When they made a sequel to Speed, they couldn't get Keanu Reeves. When they made a sequel to The Mask, they couldn't get Jim Carrey. And when they made a sequel to Without a Paddle, they couldn't even get Matthew Lillard.
The original Without a Paddle, starring Lillard, Seth Green, and Dax Shepard as estranged childhood friends searching for D.B. Cooper's stolen treasure, was not one of 2004's Oscar contenders. It was, however, an amusing, good-hearted buddy comedy that did pretty well at the box office.
It wasn't crying out for a sequel though and Nature's Calling -- featuring no characters from the original film, but recycling many of the same scenes -- is yet another argument against the dismal direct-to-DVD-sequel phenomenon. How shoddy is this production? There's a scene in which the characters supposedly get hopelessly lost while paddling down an Oregon river, deep in woods, from which no one has supposedly ever returned. All the while, a very large highway bridge across said river is clearly visible in the background.
Instead of Lillard, Green and Sheppard, Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling features Oliver James, Kristopher Turner and Rik Young -- I dare you to tell me who any of these people are, without peeking at IMDb -- exploring the wilderness, looking for a lying old woman's long-lost granddaughter. Turner's character worked for the old lady at a nursing home, and by an incredible coincidence, James — an uptight, disillusioned lawyer — has had a crush on the same girl since high school.
Young plays the old lady's spectacularly annoying British grandson, with what I thought was the most insulting, unconvincing British accent in history, until I found out that the NYC-born Young was apparently raised in the UK. (The British-born James, to his credit, pulls off a good American accent; maybe they should have switched roles.) It turns out that the granddaughter (Madison Riley) has become a radical environmentalist, changed her name to "Earth Mother," hooked up with another gorgeous tree-hugger (not that way, Beavis, though we do see them taking a bath together — just barely, dang it) and moved into a tree house apparently built by the Professor from Gilligan's Island. Riley gets the only funny line in the film, when she refers to logging as "treeicide."
Article comments
1 - don't worry
i know who kris turner is w/o looking at IMDb!
he played Jamie Andrews on Instant Star.
yea.
2 - louisa
i know who oliver james is he is in raise your voice and what a girl wants and he is a singer plus hes really fit..i love him to bits!