Review of Paul (2011) by Kenneth L — 05 Jan 2013

This isn't quite as great as some of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's earlier collaborations, but it's still a friendly, amusing, and proudly geeky movie. It's a treat for anyone who knows their canonical science fiction, and a better mainstream media portrayal of nerdiness than something like The Big Bang Theory.

The premise is pretty simple and cute: Pegg and Frost play a couple of sci-fi geeks on a road trip across America whose dream comes true: they meet an alien. It turns out that the alien, voiced by Seth Rogen, is a pretty laid-back dude, although they have to help him escape from the government.

The cast combines a number of British and American comedy favorites. Pegg and Frost are both very funny here, though Pegg isn't quite as frantic as he often is. The portrayal of their friendship is actually kind of sweet. Seth Rogen's character is pretty much like every other Seth Rogen character, except that he's an alien. Kristen Wiig turns up as the obligatory love interest, but her role is actually significantly more well-developed and humorous than women usually get in dude comedies like this. Jason Bateman is ok as a government agent in pursuit of the protagonists, though he doesn't get to be very funny here. Jane Lynch steals one scene, and there are a couple of brilliant cameos I won't spoil.

The movie has tons of references to classic sci-fi movies, and comes up with a clever explanation for why aliens in movies often look the same. One of my favorite little homages was one of the most subtle: when the characters enter a bar, a band is fiddling a country version of the cantina music from Star Wars. The movie is filled with gags and nods like that, and some of them are quite funny. Although the movie never quite reaches the same levels of outright hilariousness that other projects associated with the people who made it have (e.g., Pegg and Frost's Shaun of the Dead, director Greg Mottola's Superbad, Rogen's Knocked Up, Wiig's Bridesmaids, or Bateman's work on Arrested Development), the movie is good at sustaining a pleasant, friendly mood throughout its entire running time. So, while it's not a classic, it's certainly enjoyable.