Without a Paddle takes its name
from the old saying "Up a Creek without a Paddle", although they should
have taken the name from the old saying "Making a Movie without a Good
Screenplay".
This film stars Matthew Lillard, Seth Green, and Dax Shepard. You
may remember them as (respectively) Shaggy from the Scooby Doo
movies, Scott Evil from the Austin Powers movies, and that guy in
the baseball cap from MTV's "Punk'd". Speaking of "Punk'd", why
the apostrophe? Do they really save that much time by replacing
one 'e' with an apostrophe? It's just as many keystrokes. Is
that the hip way to write things now? If that's the case, then the
Masked Reviewer thinks Without a Paddle suck'd.
It's kind of surprising. All three of the leads are usually fun
to watch in whatever horrible movie they may be in. Matthew
Lillard was even bearable in the videogame inspired Wing Commander.
Seth Green was watchable in Rat Race. And Dax Shepard made
more than 10 seconds of viewing "The Bonnie Hunt Show" almost
entirely vomit-free. They all seem like pleasant guys.
The trouble is, there isn't much material to work with. It's hard
to tell what they were going for in this film. From the previews,
you might think that it's a wacky goofball comedy, like Dude, Where's
My Car?. It's not wacky or goofy. It has moments, but a
comedy that tries to go between over-the-top silly and touching
typically doesn't work. Imagine part Airplane and part
Lost in Translation, with a splash of Black Beauty.
Now, imagine it was written by the author of Jane Eyre and stars
Freddy Prinze, Jr. You get the idea.
There's an awful lot of screen time devoted to mushy sentimental
stuff. None of it plays well. It comes off as preachy and
trite, with a message of -- not to give anything away, of course --
"live life to the fullest". Huh. That's deep. The
Masked Reviewer immediately understood the message of the film and
wanted the last two hours of his life back that he wasted watching this
dung parfait.
It's not all that bad, really. There are a couple of laughs.
It's not that the jokes fail miserably, it's just that there aren't many
jokes. As a result, it's more often boring than anything else.
And, the few jokes that did make it to the final cut aren't particularly
strong. They're just...familiar. Not good familiar,
just...uninspired.
It's hard to stay motivated to write much more about the film.
It's directed by Steven Brill, who also directed Little Nicky and
Mr. Deeds. The humor is nothing like either of those movies; he
also wrote Ready to Rumble and all of the Mighty Ducks
movies. Without a Paddle isn't as wacky as Little Nicky
or Mr. Deeds and not as silly as Ready to Rumble.
It's probably about as funny (and emotionally fulfilling) as a Mighty
Ducks movie, but that's just a guess...the Masked Reviewer hasn't
seen any of them all the way through.
What's clear is that the other comedies by this director all relied on
the frenetic energy of the stars; Matthew Lillard, Dax Shepard, and Seth
Green don't have that over-the-topedness for a slapstick flick.
They've all got a definite screen presence, but it's not enough to carry
the movie.
There's a cameo -- or maybe it isn't a cameo -- that's not bad, but
not great. The Masked Reviewer won't risk ruining the surprise in
case you do go to see this (against the Masked Reviewer's better
judgment), so at least you'll have that to look forward to. For a
while.
All in all, it's not much of a comedy, and the life lessons and
preachy emotional clap-trap is tiresome. Huge fans of Matthew
Lillard, Seth Green, or Dax Shepard will have a hard time not being
disappointed if that's why they go to see this one. The rest of
you will not have a hard time being disappointed.
If you saw the trailers or previews, you saw just about every single
laugh in the movie, and that should tell you a lot.
Expectation from the Title: When the university adopts a new
non-hazing policy, the frat brothers have to find a new way to initiate
their members.
Mother's Rule (Always Say Something Good About Everything):
Matthew, Seth, and Dax would be welcome for dinner any time.
The Pros: The leads are charismatic and manage to squeeze out
a few precious drops of laugh juice, but it's not enough to quench the
relentless thirst of entertainment desire.
The Cons: Poor writing, not nearly enough funny, too preachy.
The big message of the movie isn't going to change anyone's life.