Without a Paddle

Three childhood pals reunite when their buddy is killed and pledge to go on a river trip to locate real-life thief D.B. Cooper’s long lost loot. Along the way, they encounter evil deer, motherly bears, all-natural female tree huggers and homicidal pot farmers. Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard get the occasional laugh, but not enough to put this one over the top. Burt Reynolds shows up as a Grizzly Adams sort, living in the mountains and offering sage advice. It’s a nifty little nod to Deliverance, yet, still not enough to put this one over the top. A comical interlude involving persons flinging bags of human shit at other persons is the sort of junk the film resorts to in the end, which makes it reek of desperation and, well, human shit. Green is funny as the neurotic inhaler sucker, sort of a grown version of Sean Astin’s character in The Goonies. Shepard, of TV’s Punk’d, could have a decent career in better movies. Lillard is just annoying. He’s Shaggy now. Forever Shaggy.