Review of Without a Paddle (2004) by Stuart K — 31 Mar 2010

Directed by Steve Brill, who's best known for the Adam Sandler comedies Little Nicky (2000) and Mr. Deeds (2002) comes this ever so underrated parody of Deliverance (1972), although it doesn't go down the road of other modern movie spoofs that this could have been.

It's actually an affectionate homage with a likeable cast and some amusing set pieces. It has schoolfriends Jerry (Matthew Lillard), Dan (Seth Green) and Tom (Dax Shepard) attending the funeral of their friend Billy (Antony Starr) who died in a para-sailing accident.

While revisiting their old haunts, they discover a map done by Billy leading to the lost treasure of plane hijacker D. B. Cooper. So they head out into the wilderness, with a canoe for a camping trip.

But, nothing goes to plan, they encounter a bear, run afoul of two violent farmers, Dennis (Abraham Benrubi) and Elwood (Ethan Suplee) and encounter mysterious mountain man Del Knox (Burt Reynolds). It is quite enjoyable, it has shades of City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) about it.

But, it does have it's laughs and it's got some funny set pieces, including one with a load of cannabis and a few flares gone astray that ignite the lot. Critics got the wrong end of the stick over this.