August is a tough time for movies. Studios tend to use the latter half of the month as a de-facto dumping ground for misguided projects, leaving the public in the unenviable position of choosing between movies like "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid" and "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2." Stuck right in the middle of this end of the summer doldrums is the substandard buddy comedy: "Without a Paddle."
The film tells the story of three friends Tom (Dax Shepard), Jerry (Matthew Lillard), and Dan (Seth Green) who reunite after Billy, the fourth member of their childhood clique, dies in an accident. While exploring their old tree house after the funeral the trio discovers a box they had placed there as kids. The box is filled with items devoted to their childhood obsession -- finding the money stolen by infamous thief D.B. Cooper who disappeared into the woods of Oregon in 1971.
While examining the contents of the time capsule they discover that Billy had recently been planning a trip that the four of them had dreamed of years ago. As a tribute to their departed friend, the three men decided to take the trip.
The journey begins promisingly enough but when their map is destroyed by an inquisitive bear, Tom, Jerry and Dan become lost in the remote wilderness. As the trio attempts to find its way back to civilization, they run across heavily-armed pot farming hillbillies, a pair of sexy tree-hugging hippies, and a mysterious loner named Del (Burt Reynolds) who also happens to be a friend of D.B. Cooper. Thanks to this array of kooky characters, numerous crazy adventures occur.
There is no doubt that "Without a Paddle" is written badly. Five people share writing credits for the film. The bad writing may be due to this fact -- there were just too many cooks in the kitchen.
The main characters are essentially nothing more than unoriginal caricatures -- Tom is an outrageous slob, Jerry is always in want of attention, and Dan is a frightened nerd. There are attempts to provide them with some emotional depth, such as with a subplot involving Jerry's girlfriend, but these efforts are contrived and half-hearted at best. It is a shame the script gives Shepard, Lillard and Green so little with which to work, because the three have proven themselves capable comedic actors in other roles.
Outside of the three leads, the characters become even broader and more ridiculous. None is more ridiculous than Del. Having the trio randomly meet the one person who could solve the decades-long mystery of Cooper's disappearance is asking the audience to believe anything that is thrown at them. The film might as well have introduced Amelia Earhart's spooky but informative step-brother Steve.
The movie also runs into problems when it treats the ridiculous as if it was normal and plausible. This is epitomized by one particularly absurd sequence where Lillard surfs on an upside down canoe through rapids while throwing a lasso to catch an adrift Green. There's nothing wrong with having unrealistic scenes in a comedy, but they should be funny and not simply illogical.
The whole movie is a hodgepodge of these types of extreme action scenes, forced levity and heavy-handed sentiment. In essence the story is a combination of "Goonies" and a 15-year-old boy's daydream. Major plot points include guns, alcohol, women washing each other and marijuana. I assume somewhere in the director's cut there is a scene about how awesome cars are.
The movie demonstrates a near-total lack of comedic and emotional complexity. It is the kind of film you watch on Comedy Central out of boredom that makes you yearn for the sophistication of "Corky Romano."
Ironically, one of the messages "Without a Paddle" attempts to convey is the importance of time. After having had the experience of sitting through the film, I can verify the wisdom of this guidance. Skip "Without a Paddle" and use those two hours for something better, which would be anything.
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