Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling

"Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling" (2009) is a comedy/adventure about three old friends who venture into the Northwest wilderness to find a girl whom one of them fell in love with when they were kids. She's now a hippie tree-hugger, but stands to inherit a fortune. Will they find her? Will they even get back alive?

This "sequel" was only made because the first movie, 2004's "Without a Paddle," was a minor hit at the box office, making three times its expense in the USA alone. As you can see from the above synopsis, "Nature's Calling" is merely a retread of the same plot with slight variations and different actors. It also cost $12.7 million less.

If you liked the first film you might appreciate this one, but it's anemic by comparison, not that the first one was that good. The protagonists are likable and the filmmaking is hip, including the soundtrack, but the shenanigans are only mildly amusing and the girls, again, aren't anything to get too excited about, although the brunette is the best of both worlds. The over-the-top scene with the squirrels is easily the best scene and is almost worth the price of admission. I suggest only watching this one if you're a fan of the first movie and want to see a lesser film with the same plot and tone.

An interesting difference is that this one was actually shot in the Great Northwest, in the wilderness East of Portland, rather than New Zealand.

The film runs 96 minutes.

GRADE: Borderline C- or C

Even a bad comedy can be good sometimes. Not this one though - not even close.

Terrible story, terrible cinematography, terrible continuity, terrible casting. This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Oh - and please - was there not one Canadian any where near the shooting of this film to teach the director that Canadians do not talk as though they were portrayed in this movie. The use of the sound "eh" and the 'sayings' (like "Holy Halifax") were contrived and - well, okay, I'm going to use a bad word: stupid. It was so annoying and so ridiculous, it was hard to even get close to the end without eye rolling and chucking popcorn at the screen. Is it really so challenging to portray a Canadian? After all, we are America's closest and largest neighbour and have thousands of Canadians working in Hollywood alone. This wasn't funny, it was lazy writing and unacceptable.

I'll be sure to avoid anything with these actors and directors in the future.

While the first movie wasn't all that entertaining - it was passable, this doesn't come close to it what-so ever.

Dialoge is poor, setting is not to full effect, story is lame, casting is all wrong, nothing in this is memorable.

The squirrel sequence is just retarded and it's subplots are just as stupid.

I saw this free and was glad that I didn't pay for it.

It saved me the cost of a rental, but regardless is was still lifeless and bring.

Not even the two eco-chicks were from the first movie - which I guess is a good thing...

Who thought of this story as something to produce is severely looking to get fired.

Soundtrack didn't offer anything either.

If you liked the first Without A Paddle, you should leave it at that and forget about this one, because you will enjoy this.

Nothing really works in this. It's just a mess of sub-stories that were mishmash-ed together to put together a sub par script that is not funny or entertaining.

There is a reason that this went straight to video...because it would not have lasted 2 weeks in a theater.

It's poorly developed - even the sound nature effects are over done.

The continuity is atrociously horrible as is the timing and looping.

Save your money, save your time...go to sleep instead.

The best part of having a girlfriend is, of course, the copious amounts of sex. On the flip-side, the worst part of having a steady girlfriend is having to sit through many MANY crappy movies, this brings me to the topic at hand "Without A Paddle 2" which has nothing at all to do with the first one (which ironically I also was conned into watching when it came out, different girl though, but I digress) This one revolves around a guy who meets a vegetarian animal-rights crusader while on the first day of high school, she gets expelled the second day before she can so his 'cool' homemade 'Meat is Murder' T-shirt (I guess the Che shirts were all sold out) Anyways years little his friend, who works in a nursing home, accepts the dying wish of an ancient old lady to find her grand-daughter, whom winds up being, yup you guessed it, little Mizz Feminist crusader. So he, his friend, and a snotty English guy with ulterior motives travel to her last known whereabouts deep in the rain-forests.

This film was atrocious, the joke aren't just easily telegraphed, they're also massively unfunny, the acting is sub-standard and I didn't give a toss about any of the characters involved in the least. Also Jerry Rice was a great football player, and as an actor he was a great football player. That was seriously painful to watch. The only good thing that came from this film is the sex I got for being forced to deal with this major eye sore of a 'movie'. It's all about reparations people.

My Grade: F

DVD Extras: A 10 minute Making-of; 'Furious Nuts' featurette which is 7 minutes about the CGI-squirrels; 'Treehouse Tales' three minutes about the treehouse sets; a gag reel; 4 very short deleted scenes; and Tralers for "Van Wilder: Freshman year", "American Teen", "Stoned Age", " 'Kenny Vs. Spenny' Volume 1, 'TV Funhouse Uncensored'

My little sister accidentally rented this movie thinking it would be as funny as the original Without a Paddle film. However, its only use is as a Frisbee, and even then it doesn't fly straight. Avoid. The acting was abysmal, a total joke to be honest. The plot was non- existent, and the movie was simply made up of lame joke after lame, stinking joke. Oliver James used to be good, in 'What a Girl Wants,' he is a half decent actor and is rather hot too, but this film is simply a great disappointment if you were watching it only for him. And really, that seems like the only reason anyone would watch this movie, because honestly, you would be better off cleaning the bathroom or writing a ten-page essay as this would be both more entertaining, and a better use of your time. Sure, if you're bored out of your mind, it is vaguely possible you might gain some slight entertainment value from this film, but you would have to be an immensely sad, lame-humoured person for such an impossibility to occur.