Forgive the puns, but the male-bonding comedy "Without a Paddle" is all wet, its story is water-logged and its attempts at characterization are pretty soggy.
Which is a shame, because, believe it or not, there's at least some promise here, the germ of a good premise — even if it is overly familiar.
At times it is amusing, and there's at least one laugh-out-loud gag . . . though it's also pretty mean-spirited, and so crude (despite the PG-13 rating) that it leaves a bitter aftertaste.
"Without a Paddle" looks at the reunion of three lifelong pals — Jerry Conlaine (Matthew Lillard), Dan Mott (Seth Green) and Tom Marshall (Dax Shepard) — who have gone their separate ways. Over the years, Dan has become a successful doctor, mild-mannered Jerry is living with his girlfriend and working in the corporate world, while Tom is kind of floundering.
The three are brought back together by the death of another friend, who was planning to take them all on a rafting and hiking trip in the Washington woods to search for the whereabouts of legendary airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper. To honor his memory, the three decide to take the trip anyway.
Along the way, they run into pot-growing hillbillies (Abraham Benrubi and Ethan Suplee), environmentally conscious hippies (Rachel Blanchard and Christina Moore) living in a tree, and, of course, a bear (played by Utah's own Bart the Bear) — which mistakes Dan for its cub.
They also encounter a crazy mountain man (Burt Reynolds), who just might be the person they're searching for.
The film aims too low far too often. To give you an idea of just how low, at one point bags of human excrement are thrown at people. Ugh!
Still, there are a few guilty laughs. And Lillard is not nearly as irksome as usual. That task falls to Shepard (from MTV's "Punk'd"). Green is primarily a target for humiliation.
"Without a Paddle" is rated PG-13 for crude humor about and references to bodily and sexual functions, violence (gunfire, brawling, animal attacks, some slapstick), occasional use of strong profanity, drug content (manufacture of, and accidental inhalation of, marijuana), and some brief sexual contact. Running time: 95 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com