"WITHOUT A PADDLE"
(2004) (Seth Green, Matthew Lillard) (PG-13)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Heavy	Moderate	*Extreme	*Minor	Extreme
Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Moderate	Minor	Heavy	Mild	Heavy
Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Heavy	Mild	Minor	Moderate	Heavy

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QUICK TAKE:

Comedy: As they hope to find D.B. Cooper's lost fortune in the backwoods of Oregon, some friends in their thirties unexpectedly run into a variety of interesting and dangerous characters.

PLOT:

Dan Mott (SETH GREEN) is a successful but dweebish doctor who suffers from various phobias. Jerry Conlaine (MATTHEW LILLARD) is corporate guy who hates the office and longs to surf. Tom Marshall (DAX SHEPARD) is a free-spirited ladies man who claims to sell Harleys. All three grew up together and have gone their separate ways. Yet, when their forth and most adventurous friend dies in an accident, the three decide they must do something wild and crazy in his honor, and before they get to old to do something really stupid together.

Accordingly, they decide to try to find the missing booty of D.B. Cooper, the hijacker who jumped into infamy with a huge sum of cash thirty years earlier and then disappeared forever. Entering the Oregon wilderness via a canoe trip down the river, the trio gets on the wrong side of backwoods pot farmers Dennis (ABRAHAM BENRUBI) and Elwood (ETHAN SUPLEE). They then spend the rest of their journey trying to avoid them, while also running into the likes of tree sitter Flower (RACHEL BLANCHARD) and mountain man Del Knox (BURT REYNOLDS).

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?

If they're fans of someone in the cast or goofy adventure comedies, they just might.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13

For drug content, sexual material, language, crude humor and some violence.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:

SETH GREEN plays a phobia-ridden doctor who reluctantly joins his friends in searching for Cooper's booty and then must deal with all of the repercussions of disrupting the pot farmers' business. He uses profanity and drinks.

MATTHEW LILLARD plays his corporate world friend who'd rather be surfing and persuades the guys to embark on their journey. He uses profanity and drinks.

DAX SHEPARD plays their carefree and rude friend who also uses profanity, drinks and fools around with a woman.

ETHAN SUPLEE and ABRAHAM BENRUBI play backwoods pot farmers who are determined to kill the trio to prevent them from alerting the outside world to their illegal business.

RACHEL BLANCHARD plays a tree sitter who allows the trio to join her and her friend in their tree home and comes on to them sexually.

BURT REYNOLDS plays a mountain man who captures but then helps the trio out of their fix.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

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Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

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OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

The following is a brief summary of the content found in this comedy that's been rated PG-13. Profanity consists of at least 1 "f" word, while other expletives and colorful phrases are also uttered. Various instances of sexually related dialogue (and 1 song) are present, some fooling around occurs, a faded poster somewhat shows a woman's bare breasts while some scantly clad women and men are seen. Various bits of homosexual-related humor (most of it homophobic in nature) are also present.

Two men repeatedly try to shoot and kill three other men (and a few other people), while various characters strike, struggle with and/or fight others, and some slapstick style material also occurs. Scatological humor is present, including people throwing bags of human excrement down onto others. Other imitative behavior is also on display while a gunshot wounded is seen in close-up as it's being stitched closed.

Various characters have varying degrees of bad attitudes. Some drinking and smoking occur, while some men are pot farmers and their burning crop causes three men and two dogs to become high.

Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content.

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ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE

One of the guys briefly drinks from a bottle at their graduation.

When Tom and Jerry want to climb up into their old tree house, Dan states that they're hammered (drunk).

Tom drinks a beer while a passenger in a vehicle.

The guys bring along a lot of beer on their trip and Jerry christens their small boat with a beer bottle.

The three guys have beer.

Tom has a beer and later states that he's going to have more.

As Dan tries to start a fire with flint sparks, Tom spits alcohol across that causing a brief flame/explosion.

The three guys drink.

Tom finds a beer in the river, and then opens and drinks it.

The guys realize that Dennis and Elwood are pot farmers (we see both packages and leaves in a shed). Tom smells and then takes some, with Dan anxiously saying that he'll write him a prescription for some.

Drug related comments include "Great mother of ganga," "Get up, you stoner dogs" and "I think I might still be stoned."

Elwood and Dennis shoot off flares that accidentally catch their large field of marijuana on fire. They then chase the three guys who get high from running through the smoke (laughing and Dan being paranoid). The men's dogs also get high and we then see them passed out, with one hallucinating about a dog constellation.

We twice hear the guys talking of buying the first round (of drinks) if they get out of a situation alive.

BLOOD/GORE

We see the three guys standing and urinating off their canoe, with one playfully crossing his urine stream with another.

Viewing Dan as its cub, a bear brings a dead animal over to him for food. The guys whisper to him that he needs to eat it to fool the bear, so he reluctantly bites into it and we see a long strand of slightly bloody flesh from the carcass to Dan's mouth as he tugs on it.

Some of the guys joke that they "almost sh*t" from fright while in some rapids.

Elwood uses a large cleaver to cut off a fish's head (we see the bloody results).

We see that Tom was shot in the arm and Dan tends to him, stitching up the bloody wound (seen in close-up and with Tom saying it's going to be a great scar).

One of the young women has very hairy legs (played to evoke reactions of "eww" from the viewer).

Dan asks two tree sitters, "Where do you guys do the do?" (defecate). One then hands him a paper bag and a pine cone to be used as toilet paper. Later, when Dennis and Elwood show up and try to cut down the tree, the guys and women drop bags of human waste down onto the two men (we see it hitting them).

We hear the sound of Jerry urinating.

There's talk of whether a beer "sh*ts" in the woods and we then see Jerry digging through bear excrement to retrieve a cell phone (that he wipes off and then uses).

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE

A lesbian cheats on her lover with Tom.

A man parks in Dan's reserved spot and is mean toward him about that.

Tom has a bad attitude by showing up late to their friend's funeral and asking if that's the corpse.

Tom has a smart mouth and attitude toward a sheriff, joking about his bad teeth and more.

Tom lies about what he does for a living.

One of the guys jokes about another's past girlfriend with a lazy eye, calling her "Cockeyed Katie."

Dan nervously talks about man rape after spotting Dennis and Elwood (some viewers might not like a joke about that subject). Likewise, some viewers may not like Tom jokingly telling Del to rape Dan.

Elwood and Dennis are pot farmer who try to kill the three friends to keep them from telling others about their business.

When a gun's red target light lands on his forehead, Tom speaks in a mock Indian accent.

Hearing the guys singing an old Boy George song, Dennis sarcastically says that the "hills have gone gay." Other homophobic bits are scattered throughout the movie as well (for those sensitive to such matters).

FRIGHTENING SCENES

Scenes listed under "Violence" might be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to younger viewers, but it's all played for adventurous laughs.

The guys spot a bear behind Tom and then all run from it. Dan falls and the others tell him to play dead, but the bear comes over, smells his clothed butt and then picks him up in its mouth and carries him off like a cub (played for comedy, but some might find it suspenseful).

While going through some rapids, a tree branch accidentally hits one of the guys in the face. The guys then fall out of their canoe and end up tumbling out of control through the rapids. They survive that, but then end up going over a tall waterfall (all survive and played for adventure/comedy).

The guys try to hide under the water from Dennis and Elwood, using reeds to breathe, but a large insect goes down Dan's reed and into his mouth (but he has to remain quiet so as not to tip off the men of their location).

We see a skeleton in an old mine pit (that might be unsettling to some younger kids).

GUNS/WEAPONS

Handguns/Machineguns/Shotguns/Grenades: Carried and/or used to threaten or attempt to kill others. See "Violence" for details.

We see the three guys as kids holding "Ghostbusters" type weaponry.

Dennis and Elwood fish by using dynamite that's thrown into the water.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR

Phrases: "We're in bum-f*cking 'you've got a pretty mouth,'" "Sh*t-faced," "I know a sh*t-load," "I bet you can play the sh*t out of that harmonica," "Does a bear sh*t in the woods?" "Enough of this sh*t," "You p*ckerwoods," "You Neanderthal d*cks," "Ass-face and d*ck-chin," "What the hell /is going on here/are you guys doing/was that?" "You dumb ass," "Hell of a fender bender," "Hot chicks," "Hell yes," "Shut up (you big baby)," "Don't get cocky," "Sucker," "Left nut" (testicle), "Freaks," "Big ass," "We're completely screwed," "Oh hell yeah," "Great mother of ganga," "Get up, you stoner dogs," "Idiot," "Freaking," "Give 'em hell," "This Hell-Mart's open and we're cutting prices," "Sweaty ball-sac," "You poor bastard," "Get the hell home," "Hell-hole," "Bad ass," "Damn good thing," "Jack-offs," "Ass wipe" and "Damn sure."

As kids, the guys ride their bikes off a ramp and over some water.

Although we don't see the act, Tom and Jerry apparently cut Dan's finger as part of a blood oath between them (we hear the scream).

As Dan tries to start a fire with flint sparks, Tom spits alcohol across that causing a brief flame/explosion.

One of the guys jokes about another's past girlfriend with a lazy eye, calling her "Cockeyed Katie."

Tom has a tattoo, while Dennis and Elwood have tattoos.

One of the guys fishes with a flashlight beam.

Dennis and Elwood fish by using dynamite that's thrown into the water.

Dan does his impression of C-3PO from "Star Wars."

When a gun's red target light lands on his forehead, Tom speaks in a mock Indian accent.

Elwood and Dennis fire more shots at the guys, with Dan doing a "Matrix" movement of avoiding a bullet in slow motion by leaning backwards.

A young woman wears a midriff revealing top.

The guys leave a tree house high up in the trees via a zip line down to the ground.

JUMP SCENES

A man suddenly shows up at a car window.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)

A heavy amount of comedy-based suspenseful and action-oriented music plays in the film.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)

The R. Kelly song "Bump 'N Grind" has suggestive lyrics about the singer's mind saying no, but his body saying yes, and more such material

PROFANITY

At least 1 "f" word, 16 "s" words, 3 slang terms for sex ("doing it" and "laid")), 4 slang terms for female genitals ("downstairs"), 2 using male genitals ("d*ck" and "p*cker"), 13 hells, 8 asses (1 used with "hole"), 7 damns, 1 crap, 5 uses of "Oh my God," 3 each of "Jesus" and "Oh God," 2 of "G-damn" and 1 use each of "For God's sakes," "Good God," "My God" and "Swear to God."

SEX/NUDITY

We see Tom (in his boxers) rolling around on a bed with a scantly clad young woman. They then hear "Tony" come home, but we see that it's the woman's lesbian lover. Tom says he's thinking of a Tom sandwich (meaning a threesome), but this other woman scratches and kicks him.

Jerry does some brief, passionate kissing (clothed) with his live-in girlfriend.

We hear Jerry's answering machine for him and his girlfriend that announces that they can't come to the phone because "we're doing it."

As a woman in a small and tight skirt throws herself on a casket (and is thus bent over), Dan states that their dead friend has a "better chance of getting laid than I do."

We see a faded poster -- named 38-24-36 -- of a scantly clad woman that somewhat shows her bare breasts.

While looking through a time capsule of sorts, Tom holds up a condom in its wrapper and states that it's his first rubber and that he originally found it in his dad's pickup truck.

While listening to an old tape, there's a comment about Tom having sex with someone and he says that he did.

Stereotyping a small town they're in, Jerry says, "We're in bum-f*cking 'You've got a pretty mouth.'"

When one of the guys asks another if he was a boy scout, the guy says he wasn't, but that he "ate a Brownie once" (double entendre).

Dan says that he'd kill to have a woman at home with whom he could have sex (referring to Jerry and his domestic situation).

There's talk of some girl who had her "downstairs" (genitals) tattooed and there's mention of a related website.

Dennis says that if the three guys turn them in, he and Elwood will be in the can (prison) being manhandled.

Using binoculars, Tom spots Flower and another young woman up in a tree house, with one sensuously pouring water onto the other's bikini-covered chest. Tom then tells the others that if they look to the left, they can see one of the women's "downstairs" (genitals).

Flower and another tree sitter tell the guys that they need to get out of their clothes (for nonsexual reasons), prompting Tom to strip eagerly (down to his underwear).

Flower and another young woman come on to Dan and Tom. One comments about a full-on tantric orgasm. Another comment that rain is like a drug and that it "makes you want to..." (presumably "have sex"). Some sensual dancing then follows and a suggestive comment is made about the guys using reeds to breathe underwater and comments on it (the reed) being a "pussy willow." We then see all of the guys in their underwear (boxers and briefs).

We see the three guys standing in their underwear (their clothes are up in a tree house that they had to evacuate). Dan then says that he's out (meaning he's had enough) and Tom jokes that Dan is finally admitting he's gay. It then starts to rain and turn cold, so the guy "spoon" together to stay warm (a comment is made about a "sweaty ball sac"). With Dan between him and Tom, Jerry purposefully tries to make Dan become aroused by talking about the comely tree sitters and their orgasm comments. Tom makes some sort of comment about Dan putting something back as the joke is that Dan got an erection against Tom's back while in that spoons position. Later, Del offers to give the guys clothes and then tells them that he'd get dressed faster if he were them since he's been alone in his cabin for 30 years.

The R. Kelly song "Bump 'N Grind" has suggestive lyrics about the singer's mind saying no, but his body saying yes, and more such material.

Talking about the comely tree sitters, Del asks the guys if they really could see their "downstairs" (genitals) and the guys enthusiastically reply they could.

Jerry calls home to discover that his girlfriend has changed their outgoing answering machine message to say, "Jerry and Denise are no longer doing it."

Tom tosses his old, packaged condom onto the skeleton of a long-dead person (as a symbolic gesture).

When the guys want Dan to climb through a hole to find a way to escape, the comment is made that he's the only one small enough to get through, prompting Jerry to joke, "That's what she said."

Hearing the guys singing an old Boy George song, Dennis sarcastically says that the "hills have gone gay."

We see Dan in bed with a young woman under the sheets, suggesting sex.

A boy scout asks his adult male troop leader, "What's a downstairs?"

SMOKING

Tom smokes once, while some miscellaneous characters smoke (one with a pipe).

TENSE FAMILY SCENES

We briefly see some grieving family members at a funeral.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT

The death of childhood friends.

The legend of D.B. Cooper.

Dan has various phobias.

The comment that if you waste your time, you'll never get it back.

The comment that being alive is the real treasure.

VIOLENCE

A woman woman scratches and kicks Tom after finding him fooling around with her girlfriend.

A man bends Dan's reserved parking spot sign.

Dan tries to climb up into a tree house, but falls hard to the ground and lands on his back (but is okay).

Although we don't see the act, Tom and Jerry apparently cut Dan's finger as part of a blood oath between them (we hear the scream).

A thrown fish accidentally hits Jerry in the face.

While going through some rapids, a tree branch accidentally hits one of the guys in the face. The guys then fall out of their canoe and end up tumbling out of control through the rapids. They survive that, but then end up going over a tall waterfall (all survive).

Elwood and Dennis shoot at the three guys with shotguns and then again once the guys escape from a shed.

After we hear that there's no backdoor to a shed, we see Dan blasting out through the wall (implying the others threw him through it to escape).

Elwood and Dennis fire more shots at the guys, with Dan doing a "Matrix" moment of avoiding a bullet in slow motion.

Dennis grabs Elwood by the throat.

Dan and Jerry briefly go at each other in anger/frustration.

Dennis and Elwood shoot their guns up at some tree sitters.

The guys leave a tree house high up in the trees via a zip line down to the ground. Dan goes down and apparently hits the tree at the bottom, but we don't see the impact.

Dennis and Elwood shoot at the guys as they escape on the men's ATV. The three and the ATV then fall a long distance off a cliff and into the river below where Dennis and Elwood continue to shoot at them.

Dan punches Tom in the chest out of frustration.

Del holds a gun on the three guys.

Dennis and Elwood fire machine guns into a cabin, hoping to hit the three guys. In response, Del walks out and fires some large pistols at the two, hitting their ATV and causing it to explode.

The three guys fall into an old mine pit.

Dennis punches Elwood in the face for singing a song.

Dan hits Dennis and Elwood with a log, knocking them down into an old mine pit where Jerry and Tom are located. The two guys then struggle and fight with Dennis and Elwood with punching, hitting, knocking others around (including into a post) and Tom biting one on the ear. They then struggle over a gun and Dan then drops a rock down onto the bad guys.

Dennis, Elwood and the local sheriff hold guns on the three guys. Elwood then hits Jerry in the gut with the butt of his gun. He then has a grenade and threatens to use it.

A huge tree falls on three bad guys, smashing them to the ground (but they're okay).

Reviewed August 4, 2004 / Posted August 20, 2004

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