Without A Paddle (DVD, 2005, Widescreen Collection)

Ever wanted to know what "downstairs" means?

Your enjoyment of Without A Paddle is going to depend upon whether or not you like Seth Green and Matthew Lillard. Personally, I've always thought Green was funny and thought Lillard was a slightly less obnoxious version of David Arquette. However, the previews appealed to the baser side of my humor - so I put it in my Netflix queue.

Four lifelong friends have grown up, taking distinctly different paths in life. When one of them dies in a para-sailing accident, the remaining three (Green, Lillard, and surprisingly funny newcomer Dax Shepard) decide to take one last adventure to find some hidden treasure they were obsessed with as children that seems to be hidden in the woods somewhere. Just go with it. Think of it as Deliverance meets The Gooneys.

So, of course hi-jinks and mishaps ensue involving a bear, some rapids, a couple of hillbilly pot growers, some hot, hairy, female eco terrorists living in a tree, and Burt Reynolds. Yep, Burt Reynolds...and I thought Boogie Nights was supposed to boost his career out of stuff like this.

Then, of course, there is the "message" of the film. That being: Love what your life has become and quit living in the past once you've hit thirty. It's sort of like the great bit of wisdom given by Kevin Spacey in the phenomenal film Swimming With Sharks, "If you're not a rebel when your twenty, you've got no balls. But if you haven't turned establishment by the time you hit thirty, you've got no brain." And yeah, mentioning that movie in a review for this one makes me throw up in my mouth a little.

And that message is NOT delivered to you in a subtle way. No, you are literally beaten upside the head with it, because I can only assume that the writers felt most of the young audience this film appeals to would be too stupid to get it. This might not have been too off the mark, given the jokes in this movie.

Generally with movies like this, you need to be in a certain mood to really get any kind of enjoyment out of it. And there is a place for the goofball comedy in this world of ours. And there are some genuinely funny moments and lines that you'll get a kick out of. The chemistry of the lead actors does sometimes overcome the ho-hum script. So there's something to look forward to.

The DVD isn't bad at all, considering that you get the standard commentary from the cast and director, the "making of" feature, the trailer, and thirteen additional scenes with optional director commentary. Not bad for a movie that wasn't so great.