Paul Movie Review
Graeme and Clive are two of the biggest comic book/science fiction geeks around and are fresh out of England on a tour of the U S of A which begins at Comic Con and continues through some of the most famous alien themed sites the world has to offer. Their tame little adventure gets kicked into high gear when low and behold the boys stumble across a real live alien named Paul.
Funny thing about PAUL, a buddy of mine was going on about the trailer awhile back and though I fully intended to watch it, I didn’t. This weekend I was planning on watching either LIMITLESS or THE LINCOLN LAWYER. Though I’m a big fan of Bradley Cooper, I haven’t been hearing good things about LIMITLESS so off to see the LINCOLN LAWYER it was. The night before however, someone brought up PAUL and more precisely, how funny it was. I had to pause a minute as I’d completely forgotten about PAUL and because I love a good comedy (no offence Matt, Ryan, I’ll catch you boys on the Blu-ray side), I decided to go alien two weeks in a row (last week was BATTLE: LOS ANGELES) and I can honestly say I’m glad I did because PAUL was an absolute hoot.
Now to be completely honest I’m a bit of a comic book fan myself and would love nothing more than to be gallivanting about the floors of Comic Con any and every chance I can get. If I was given a choice between hitting up the Con or hitting Vegas for the weekend, I’d choose the Con every time hands down. So that said, it’s fairly accurate to assume that I’m the core audience this film is meant to attract. I also loved PINEAPPLE EXPRESS as well as the slew of Apatow films that house the greater part of this cast. I also dug SHAWN OF THE DEAD and as much as my brother in law Cory is obsessed with HOT FUZZ (and trust me, the guy quotes it religiously every time I drink with him), I still have yet to watch it but after today I fully intend to pick it up the next time I go to rent a movie.
An Apatow film this is not but the writing is definitely on par as it’s sharp, witty and quite funny. There’s an English edge of course, seeing as how the boys (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) wrote it but if you’re fans of Pegg and Frost then you’ll feel right at home here. You can tell they don’t just play best friends on TV as their chemistry is the stuff of legend and Seth Rogen fits into the mix flawlessly as the fast talking alien Paul. There’s all kinds of casting fun here with Jane Lynch (love her), Bill Hader, Sigourney Weaver and a very cool performance by Jason Bateman as agent Lorenzo Zoil, too much. I enjoyed Kristen Wigg and her whole Jesus angle (her T shirt was priceless) but that’s because I don’t take religion too seriously. Those who do may not see the humour in it.
PAUL was an unexpected comedic hit for me but even though I thoroughly enjoyed it, I do feel that this is a textbook example of a genre comedy that needs to be seen by the appropriate audience. Smoking weed, cursing, making fun of religion, I take all those ingredients with a grain of salt and a Jager bomb, but that’s me and I don’t speak for everyone. If none of the above offends you (and they really shouldn’t as this is all in good fun) then you’ll have a blast with PAUL but if these things and/or English humor aren’t your jolly ol’ cup of tea then maybe you shouldn’t roll the dice with this one. Personally, I had nothing but fun and look forward to Pegg and Frost’s next teaming. There are more than enough fan boy nods and winks to go around as well as lots of love thrown in the direction of some of the best and most coveted Sci-Fi flicks of our generation. Good times fellas, good times.
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