MOVIE REVIEW FOR "WITHOUT A PADDLE" STARRING SETH GREEN, MATTHEW LILLARD, AND
DAX SHEPHARD

Director Stephen Brill has made two of the worst comedies ever conceived --
"Little Nicky", the only movie I have ever walked out on, and "Mr. Deeds", by
far the worst Adam Sandler movie ever made. However, he also holds a special
place in my heart for directing the fantastic "Heavyweights", also known as the
last good Disney non-animated feature film. "Without A Paddle" is his first
film in a while, and the trailer does its best to make it look totally moronic
and totally worthless. The only reason I went was because one of my friends
wanted me to accompany them and I had jack else to do on a Tuesday night. The
result was a flawed buddy comedy that turned out to not be nearly as wretched as
I previously imagined.

This is the story of four lifelong friends -- Dan (Seth Green), Jerry (Matthew
Lillard), Tommy (Dax Shephard), and Billy (Anthony Starr). After graduation,
Billy leaves his three friends behind and goes to explore the world. Ten years
later, we find that Dan is a doctor, Jerry is a businessman, Tommy is pretty
unemployed and broke, and Billy is, well...dead. So, the three friends travel
back to their hometown in Oregon to attend Billy's funeral. There, they
reconnect and rediscover an old box containing nostalgia and a treasure map that
they had always planned on using. The three decide to follow the map and find
the treasure, all for the memory of their deceased friend. Let the
"Deliverance" rip-offs begin. While on their journey they encounter everything
from a bear that is dumb enough to mistake a man for a cub, and two pot
smugglers who want nothing more than to shoot everything they see. Hell, we
even get to see Burt Reynolds as a grizzled old mountain man with !
an affection for J.J. Walker and "Good Times".

The primary problem with "Without A Paddle" is that everything just happens for
the hell of it -- nothing really follows a sequence of events and nothing seems
logical. The way in which the three friends find the treasure map and decide to
go after it happens way too fast and never really makes us believe they had a
logical reason to do it. As for the bear -- no grizzly would ever mistake a
human being for its cub -- that is too ignorant to fathom. There is also a very
unnecessary scene involving Seth Green having to eat the woodland creature that
the bear has brought for it...and we could all see the scene with someone having
to remove the cell phone from the bear poop coming from a mile away. I was
waiting for it. Everything is predictable and everything is too absurd to keep
us interested. We want to believe these things could happen to us.

Alas, despite the absurdity of the plot, there was something oddly charming
about this flick. From the opening song, to the constant Culture Club
references, I liked the eighties and childhood nostalgia associated with this
film, especially the beginning with the four friends dressed up like the
Ghostbusters. And, if "Old School" was a vehicle for Will Ferrell, then
"Without A Paddle" is certainly a vehicle for Dax Shephard, in one of the
funniest debuts I have seen in a while. In many ways, Shephard is like a
younger version of Will Ferrell -- they have the same kind of humor. And, the
underrated Ethan Suplee pops up as one of the pot smugglers, Elwood, who points
out, "It's weird...these are their footprints...with no feet inside of them".
He is a great actor and should be receiving much better roles.

Don't expect to leave "Without A Paddle" feeling immense satisfaction, but don't
expect to be totally disappointed either. If nothing else, you can say you
heard an Indian say, "Thank you for breaking that where my children play" -- it
is one of the funniest lines I have ever heard in any film. The three leads do
what they can with the material, and it was nice to see Matthew Lillard be able
to play something other than the total idiot for a change -- that's why Shephard
was there. "Without A Paddle" is not a terrible film, but it could have been
much better. You can wait until video and not miss anything, and maybe even get
some outtakes and gag reels with Shephard acting like a complete and total fool.
He is great at that...and I enjoy it.

Seth Green (Dan Mott)
Matthew Lillard (Jerry Conlaine)
Dax Shephard (Tom Marshall)
Anthony Starr (Billy Newwood)
Ethan Suplee (Elwood)
Abraham Benrubi (Dennis)
Burt Reynolds (Del Knox)
Rachel Blanchard (Flower)

Director: Stephen Brill

RATED PG-13

TWO AND A HALF POPS

Billy Ray