Without A Paddle

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 90 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Without A Paddle is one of those comedies that we always consider to be a lot like playing Let’s Make A Deal with Monty Hall. The trailer makes you laugh outloud, but what’s really behind door number 1? Is it a great comedy? Or did you just see all of the funny parts in the trailer? In this case, although it wasn’t a total waste of time, I believe we would’ve rather had a year’s supply of Rice-a-Roni.

Without A Paddle

Four life-long friends grow up together and go their separate ways. Each has his own issues. When they turn 30, one of the guys dies and the others get together at his funeral. As kids they had been big fans of D.B. Cooper, the guy who jumped out of a plane in the deep woods of the pacific northwest with a lot of stolen money and was never found. They discover that their dead friend had what looked to be a map to D.B.’s treasure and had been planning a trip for all of the guys to go find it. So they decide to have themselves an adventure in his honor.

Ok, let’s get real here, this aint a plot, this is the best thing they could come up with to setup a bunch of city boys in the wilderness gags. And hey, we dont care, we weren’t expecting Casa Blanca. What we were expecting was to have a good time and a lot of laughs. And there are some funny bits in there, but you’ll endure a lot of stuff that is just stupid and not funny inbetween. And worse, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the majority of the really funny bits in the movie.

We didn’t hate this movie, really, we didn’t. But after a lot of back and forth, we’re going to give it 2 stars. We ultimately have decided this is rental quality at best. We normally do like to see comedies with a crowd, because laughter is contagious, but in this case we’re going to recommend waiting for DVD and hope their’s some more funny stuff on the extras. Besides that, I’m guessing this one is out of the theaters next week and probably out on DVD before the Christmas retail season.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 2 Stars, Abraham Benrubi, Comedy, Dax Shepard, Matthew Lillard, PG-13, Rachel Blanchard, Seth Green, Theatrical