Without a Paddle (Blu-ray)

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Note: In the following joint Blu-ray review both John and Hock offer their opinions on the film, with John also writing up the Video, Audio, Extras, and Parting Shots.

The Film According to John:
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast"
--Alexander Pope

Having never before seen the 2004 comedy "Without a Paddle," I decided to watch it solely on hope. Since the film was popular enough to engender a sequel a few years later (albeit a straight-to-video sequel), I figured it was about time to watch the original and hope for the best. I wish I hadn't. For a more positive reaction to the film, I direct you to Hock's review below. He appreciated the story's humor far more than I did. For me, the film was pretty much a waste of time.

This is one of those fish-out-of-water comedies, where three young city fellows take a trip through the deep woods on an expedition of self discovery and male bonding. Everything works out well for them but not for the viewer, who must endure their boring escapades for over an hour and a half. I kept looking and hoping for a laugh that never came.

Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, and Dax Shepard play three childhood buddies who get together to attend the funeral of a mutual friend. It's the first time they've seen one another since they graduated from high school ten years earlier. They all grew up in Oregon, and once they get back there they start reminiscing and thinking out loud about all the things they planned to do but never did. One of those things was going on an expedition into the Cascade Mountains in search of D.B. Cooper's lost treasure. (You remember Cooper, the guy who highjacked a jet airliner in 1971, received a $200,000 ransom, parachuted into the Oregon wilderness, and disappeared.) The boys have a map they believe will lead them to where Cooper landed, and they figure Cooper's loot might still be lying around somewhere. So, what the heck, they figure: It's now or never; go for it.

Never mind that none of them has any experience in wilderness survival and that they will be alone and helpless in the woods for quite a while. They rent a canoe and head off down the river.

You see anything funny so far? We're twenty minutes into the picture, and there isn't even a smiley moment. The fact is, the three guys are pretty much all losers: classless, clueless, and immature. Why the filmmakers would think anyone in the audience might be in the least interested in them or their exploits is beyond me. Then again director Steven Brill also made "Little Nicky," "Mr. Deeds," and "Drillbit Taylor," so his track record maybe answers the question.

Anyway, in their wilderness adventure the three buddies experience practically every clichéd situation you can think of. First off, the filmmakers depict Oregon as Bumpkin Central. Seems a little unfair to a state that is almost an extension of California, given the number of California expatriates living up there. The film even portrays the Oregon police as redneck yokels, a sheriff stopping the three fellows for no reason other than, I guess, he thinks they look like city slickers. Personally, I've never seen an Oregonian who looked or dressed any differently than a Californian, but apparently this sheriff can tell a troublemaker when he sees one. Or three.

So down the river they go. A growling deer elicited a smile; that was the only time I can remember the slightest change in my facial expression during the film. Naturally, we get a gag about the boys trying to light a campfire with flint and stone, and then we see them playing childish tricks on one another. And there's an encounter with a bear. Same thing. Nothing humorous. Everything is just sort of dumb, bland, and meaningless.

By the time they're deep into the woods, they come across the obligatory psycho hillbillies (think "Deliverance"), followed by their meeting two gorgeous, scantily clad hippie girls living in a tree house. It's all so ridiculous and yet so humdrum, it isn't even worthy of television.

At least the hillbillies, Dennis and Elwood (Abraham Benrubi and Ethan Suplee), show a little animation in their performances and provide the only remotely interesting characters in the story. Should I even mention that Burt Reynolds makes a brief appearance as a mountain man? No? The rest of "Without a Paddle" is insipid beyond words. The PG-13 rating ensures that things don't get too far out of hand, but if the film had been a little more daring, that might have improved it.

John's film rating: 4/10

The Film According to Hock:
"All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl." --Charlie Chaplin

Apparently, director Steven Brill took the quote above to heart and made a comedy using the Oregonian woods, a loony backwoodsman and two ditzy tree-hugging blondes bombshells. Add three city slickers who are in over their heads and a pair of trigger-happy "Deliverance"-type pot farmers and you have Paramount's better-than-average comedic romp, "Without A Paddle". As evidenced by many moviegoers' tepid response to the numerous inane comedies that were released last year, good comedy is obviously harder to pull off than it actually seems. However, giving credit where it is due, "Without A Paddle" has more than its share of funny moments and also a sweet story of self-discovery and friendship to boot. Add in the abundant comedic talents of the ever-reliable Seth Green, funnyman Matthew Lillard, and newcomer Dax Shepard as an intrepid trio of treasure hunters, and you get front row seats to a wild and wacky ride through the wilderness with unfortunately some bumps along the way but also plenty of laughs.

Looking back, most of 2004 was a blur to me. How exactly did 365 days zoom by so quickly? All I can remember about "Without A Paddle" were the trailers that aired almost incessantly on television late in the summer. Although I did not hear anything much about it after that, the movie actually did pretty well at the box office, able to recoup its $20 million budget plus raking in a profit of almost twice its budget. Not too shabby for a self-styled comedy that is specifically aimed directly at teenagers and twentysomethings (which comedy isn't these days?). Helmed by actor-writer-director Steven Brill, who previously directed two of Adam Sandler's least-successful comedies, "Mr. Deeds" and "Little Nicky," "Without A Paddle" comes across as sort of a zany parody of "Deliverance" with a bit of Kevin Bacon's "The River Wild" added in for good measure.

With the spectacular woods of New Zealand standing in for the forests of the northwest United States, "Without A Paddle" has the unlikely premise of three longtime friends trying to make good on a childhood pact that they had all signed on to decades earlier. Using the real-life exploits of real-life daredevil criminal D.B. Cooper (aka Dan Cooper)--who in 1971 hijacked a commercial plane and collected a ransom of $200,000 before parachuting into the Oregonian forest and into notoriety--the writers are able to lend somewhat of a realistic backdrop to the story. Dan (Seth Green), Jerry (Matthew Lillard), Tom (Dax Shepard) and Billy (Anthony Starr) grew up together and as children, they had dreams of going on an Indiana Jones-type adventure to find D.B. Cooper and his cache of stolen money. Many years later, the kids are now all grown up (well, at least for most of them)--Dan is a neurotic and timid doctor; Jerry is a listless executive who dreams about surfing and can't fully commit to his increasingly impatient girlfriend; Tom is an aimless drifter who makes a bad habit of telling tall tales about his exploits; and Billy, the most successful among them, is a well-known world class explorer who has conquered Mt. Everest and what have you. Tragedy strikes and Billy is killed in an accident. As the other three remaining friends get together for Billy's funeral, they inevitably begin to reminisce about their childhood. Later, they find out that after all these years, Billy has continued his research into D.B. Cooper and might have pinpointed the spot where Cooper could have landed when he parachuted out of the plane. So, in order to honor the memory of their departed friend, Jerry, Tom and Dan (after much persuasion) decide to undertake one last adventure together.