Without A Paddle Blu-ray review |

On May 12th, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment released the comedy Without a Paddle, directed by Steven Brill, on Blu-ray for the first time. Originally released in 2004, the Blu-ray debut of this enjoyable adventure, comes with a surprising amount of bonus material and commentary.

The film revolves around four friends who grew up together in Philadelphia, but run into tragedy when one of them suddenly dies. The three remaining friends reunite for the funeral, as they are saddened by the sudden loss of their fellow friend. While looking through their childhood belongings, they discover a trunk containing details of a quest their friend was attempting. It reveals that he was hot on the trail of $200,000 that went missing with airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper in 1971. They decide to try and find what their now deceased friend was searching for.

They take a canoe upriver through the mountains of Oregon State and everything that can go wrong, does, as they chase a crazy dream, while being hunted by two backwoods farmers, encounter death-defying rapids, meet tree-hugging hippie chicks and run across a crazy old mountain man played by Burt Reynolds.

The original Without a Paddle boasts a hilarious trio of comic actors with Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, and Dax Shepard, and is highly-entertaining at certain moments. It’s a lighthearted comedy that doesn’t take itself seriously at all, and ends up being a very well-done romp that will please viewers looking for a good laugh.

Bonus Material

Director Commentary: Director Steven Brill gives an informative commentary. He also talks about some movies that influenced Without A Paddle. The commentary is actually one of the most interesting extra features on the disc.
Video Commentary: Features the cast and director, in a primarily audio-only commentary, with an occasional picture-in-picture, showing the cast and filmmakers together in the studio. The video commentary is funny and takes a rather unique approach.
MTV’s Making the Movie: Without a Paddle: This making-of featurette has the stars discussing the film and their roles, along with director Steven Brill talking about originally brought the cast together and made the film happen. The segment is more a promotional piece than an in-depth making-of documentary.
13 Additional Scenes are available on the disc, which can be played with or without a director commentary. With the commentary selected, Brill describes the reasons why scenes were cut as they play.
MTV Interstitials: 6 interstitials from the network, that were originally shown between some of MTV’s most popular shows.

Director: Steven Brill
Writers: Jay Leggett, Mitch Rouse, Fred Wolf
Cast: Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, Dax Shepard, Burt Reynolds, Nadine Bernecker, Danielle Cormack

Original Release Date: August 20, 2004
Blu-ray Release Date: May 12, 2009

Film