Without a paddle

Herald rating: *

Rotorua stands in for Oregon in this spoof of Deliverance, filmed here last year, with Burt Reynolds putting in a cameo appearance. Director Steven Brill turns the original scary river trip, where four men are forced to confront their fears, preconceptions and perceptions of themselves, into a gross-out comedy.

The plot goes like this: when their childhood pal dies, three mates search for his buried treasure in the wild backwoods. Brill, however, appears hung up on one scene from the original - the rape of one of the four by hillbillies - that he has to drop something along those lines into almost every scene.

Juvenile stuff, with a DVD that includes a couple of commentary tracks, from Brill solo and with his stars, 13 thankfully deleted or alternate scenes and MTV's making-of.

* DVD, video rental out now