Without a Paddle Review

A few decades ago Burt Reynolds made his name in backwoods survival movie "Deliverance". More than 30 years later he seems determined to tarnish that legend with a fleeting cameo as a hairy hermit in this distinctly average comedy. The action centres on three childhood friends (Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard) who decide to fulfil a promise to a late buddy and go searching for the lost ransom that was swiped by infamous airline hijacker DB Cooper. He vanished after parachuting from the plane over Oregon and most of the loot was never found. But soon the trio are up to their necks in trouble after running into some drug-growing rednecks, a pair of tree-hugging hippy chicks and a bear who thinks Green is her cub.

Full of just the kind of puerile jokes and idiotic set pieces that you'd expect from Lillard and co., "Without A Paddle" is one of those films that really should have gone straight to DVD. Buried deep within the regional cliches and attempts at gross out humour is an attempt at trying to get a worthwhile message out - something about living everyday it it's fullest - but it's desperately overshadowed by gags about bear poo, stoned guard dogs and hirsute females. Mind you, what did we really expect from the writers behind such cinematic car crashes as "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo", "Dickie Roberts" and "Master Of Disguise"?

It's true that the three leads do possess a modicum of chemistry and the characters interact well with each other but they're hardly the new Marx Brothers while Reynolds must have been hard up to agree to his role as a gun totin' mountain man. Really pretty dreadful.