Paul
The film stars and was written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, a previously unstoppable British comic duo who stumble greatly here, as the movie gives them little to do but mug mercilessly at the camera, and make countless tired running gags where they keep on being mistaken as a gay couple. Hence, we get scenes where they fall down on top of each other, just when someone walks in. (Ho, ho) They're Graeme and Clive, best friends and wannabe sci-fi writers who are on their dream vacation - First, they hit ComicCon in San Diego, where they hope to get the autograph of their favorite author, Adam Shadowchild (Jeffrey Tambor). Next, they load up an old RV, and go on a cross-country trip across America to some of the most famous reported alien sightings, such as Area 51 and Roswell. They don't get far into their trip when they have their own personal close encounter with an alien named Paul (voice by Rogen) who is on the run from the government.
Paul looks a lot like the little green men we've seen in countless comics, movies, and books, but he sure doesn't talk or act like one. He has an incredibly colorful vocabulary made up mostly of four-letter words, which never really comes across as being funny, but rather a desperate attempt by the filmmakers to make the film a hard-R. He can make himself invisible at will, he has the ability to heal and bring back the dead, and he's also apparently inspired alien pop culture for the past 60 years or so. This is one aspect about the character I did find funny, and wished the film played up more. We learn that Paul originally landed sometime in the 1940s, and was immediately captured by the government, who put his knowledge to use. His knowledge went on to inspire various shows and movies over the years. There's a clever scene where filmmaker Steven Spielberg (who makes a voice cameo over the phone) has a conversation with Paul, and gets inspired to make E.T. after the discussion.
The movie is actually one big goofy love letter to science fiction from the 70s and 80s, especially Star Wars, E.T., Close Encounters, and Aliens. This leads to some funny touches, such as when our heroes walk into a redneck bar, and a country band is playing the Cantina song from the original Star Wars film on fiddles. Alas, this also lends itself to another problem I had with the film - The movie mistakes references for actual humor. It expects us to smile and point at the screen, but it's not enough. The movie never generated enough laughs with me, not even when the movie becomes a road trip movie where Graeme and Clive try to help Paul get to his mothership, which is coming to pick him up. Along the way, they pick up a pretty young Bible-thumping fundamentalist Christian named Ruth (Kristen Wiig), whose encounter with the alien leads her to throw away her faith, and start awkwardly swearing like a sailor. She gets a couple sweet moments as she starts to develop feelings for Graeme, but her character never quite came together for me.
But then, very little came together for me while I was watching Paul. This is a movie that I kept on waiting to take off and become truly inspired, but it just kept on referencing other movies, and throwing its characters into a boring cross country chase I cared little about. The heroes are being chased by three "men in black" (led by Jason Bateman), who often make the Three Stooges look like members of Mensa. They, in turn, are taking orders from a higher up (Sigourney Weaver), who has little to do with anything in this movie, other than the fact she was in the Alien movies, and that's the joke. Speaking of desperate movie references, one of the characters has an odd name, just so the writers can make a joke about the movie Lorenzo's Oil. It got to the point that I wanted the movie to just stop catering to fanboys in the audience, and just give me something to care about.
Despite a game cast, the movie just never struck me as being all that funny. There are laughs here and there, but not the big ones we expect from a Pegg and Frost comedy, especially considering their much better past work. And then there's Seth Rogen as Paul, whose casting came across as a miscalculation, or a bad case of studio interference to me. While the creature design of Paul himself is quite nice, and the CG flawlessly mixed with the live actors, Rogen's performance just struck the wrong note with me from the moment the little guy walked on the screen. Aside from the underrated Observe and Report and Funny People, I have never found him likable as a leading man, and here he's equally flat. We're supposed to fall in love with his goofy charm, just like in a lot of his performances, but nothing that came out of the CG alien's mouth was making me laugh. It led to an odd disconnect. I liked Paul the creature in his design and the use of effects, but I disliked the performance behind it.
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