Without A Paddle (2004)
Average Rating: 3.9/10
Reviews Counted: 125
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 107
Without a Paddle has a few laughs, but not enough to sustain its running time.
Average Rating: 4.2/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 26
Without a Paddle has a few laughs, but not enough to sustain its running time.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 388,640
My Rating
Movie Info
Just as the old saying goes, a trio of hapless city-dwelling friends (Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, and Dax Shepard) find themselves spiraling out of control up a very brown river in this raucous comedy from Little Nicky director Steven Brill. Heading out for a weekend canoe trip in search of an elusive 200,000-dollar treasure, the trio must contend with everything from raging rapids to backwoods mountain men if they're ever going to uncover the secret of the missing booty. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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Cast
-
Seth Green
Dan Mott -
Matthew Lillard
Jerry Conlaine -
Dax Shepard
Tom Marshall -
Ethan Suplee
Elwood -
Abraham Benrubi
Dennis -
Rachel Blanchard
Flower -
Burt Reynolds
Del Knox -
Christina Moore
Butterfly -
Bonnie Somerville
Denise -
Ray Baker
Sheriff Briggs -
Kate Harcourt
Old Woman -
David Stott
Dick Stark -
Danielle Cormack
Tony -
Carl Snell
Young Billy -
Liddy Holloway
Bonnie Newwood -
Matthew Price
Young Tom -
Anthony Starr
Billy Newwood -
Gregory Norman Cruz
River Guide -
Morgan Reese Fairhead
Sandi -
Bruce Phillips
Minister -
Susan Brady
Leslie -
Scott Adsit
Greasy Man -
Andrew Hampton
Young Jerry -
Jarred Rumbold
Young Dan -
Nadine Bernecker
Angie -
Mia Blake
Giselle -
Connor Carty-Squires
Boy Scout -
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All Critics (133) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (110) | DVD (20)
Without has all the freshness of moldering Playboys stashed under a mattress, but it evokes what few boys-will-be-boys larks can: chumminess.
Top CriticHow do you siphon the laffs from a surefire gut-busting premise like city slickers stuck in the sticks? ... you assemble a cut-rate Three Stooges, inject tired '80s nostalgia and some moralistic goo about carpe-ing the diem.
Think Road Trip meets City Slickers. Then dial the humor down a few notches, and you're left Without a Paddle.
Forget being up a raging creek without a paddle, these poor losers are lost in a wilderness that permits no comedy.
Without a Paddle wants to fascinate us with our own repulsion, and the wraparound, absurdly sentimental story is there to fill space between obvious and appalling sight gags.
The first half of the film is enjoyable but hit and miss. After that, it's just miss.
Even a paddle can't keep this movie from sinking.
Shepard, Green and Lillard have good chemistry, and this bodes well considering there are three characters to play off each other rather than just two
I kept looking and hoping for a laugh that never came. (Blu-ray Edition)
Maybe the filmmakers should have called the picture Without a Laugh.
Gets into the male bonding mode with a casual, instinctive flair that breathes more life into the Steven Brill comedy than it may actually merit.
Gets into the male bonding mode with a casual, instinctive flair that breathes more life into the Steven Brill comedy than it may actually merit.
Without a Paddle is a sloppy effort, yet even a clichéd comedy could be fun if it actually delivered on laughs.
A sloppy, lowest common denominator comedy
Average comedy, the acting is fine, but the script is pretty lame and it doesn't have a lot of good jokes.
Audience Reviews for Without A Paddle
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"The Call of the Wild. The Thrill of Adventure. The Mistake of a Lifetime."
I'll always have a sort of soft spot in my heart for Without a Paddle. I've seen it many times and as a young 11 or 12 year old, I cane even admit I liked it. Now, I see it for what it is; just another bad, buddy adventure movie. Still there's a certain amount of enjoyment that I get from the film. Mostly because I love the nostalgia aspect of the movie, and how it orchestrates its plot around Deliverance. Matthew Lilliard, Seth Green, and a really cool soundtrack make the whole thing go down a lot easier as well.
Three lifelong friends who are entering their thirties are called away to a funeral of one of their best friends. While there, they learn that Billy had gone back and completed a trip that the four of them had always wanted to go on. The trip is one that would take them on a treasure hunt through the backwoods of Oregon, looking for a criminal named D.B. Cooper's, loot. When they go on the trip, things quickly turn from fun and nostalgic to dangerous and life threatening. There's always a slapstick and lite feel to the film no matter where the plot developments take the characters.
Overall, this movie takes a lot of shit that I'm just not willing to throw at it. Sure it's a bad movie, and that's worth noting, but it isn't so bad that it needs to be completely crucified. There's elements I like that make up for a lot of the really terrible stuff going on.
It's worth a watch if you have absolutely nothing else going on at the time. Just don't expect anything good. It's a weird movie in that I like it more than I should, while simultaneously still disliking it.