Review of Paul (2011) by Panchavi — 18 Mar 2011
This was B+ movie. These 2 guys are good, but given the brilliant set up - british dudes & alien road movie in america's west - the story could have been much more gritty, unusual, eccentric, weird & inventive.
you kinda get the feeling that director Greg Mottola's great instincts as director got dulled & dumbed down to pulp by the universal's tsunami of dreary. Feels like a kid's movie with a lot of been-there-100,000-times cliche Seth Rogen riffs.
.. like insert curse, blah blah blah, insert curse... rinse, repeat. Should have used someone unexpected like George Clooney, who could've pulled this off with a lot more quirky intelligence & wittiness (like in Mr.
Fox). Movie is weighed down by Seth Rogen, who's a good actor but has way way way way way way overplayed this schtick. You kinda get the feeling that Mottola got highjacked & maybe got stuffed in the trunk while this movie went down the highway.
Don't think he wrote this but if he did, it got shredded -- could have been a lot funnier and more insightful, with a lot fewer unbelievably obvious cliches that make a big deal of being obvious so that it's like kitchy obvious as "cool" obvious.
.. but totally fails in that sense, like the evangelical thing. Aside from all that, I had like 7-10 out loud laughs, and that was well worth it. Final: funny, but nowhere near as good as the story idea makes you believe.
This review of Paul (2011) was written by Panchavi on 18 Mar 2011.
Paul has generally received positive reviews.
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