BOTTOM
LINE:
Proving
to be extremely funny, “Paul” is a well executed comedy
that makes great use of all the alien and UFO mythologies, as well
as old Spielberg films, to produce a fun ride with characters that
are enjoyable to watch.
THE
GOOD: Graeme
(Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) are two sci-fi geeks who attend
Comic-Con and then go on a road trip across America to visit all
the well known UFO hot spots. During their journey, they inadvertently
take on a passenger, the sarcastic, but well meaning alien “Paul”
(voiced by Seth Rogen), who is looking to go home and avoid capture
by the men in black. This sets the scene for a number of very funny
set pieces as the trio voyage across America with the government
suits in pursuit. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are excellent in the
leads, and in many ways add a different flavour to the film being
English. The sardonic and dry wit that they impart through their
characters give the film an added dimension. The standout character
of course is “Paul”, both in the computer animation
that brought him to life and the hilarious voice work imparted by
Seth Rogen. What makes it so funny is that Paul has picked up so
many human habits, and appears better at them than the humans in
the story, from witty swearing to smoking joints. There are a lot
of nice touches such as Paul’s flashback to when he advised
Steven Spielberg on how best to portrays aliens in E.T. and Close
Encounters of the Third Kind, to the typical red-neck characters
that try to intimidate the ‘queer’ geeks but get frightened
by Paul’s threat of probing, to the rip-off of the ending
of E.T. and the awkward moment it generates when the spaceship takes
too long to take off. “Paul” is a very funny and smart
sci-fi comedy that hits the right marks when needed.
