Three friends, whose lives have been drifting apart, reunite for the funeral of a fourth childhood friend. When looking through their childhood belongings, they discover a trunk which contained details on a quest their friend was attempting. It revealed that he was hot on the trail of the $200,000 that went missing with airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper in 1971. They decide to continue his journey, but do not understand the dangers they will soon encounter.
Without a Paddle wants to fascinate us with our own repulsion, and the wraparound, absurdly sentimental story is there to fill space between obvious and appalling sight gags.
– Tom Keogh,
Seattle Times,
20 Aug 2004
rotten:
Forget being up a raging creek without a paddle, these poor losers are lost in a wilderness that permits no comedy.
– Geoff Pevere,
Toronto Star,
20 Aug 2004
rotten:
Think Road Trip meets City Slickers. Then dial the humor down a few notches, and you're left Without a Paddle.
– Claudia Puig,
USA Today,
20 Aug 2004
rotten:
How do you siphon the laffs from a surefire gut-busting premise like city slickers stuck in the sticks? ... you assemble a cut-rate Three Stooges, inject tired '80s nostalgia and some moralistic goo about carpe-ing the diem.
– Mark Holcomb,
Village Voice,
25 Aug 2004
fresh:
Without has all the freshness of moldering Playboys stashed under a mattress, but it evokes what few boys-will-be-boys larks can: chumminess.