Without a Paddle Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)August 21st, 2004
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You should get up and run if you see Without a Paddle coming your way. Continuing to prove he's as inconsequential as a shortstop making actual physical contact with second base while he's turning a double-play, director Steven Brill (Mr. Deeds) again flounders without a Sandler-like talent in front of his camera. The film is about three D.B. Cooper-obsessed Gen Xers who, upon the death of a friend, decide to have themselves a little adventure on and around the Spirit River in Oregon. Dan (Seth Green), Jerry (Matthew Lillard) and Tom (Dax Shepard) were childhood best friend who have each taken different paths in terms of career (doctor, corporate whore, sextician) and sociological quirks (uptight, compulsive liar, commitment-phobic). But like my old Aunt Asshole used to say, there's nothing like a canoe trip to rekindle a friendship.
Before long, our triptych of heroes are having all sorts of trouble with the dreaded Three Ns of Whitewater Rafting Trips (nature, navigation, and Ned Beatty fuckers), proving that people who take these kinds of vacations also deserve to be shark snacks. Paddle can't decide whether it wants to be a slapstick-y, gross-out comedy, or a heartfelt Stand By Me-meets-Deliverance drama. And it ends up being neither. Still, you have to give mad props to a company (Viacom) that uses its television network (CBS) to force the contestants of its big reality show (Big Brother) to watch their smelly August release and praise it like feet don't fail me now. That would be like a concentration camp agreeing, as a whole, that the moldy bread is deliciously fantastic (as opposed to, like, no bread).
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
