Dan, Jerry, Tom and Billy were the best of friends as children as they did everything together and had wonderful adventures. But as they grew up they all went there separate ways and started to lose tough with each other. Dan became a successful but neurotic doctor, Jerry a business high-flier on the edge of burnout, Tom a Harley-riding wild child, and Billy the adventure seeking conquer. But its Billy’s adventures that bring them back together, at his funereal when he dies in a parasailing accident. While reminiscing in their childhood tree house, the trio discovers that Billy had been pursuing their boyhood dreams of finding legendary bank robber DB Cooper’s $200,000 stash. Now with the map Billy left behind and a cereal box compass, Dan, Jerry and Tom decide to fulfill their friend’s dream and go on a canoe trip to find Cooper’s cash. But when they find themselves hassled by the sheriff at “the corner of Podunk and you-got-a-purty-mouth,” treed by a huge brown bear who mistakes one of them for her cub, chased by vicious Rottweilers named Lynyrd and Skynyrd, hunted as prey by pot farmers whose crop they accidentally destroy, and battling terrifying rapids down a raging river in a canoe about to plummet over a waterfall, they begin to wonder which of their ideas was worse, searching in the wilderness for Cooper’s cash, or believing it ever existed in the first place.

I really shouldn’t have liked this movie, it had a lot of elements in that I truly dislike in comedies now days. The chief irritation for me is always potty humor as it shows a lack of imagination and while the movie did employ this humor at times it also found some unique and funny new things to do. There were several scenes that had me in stitches and it’s been a long time since I remember laughing so hard in a movie. The entire bear sequence was some of the funniest stuff I have seen in years and had me rolling in the aisles. I am sure if you want to get nit picky you probably could dissect this movie into a thousand pieces as it truly does have a lot wrong with it. But, I am sorry I just can’t get past the fact that for half of the movie I was laughing so hard I was almost crying. I can forgive a movie a lot transgressions if the movie manages to do two things, first off entertain me and secondly accomplish what the movie sets out to accomplish. If the movie is an action flick it needs to fast paced and riveting and in the case of Without a Paddle since it’s a comedy the movie needs to be funny which it was. Sure the acting was weak, but the movie was hilarious, sure the plot was full of holes and the characters were clichéd but the movie was also very entertaining. I am sure if I see this movie a second time I will not laugh nearly has hard but the first time around the movie kept me in stitches and entertained me, what more needs to be said.
3.5 stars out of 5