Paul
Working Title/Universal
4 stars out of 5
Anyone who’s ever seen Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz know that actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost share a wonderful chemistry when they’re on-screen together. Their real life friendship has a way of transitioning effortlessly into their roles.
With Paul, not only are Pegg and Frost acting together once again, but in a film they wrote as a team. In the way their last two films paid tribute to the horror and action genres, Paul makes numerous references to- and takes several shots at- the sci-fi genre.
The difference with Paul, however, is that it does not have Edgar Wright as director and co-writer. Though this may not seem like a big change, Paul is a decidedly different film as a result. While still a very funny and enjoyable film when taken on its own, fans of the duo’s earlier work may feel a bit let-down by the differences.
Paul tells the story of two British geeks, Graeme and Clive, who visit the U.S. to attend the San Diego Comic Con. Soon after, they set off on a road trip to visit the country’s famous sites of alleged alien activity.
The pair are shocked when they find an actual alien, the titular Paul, on the run from his government captors. What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse as the duo attempt to evade the authorities and get Paul to his rendezvous with the mothership.
While the basic plot of Paul is nothing original, the characters, dialogue and cultural references all combine to elevate the film above this limitation. As stated before, the chemistry between Pegg and Frost is a joy to watch, and their conversations are often appropriately geeky and hysterical.
Equally important is the character of Paul the alien, voiced by Seth Rogen (The Green Hornet, Funny People), who provides a crude and humorous contrast to other friendly extraterrestrials throughout film history like E.T. Having spent over 60 years on Earth, Paul has more or less fully assimilated human culture. As such, despite Paul’s alien powers, he comes across as a regular guy just trying to find his way home.
The audience’s ability to familiarize with Paul is important, as the character has a surprising amount of depth. Though Paul spends much of the film cracking dirty jokes and running around naked, he also wants to do right by Graeme and Clive for helping him. He’ll make fun of the duo for their nerdy nature, but will also risk his own freedom to help them out.
The rest of the cast works well at rounding out the film. Jason Bateman (Extract, The Switch) plays the straight-laced government agent on Paul’s trail, and provides a lot of laughs with his deadpan delivery. Kristen Wiig (Date Night, MacGruber), is also a fun as Ruth, a religious nut who joins the trio on their journey.
The only weak characters are the two agents that accompany Bateman in his search. The pair, played by Bill Hader (Megamind) and Joe Lo Truglio (I Love You, Man) provide some laughs, but their silliness feels out-of-place with the sci-fi elements of the film.
In this regard, Hader and Lo Truglio’s characters exemplify one of the film’s weaknesses. Though some scenes are funny, they don’t quite gel with the rest of the material in the film. The use of made-up curse words goes on far too long, and a scene with some of the characters getting high seems to be lifted straight from another genre.
Still, the geek humor that pervades the majority of the film is spot-on. Star Wars, E.T. and the sci-fi culture in general are all lovingly referenced. In this regard, Paul is on par with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, further proving Pegg’s encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture.
What makes Paul inferior to other efforts by Pegg and Frost is the absence of Edgar Wright as director. Greg Mottola, director of Superbad and Adventureland, certainly does an adequate job, but there’s nothing impressive about what he does here. There just isn’t much creativity in how scenes were shot or put together.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with the direction, but fans of the past two Pegg/Frost films are going to notice. Wright has made a name for himself by shooting films in a way that puts the action happening on-screen into its own fast-paced, stylized world, and Paul could have only benefited from his input.
That being said, Paul remains the one of the funniest films released so far this year. The reunion of Pegg and Frost is always worth celebrating, and though their latest effort isn’t quite the home run it could have been, it remains an enjoyable sci-fi comedy for any fan of the genre.
