Paul Review

 

Paul is the latest film from Greg Mottola director of Superbad (Yay!) and Adventureland (Boo!). Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Seth Rogan is the typical comedy you would expect from it's stars and director, but does that make the film any good? Lets take a look.

Paul centers around Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost), two British nerds on their first ever trip to the San Diego Comic-Con. That is only where their trip begins as they plan to travel the U.S. in an RV to see the various Alien landmarks of the country. One late night of traveling they come across a reckless driver who crashes in front of them. When they stop to check the scene they meet Paul (Seth Rogen), and Alien who has been on Earth since the 1940s and is desperately wanting to return to his home town. Graeme and Clive then take in Paul and guide him to where he can call down his escape ship, only they are also being followed by the Government who desperately want to re-capture Paul and stop his escape.

If you enjoyed the smooth flow of comedy from Superbad then you will thoroughly enjoy this film. It begins a little slow with the comedy based on the comic books that Graeme and Clive read (all of them made up just for the film) along with some gay innuendos between the two best friends. Once The two of them meet Paul that is really where the film picks up. Paul is an alien that has truly accepted the human culture and fluently speaks the language as well as slang and foul mouthed humor. So it's pretty much if Seth Rogen was an alien that smoked pot. all of Paul's lines are well written and Rogen executes them perfectly. It really reminds you of why you liked this guy in the first place when he first started appearing in movies.

Pegg and Frost give their usual performances that they have in their other films like Hot Fuzz and Shaun of The Dead which are certainly enjoyable and you get a firm grasp of how close of friends these two are. They do have a similar feeling of tension and jealousy between them (mainly Clive being jealous of Graeme) that is similar to Seth and Evan from Superbad, though they never have a huge blow up like the Superbad duo did. As far as supporting roles you have Kristen Wiig as Ruth Buggs, crazy christian and love interest for Graeme. She has a few funny scenes and never really wears out her welcome or becomes annoying. Next is Jason Bateman as Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil, the lead agent in pursuit of Paul. He is accompanied by Bill Hader as Agent Haggard and Joe Lo Truglio as O' Reilly. Bateman's scenes are great with his serious yet comedic tone, he also has my favorite line in the move "Mother Fucking Titty Sucking Two Balled Bitch". Hader plays a straight man pretty much with only one scene where he acts goofy at all. Truglio just plays the typical bumbling idiot agent who is there to give you a quick laugh, he does an OK job but nothing to write home about.

This is definitely a comedy that fits in well with the likes of Superbad and The Hangover. Paul may not be as good as the previously mentioned films but it holds it's own and is an entertaining film to see on a nice afternoon. Certainly recommend it and am almost certain you will have a fun time.