Paul
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Today’s movie is Paul the latest acting collaboration from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, (well technically they were in The Adventures of Tintin, but that wasn’t really their movie). It’s a foul-mouthed comedy that mashes up the roadtrip movie with big heap of alien, and some not-so-subtle social commentary.
It’s a broad comedy that walks the fine line between tribute and parody, and it hits almost every note I’d expect, boldly (and more-or-less successfully) casts a couple noteworthy actors outside of their typical type of role, and even throws in a half-decent twist towards the end. It’s a movie that I’ve been meaning to see ever since I first heard about it, and yet, now that I’ve finally seen it, I can’t help but think that I wasn’t missing much.
Seth Rogan provides the voice for the title character a short green alien nicknamed Paul, he’s the title character but the movie isn’t really about him, he gets a bunch of the jokes, but he’s really about half-way between the film’s MacGuffin and a postmodern Marty Stu.
The film is really about Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) a couple of English uber-geeks who we encounter as they begin their great American vacation. Starting at San Diego ComicCon they strike out on a road trip to all the famously mysterious and allegedly alien visted sites in the Southwest. Not long into the trip they encounter Paul, and hilarity ensues as he persuades the duo to help him escape from the authorities. Along the way they’re perused by hard-nosed Federal Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman), and a host of others who they (inadvertantly) cross in the course of their journey.
The film was fun, though probably a good measure more crude than it needed to be. There were some moments I enjoyed tremendously (a honkey-honk roadhouse where the band is is playing an country arrangement of the Star Wars cantina theme), but there were also some things I found silly, (Paul has one particular alien “power” that once its introduced effectively tells you exactly what’s going to happen in the film’s climax).
On balance Paul was essentially what I thought it’d be. Really, it so closely matched the movie I’d conceived in my head after seeing the trailer that actually watching the movie was a little bit pointless. It was fun, but when a movie is aiming, at least in part, for “shocking” humor, it’d help if it were at least surprising. Still, it’s got some nice moments. Also, Jason Bateman’s fine portrayal of a hard-assed character that you spend most of the film actively routing against was refreshing. On the whole, it’s certainly Worth Seeing.
[Paul (2011) - Director: Greg Mottola - Rated R for language including sexual references, and some drug use]
My favorite part of “Paul” was easily Sigourney Weaver. I definitely wasn’t expecting her to appear at all (although after her brief appearance in “The Cabin in the Woods”, I guess her cameo appearances have gone up). As for the rest of the movie, I agree it was a really good movie.
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Weaver’s cameo was a fun surprise. I thought about mentioning it, but sided against mentioning it as a potential spoiler. I’d looked at the cast list, so knew she was in the movie, but I forgot about that when I was watching it. For some reason I’d concluded that The Big Guy was going to turn out to be Jane Lynch’s character from earlier in the film. That would have ben an entirely different kind of surprise.
That would have added some more continuity to the film and would have been really funny. I really like her character in the film as well!
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This has to be one of my all-time favorite movies. I found it hilarious and quite original. I didn’t expect the ending at all. I also enjoyed Shaun of the Dead actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost starring in the flick. They did a great job playing the typical ComicCon geeks. Anyway, I’ve seen this movie well over a few times and never get tired of it. Thanks for the reminder to watch it again!
Thanks for commenting.
I honestly think that part of the reason I enjoyed this movie, (and likewise Hot Fuzz,) less than I might otherwise have, is that Pegg and Frost set the bar so incredibly high with Shaun of the Dead, that I want everything they do to be THAT good again, and falling even a little bit shy feels like a disappointment. YMMV but I thought Paul just fell short of that high standard.