You don't know the name Steven Brill, but you should. He's the reason so many movies suck. He wrote "Ready to Rumble,"
the atrocious David Arquette wrestling comedy from 2000, and he directed Adam Sandler in "Little Nicky" (which he also wrote) and "Mr. Deeds." His latest crime against humanity is "Without a Paddle," an unfunny, outrageously simple-minded adventure-comedy that irritates, offends and bores, all at once. Check out the pedigree on this thing. Its absurd story is credited to three people: Fred Wolf (writer of "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star," "Joe Dirt," "Dirty Work" and "Black Sheep"), Harris Goldberg (writer of "The Master of Disguise" and "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" ) and Tom Nursall (writer of nothing you'd care about). Then the actual screenplay is by Jay Leggett and Mitch Rouse, who co-wrote (with Rouse directing) "Employee of the Month," one of the worst films to play at the Sundance Film Festival this year, or any year. Anyway, everyone continues to do lousy work here, and they drag the usually enjoyable Seth Green and the potentially enjoyable Dax Shepard down with them. (Matthew Lillard, who rounds out the cast: Eh, this seems about right for him.) The three play lifelong friends who, upon the death of their fourth friend, decide they must, in his honor, embark on an Oregon river trip to find the lost treasure of D.B. Cooper (the man who parachuted out of a hijacked plane with a huge pile of stolen cash in 1971). Seems the late Billy had been compiling evidence and folklore up until his death, and had worked up a map that he thought would lead right to Cooper's landing point. What better way to celebrate the memory of a dead friend than to discover an old felon's stash?
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