Review of Paul (1974) by Matt C — 02 Nov 2013

I remember seeing this opening day back in March 2011 and finally re-watching it in June 2013. In retrospect for both times, it's such an incredibly disappointing film. I wish Simon Pegg and Nick Frost tidied up the script; you can tell that they tried to make it mainstream with lame jokes about weed, genitalia, sex, gay panic characters, anal probes, and excess profanity which works with anyone *but* Pegg and Frost.

And I love them both with all my heart. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End are each some of my favorite films of all time. If anyone else besides Greg Mottola directed this, it would have been tons better.

It's like he didn't get Pegg and Frost's humor. The film starts off well, and then becomes very clunky after the first 35 minutes or so. And the worst part is Kristin Wiig's character.

I love her too - she's hilarious and so likable - but she annoyed the living shit out of me. I know that that's the screenplay's fault, but her entire subplot becomes incredibly uncomfortable to watch.

She's portrayed as the dumbest woman ever due to her Christianity (which is so unrealistically portrayed) and it just made me feel bad watching her. It comes off as insanely condescending, but the worst part of it is that it could have been such great satire, but it's introduced, ditched, and never done any justice.

I read that they wanted to leave some parts of this subplot out for the sake of the film's coherence, but they should have just left it out all together. I understand the intention but it ultimately is just uneven and meaning offensive due to its lack of reasonable context or characterization or justification.

The movie's entertaining, but that's not to say that it's good or cohesive. For all of the thing's wrong with this film, I blame the directing and script supervisor's job. 6/10, one thumb down, very disappointing, below average, etc.