything from Saran Wrap to germs; Jerry (Matthew Lillard)
hates responsibility at work and in his personal life; and Tom (Dax Shepard) just
refuses to grow up.
To honor their late friend, the three decide to live out their collective boyhood
dream and take a river canoe trip in Oregon to hunt for the lost treasure of D.B.
Cooper. That was the obsession of their friend, Billy, who drew a map that
supposedly leads to the loot Cooper stole.
(And if you want to know who D.B. Cooper is, look him up on the Internet under
famous crimes.)
Being a movie - and a comedy to boot - nothing goes right for our city slickers,
who are menaced by a bear, hunted by an ugly pair of marijuana growers (the
wonderful Ethan Suplee and ER semi-regular Abraham Benrubi) and basically
mistreated by the river and Mother Nature.
It all seems very juvenile, yet the movie works because of the camaraderie of the
co-starring trio. You feel as if they really have known each other since childhood.
Being aimed at a younger audience, the comedy is mostly a low-brow combination of
violence, slapstick and humiliation.
At times the film does feel as if too many fingers were on the keyboard, especially
since the story is credited to three writers - Harris Goldberg, Tom Nursall and Fred
Wolf - while the screen play is credited to two others, Mitch Rouse & Jay Leggett.
That's perhaps why the characters at time seem to do nothing but stumble from
one situation into another with no respite.
Helping raise the bar a bit is Burt Reynolds as Del, Cooper's associate who has been
living in the backwoods for more than 30 years awaiting his accomplice.
Director Steven Brill fails to sustain a steady comedic pace; the movie lurches
rather than flows from scene to scene.
Actually the supporting players, especially Suplee and Benrubi, nearly steal the film
from its trio of erstwhile leads who, once their characters are set, really don't
deviate far from what is expected of them.
Without a Paddle is unsophisticated, knockabout comedy. It doesn't answer any big
questions. It just provides enough laughs to squeak you through it.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be
reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bob@bloomink.com.
Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site:
www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site:
www.rottentomatoes.com or at the Internet Movie Database Web site:
www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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