Without a Paddle Genre: Comedy Rated: PG-13 Directed by: STEVEN BRILL Produced by: DONALD DE LINE Starring: SETH GREEN, MATTHEW LILLARD, DAX SHEPARD, ETHAN SUPLEE, BURT REYNOLDS Released by: Paramount Pictures In Short: Here’s a case where good comedic actors are undermined by an uneventful script. Even teenage boys deserve better than this lukewarm summer filler.

Dude, Where's My Paddle?
Missing More Than Just an Oar
By Cherie Saunders

Three childhood buddies get into one mishap after another en route to a buried treasure in the Oregon backwoods. Fulfilling the dream of a fourth friend who died, Dan (Seth Green), Jerry (Matthew Lillard) and Tom (Dax Shepard, a great improvisational actor who fooled his share of celebrities on MTV’s "Punk’d) set out to find a $200,000 stash buried by legendary bank robber D.B. Cooper. Along the way, they encounter a menacing mama bear, trigger happy pot farmers, hazardous rapids, tree-hugging hippie sirens (Rachel Blanchard and Christina Moore) and one crazy mountain man played by Burt Reynolds—part of the film’s misguided homage to "Deliverance."

With the exception of one or two laugh-out-loud moments—which are already featured in the trailer—the childish antics of these three grown men hunting for buried treasures are just too ridiculous to believe. The stereotypical roadblocks become even more tedious when you tack on the predictable personality clashes among the trio—Dan is a high-strung doctor, Tom is a Harley-riding rebel and Jerry is somewhere in between. Here’s a case where good comedic actors are undermined by an uneventful script.

Director Steven Brill, the man behind all three films in "The Mighty Ducks" franchise and director of 2002’s "Mr. Deeds," tries to shoehorn in an underlying sweetness à la "Stand By Me," but there’s simply no room for feelings with such an outlandish premise.