Without a Paddle

This PG 13 comedy has been greatly maligned by some big time critics, the New York Times and other's. I think the main irritation is the homosexual eroticism, a joke if you will about Deliverance style banjo boys and close quarter survival in the nude. Some may be offended, sensitive gay's, little old Grandmothers, and redneck tobacco sputters. I assure you; however, this is a funny movie. City Slickers 1 and 2 covered this ground once before, but frankly, I liked Without a Paddle more. It's sentimental for all the right reasons. The boys truly love each other and when they become twenty something's, they retain some of their boyish quirks, each with a flaw, the short, picked-on boy grows up to be the short picked on doctor. You get the idea.

The Cascade Mountains both real and simulated is a beautiful green backdrop to the slapstick antics of angry bears and pot growing dummies. The tree girls are a breakdown and laugh idea. Their defense of a tree is brown bag humor, but gee, that hits a visceral laugh note in even the stuffiest fool.

Okay folks, now, I am not the type of guy that enjoys toilet humour in films, but this one I am a sucker for. This is just a hilarious movie! I guess it just reminds me a lot of the times that friends and I used to go camping.

The story is about 3 childhood friends, who are brought together after the untimely death of another childhood friend. Going back to the treehouse that they used to hang out at, they find a treasure map from their dead friend, and decide to go on the trip to find the money. Along the way, they encounter everything from a bear, tree-hugging hotties, and a couple of pot growing rednecks.

This film has some of the funniest scenes that I have seen in a long time. Again, a lot of it is toilet humour, and people looking for a serious comedy, may not get the humour and walk away in disgust. The scene with the paper bags had me rolling on the floor. One of the funniest scenes in a long time. Plus, there are a lot of Star Wars references in this film, and that is always a plus from me! Check out this film, you will be pleasantly surprised! I guess I have not lost all hope in newer comedies as previously thought.

Tom, Jerry (!), Billy and Dan are four young kids who fantasise about going on a treasure hunting adventure in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. A legendary rascal called D B Cooper has botched a million dollar heist and left the money in the mountains. The kids make a pact that some day, somehow, they will find that money. Years later, Billy is killed in an accident and the rest reunite for his funeral.

Tom (Dax Shepard) is now a sleaze, who cannot hold a steady job to save himself. Jerry (Matthew Lillard) is bored to death in a dull office and by a nagging girlfriend and Dan (Seth Green) has become a very wimpy doctor. Their childhood sense of curiosity and adventure has been extinguished. That is until they happen upon D B Cooper's treasure map in their old tree house gang hut.

Desperate for one last act of stupidity before acknowledging their thirties, the trio sets off on a rafting/camping trip, with D B's treasure as their ultimate goal. Of course, many obstacles and disasters prevent them from getting there so easily. Sounds like a grown-up Goonies? It is. And it's loads of fun.

Without A Paddle is funny and exciting, with non-stop action and set pieces. Great widescreen photography, pretty scenery and a particularly gentle score make for perfect escapism. There is not one second of boredom. Shepard, Green and Lillard (as always) are brilliant together. Chemistry is difficult to conjure up with three main characters, but they pull it off perfectly.

As an Indiana Jones-lite coming-of-age comedy, with the tiniest bit of character drama, Without A Paddle succeeds in every area. But not really a film you would want to watch again.

What sounds like your average, everyday sort of male bonding roadtrip film is essentially...well, just that, in fact. Three childhood friends (Seth Green, Matthew Lilard, Dax Sheppard) reunite at a friend's funeral, and go off on a camping trip downstream to try and find the lost treasure they always dreamed of finding in their youth in his honour. They promptly and predictably fall into all sorts of mishaps in the wild and really give a bad reputation to man's survival ethic.

This kind of comedy is always somewhat stifled when a life lesson is included: in the case of Without a paddle the message is 'Appreciate the life you have...you never know how long it will last'. Unfortunately, we go to a film like this to be entertained, not for morals, and its inclusion merely deters from the fun.

The three leads are what make the film decently funny: Seth Green is excellent as he begrudgingly reveals his various phobias from everything from the dark to ceran wrap. ('I'm afraid it might get stuck over my head, it's very sticky) Matthew Lilard puts his wide range of comic facial expressions to good use, and Dax Shepard is always a source of laughs as the tough-guy slacker of the group.

The comedic material is mostly original stuff, but there's nothing outstanding to be seen, apart from a few memorable moments. (one finds Dax Shepard riding his motorcycle into the graveyard at the burial of his friend, and bellowing out to the funeral attendees 'Where did you guys park?') The inclusion of Burt Reynolds' crazy mountain man is a comedic plus, but the nature loving hippy-girls and uncouth drug traffickers which pop up periodically aren't as funny as they should be. In fact, such can be said for the entire movie.

The odd laugh will definitely turn up, but there are many better comedies around, so unless you're simply up for an evening of mostly forgettable fun, you might want to leave Without a Paddle wallowing in the shallows.

6.5/10

"Where are we?", Seth Green asks, clueless, as the guys are standing in a street in a nondescript little Oregon village. "Corner of Bumfuck and You Got a Purty Mouth", Matthew Lillard snarls in way of answer.

Now, you need to know and appreciate John Boorman's thriller classic 'Deliverance' in order to get the full implications of this scene and countless others in 'Without a Paddle'. The film can be enjoyed by all & sundry, but those in the know will be rolling with laughter more often.

'Without a Paddle' establishes itself in a niche of its own among goofy modern comedies. It is really well written, not just the one-liners, but also the situations as such and the exposition and development of material. The actors all shine, especially young Dax Shepard as the loser type of the three buddies in their late 20s that go camping and looking for a buried treasure in a canoe up Spirit River. There they meet up with wild man Burt Reynolds, who was acclaimed for his performance in the original 'Deliverance', actually the character that Shepard inherited in this 'remake'.

There are no actual thrills in 'Without a Paddle' (unlike 'Deliverance'!!!), it sets its sight on glorious comedy. The huge surprise is that the gags are relatively 'tasteful', for want of a better word. It is not ALL about tits, dicks and feces.

Recommended. Absolutely.