Director Stephen Brill has made two of the worst comedies ever conceived -- "Little Nicky", the only movie I have ever walked out on, and "Mr. Deeds", by far the worst Adam Sandler movie ever made. However, he also holds a special place in my heart for directing the fantastic "Heavyweights", also known as the last good Disney non-animated feature film. "Without A Paddle" is his first film in a while, and the trailer does its best to make it look totally moronic and totally worthless. The only reason I went was because one of my friends wanted me to accompany them and I had jack else to do on a Tuesday night. The result was a flawed buddy comedy that turned out to not be nearly as wretched as I previously imagined.

      This is the story of four lifelong friends -- Dan (Seth Green), Jerry (Matthew Lillard), Tommy (Dax Shephard), and Billy (Anthony Starr). After graduation, Billy leaves his three friends behind and goes to explore the world. Ten years later, we find that Dan is a doctor, Jerry is a businessman, Tommy is pretty unemployed and broke, and Billy is, well...dead. So, the three friends travel back to their hometown in Oregon to attend Billy's funeral. There, they reconnect and rediscover an old box containing nostalgia and a treasure map that they had always planned on using. The three decide to follow the map and find the treasure, all for the memory of their deceased friend. Let the "Deliverance" rip-offs begin. While on their journey they encounter everything from a bear that is dumb enough to mistake a man for a cub, and two pot smugglers who want nothing more than to shoot everything they see. Hell, we even get to see Burt Reynolds as a grizzled old mountain man with ! an affection for J.J. Walker and "Good Times".

      The primary problem with "Without A Paddle" is that everything just happens for the hell of it -- nothing really follows a sequence of events and nothing seems logical. The way in which the three friends find the treasure map and decide to go after it happens way too fast and never really makes us believe they had a logical reason to do it. As for the bear -- no grizzly would ever mistake a human being for its cub -- that is too ignorant to fathom. There is also a very unnecessary scene involving Seth Green having to eat the woodland creature that the bear has brought for it...and we could all see the scene with someone having to remove the cell phone from the bear poop coming from a mile away. I was waiting for it. Everything is predictable and everything is too absurd to keep us interested. We want to believe these things could happen to us.

      Alas, despite the absurdity of the plot, there was something oddly charming about this flick. From the opening song, to the constant Culture Club references, I liked the eighties and childhood nostalgia associated with this film, especially the beginning with the four friends dressed up like the Ghostbusters. And, if "Old School" was a vehicle for Will Ferrell, then "Without A Paddle" is certainly a vehicle for Dax Shephard, in one of the funniest debuts I have seen in a while. In many ways, Shephard is like a younger version of Will Ferrell -- they have the same kind of humor. And, the underrated Ethan Suplee pops up as one of the pot smugglers, Elwood, who points out, "It's weird...these are their footprints...with no feet inside of them". He is a great actor and should be receiving much better roles.

      Don't expect to leave "Without A Paddle" feeling immense satisfaction, but don't expect to be totally disappointed either. If nothing else, you can say you heard an Indian say, "Thank you for breaking that where my children play" -- it is one of the funniest lines I have ever heard in any film. The three leads do what they can with the material, and it was nice to see Matthew Lillard be able to play something other than the total idiot for a change -- that's why Shephard was there. "Without A Paddle" is not a terrible film, but it could have been much better. You can wait until video and not miss anything, and maybe even get some outtakes and gag reels with Shephard acting like a complete and total fool. He is great at that...and I enjoy it.