Without A Paddle has precisely enough laughs to meet the quotient for a 2*-minute trailer.
And if you've seen the previews for this misbegotten mash of National Lampoon's Vacation and Deliverance, you know what they are. (Hint: one involves a bear, the other a cheeky all-male cuddle in a cave.)
The rest of this alleged comedy is filler -- the sort of uninspired "lunacy" you'd find on Adam Sandler's editing-room floor.
No surprise there. The director, Steven Brill, is one of Sandler's henchmen, having helmed Mr. Deeds and the unbearable Little Nicky. Without A Paddle isn't quite that bad -- the lead actors, anyway, are agreeable -- but that's like saying Burt Reynolds' toupee is better than William Shatner's.
Speaking of Reynolds, he turns up in a semi-spoof of his seminal film Deliverance. I don't know how, but just when you think he must be out of nails to drive into his career coffin, he continues to produce more.
Not that Reynolds will bear the brunt of the blame for this movie -- his role is merely an extended cameo and perhaps an effort to lend some modicum of legitimacy to this otherwise staggering waste of time, talent and money.
Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard star as three childhood pals who decide to fulfil a 20-year-old pact and set out to find a bank robber's loot.
Given the cast and the concept, you'd think that would be enough. But Brills and Co. aren't content to merely go for the funny bone -- they have to tug at the heartstrings too.
The meld of sap and silly, inane comedy should leave no one satisfied. The film simply isn't funny enough to please the adolescent fans who want pratfalls and will instead have to squirm through agonizingly-penned scenes of '80s nostalgia and male-bonding murk.
(This film is rated PG)
More Movie Reviews
