Paul (2011) Reviews

• RUN to the theatres to see this one!

  dapplegrey132011-03-03

  We saw it tonight with about 30 friends at a pre-release screening in Atlanta. Let me say I am a 50-yr-old female film-lover. Sci fi is not my favorite genre, but I have seen most of the sci fi classics. I didn't know what to expect as I am not always a sci-fi comedy fan. For instance, although mildly entertaining, I wasn't wild about "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". I was wild about some of the cast members, but not really the film. So, we arrived and the theatre was packed. They were turning people away at the door. Although I had qualms and wasn't sure I'd like it, it turns out I LOVED it! ALL of the audience members seemed to laugh themselves in to hysterics through much of the film. And the ENTIRE AUDIENCE CLAPPED WILDLY AT THE END! WARNING: This movie is NOT for the devoutly religious or for those who are offended by swearing and sexual references. Period. If you THINK you might be offended by anti-religion humor, swearing, or sexual references, then don't go. And I would recommend it for older teens only; NOT young teens. Amazingly, during the first 20 minutes or so, I found myself thinking 'This is delightful! If only they could keep it THIS funny for the rest of the film..... so many comedies start out with a bang and then are just "tired" by the end of the movie.....' But I couldn't have been more wrong. It not only kept up a wonderful pace, but introduced many great characters along the way. If you enjoyed "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz", this will be right up your alley. There were lots of sci fi movie references (Alien, ET, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, etc.) It had an AWESOME cast, MARVELOUS character development, and a terrific script that went from sweet and moving, to hilarious, to scary, and back. It was really SO MUCH FUN! It is lewd, it will certainly will be offensive to some American Christians, and it is totally sci-fi, but it's absolutely hilarious. So, you sci-fi comedy lovers, GO!! RUN to the theatre to see it on the big screen. Take friends and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

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• A pleasant surprise that had me laughing all the way

  n-kalimin2011-03-02

  I lucked out and received tickets to watch an advance screening of this movie. I had 0 expectations, the trailer didn't really show much, and generally went in with an open mind. Bottom line: no forced laughs and I laughed a plenty. The writing was absolutely brilliant. The gags are funny, and jokes come in smart and crude and those who are science fiction fans will get a huge kick out of how many hidden nods there are everywhere. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost did a fantastic job penning this script (as well as their acting)and well executed by Greg Mottola (Superbad and Adventureland). Simply put, I had a blast and it was just that much satisfying as a film overall. Personally, I would have given it a 10, but it may be hard to recommend to a wide audience. I would expect anyone aged from 16 to 30 would enjoy it the most given the amount of vulgarity in the movie. Basically, I wouldn't recommend it to my parents because they definitely will get turned off by it. I was initially skeptical about Seth Rogan voicing Paul: DON'T WORRY. He does a great job and you end up loving the character. All the actors in this film were great and you will enjoy their roles.

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• Ready to get probed?...

  paul_haakonsen2011-06-08

  From the trailers, I had come to expect quite a lot from the movie. Actually I had thought and believed the movie to be more than it actually was when I was done watching it. Now, I am not saying that the movie is bad or dull, far from it. The movie is pretty cool and fun, though there is nothing overly new and inventive about it. And that is what sort of made the movie a bit tame. The storyline in "Paul" is good. An alien has crashed on Earth and now many, many years later he escapes from captivity and hits the road, where he accidentally bump into Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings. With the government in chase, Paul and his newfound friends are racing to get across USA and to get Paul home. Right, well throughout the movie there was a bunch of subtle and not so subtle references to other movies. Many of these had me laughing, because they were hilarious and quite often in your face. And it was rather surreal to have a country/hillbilly band play the cantina band music from Star Wars, but it was hilarious. As for the cast and the acting in the movie. Well, it has long been established that Simon Pegg (playing Graeme Willy) and Nick Frost (playing Clive Gollings) have amazing on-screen chemistry and they add a lot to each other. So it was nice to have another movie with them working together. Jason Bateman (playing agent Zoil; you will love his full name when it is revealed) also did a good job. He was cool and to the point, and his character was really awesome. Bill Hader (playing Haggard) and Joe Lo Truglio (playing O'Reilly) worked well together as a goofy police unit, and added some weird comedy to the movie. It was a shame that Sigourney Weaver (playing The Big Guy) had such a small role. But despite this, she always delivers a good performance. And I just loved what was said right after she got punched in the face. That was one of my favorite movie references in "Paul". Now, Seth Rogen (the voice of Paul) is not really one of my favorite actors, but he did a good job with the voice-acting in this movie. For a comedy, don't expect to be laughing throughout the entire movie. The movie is driven by a good story and spiced with comedy here and there. Which in itself is a good combination, and it worked well for this movie. Not to forget the CGIs in the movie. They were excellent. The character Paul was so nicely made, and the textures of his skin, face and eyes was off the charts. And those effects really helped carry the movie. "Paul" is a great movie, though it is not Simon Pegg's and Nick Frost's best movie, it takes a lot to top "Shaun of the Dead". But it is a good enough attempt, and the movie works well enough all together. A movie with a great story, some laughs here and there, and it will take you out of this world.

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• Sure it's not a comedic masterpiece, but its a lot of fun

  KnightsofNi112011-03-26

  It's been a long wait, but finally, for the first time since 2007 Simon Pegg and Nick Frost team up once again as the unstoppably funny duo. Their pairing this time isn't quite at the same quality of comedy as Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead but let's face it, those two movies are comedy gold. Paul is still hilarious and it is rife with highly quotable jokes that you can laugh about for days. Plus it has plenty of great nerdy sci-fi humor that only us true geeks and catch on to. Paul follows two British tourists in America, Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) who are traveling cross-country to visit all of the most famous UFO sightings in America. While in Area 51 they pick up a hitchhiking alien named Paul who is excellently voiced by Seth Rogen. Graeme and Clive quickly learn that agreeing to protect this extraterrestrial is giving them a lot more than they bargained for as they are chased by the FBI, hillbillies, and a religious shotgun toting nut job. If there's one thing I can commend Paul on, it's finally giving us the satisfaction of an R rated sci-fi comedy. The blend of the two genres is great and making it a vulgar, violent riot is just what fans needed with so many lame PG-13 comedies floating around these days. Pegg and Frost wrote a hilarious script for this movie, one that easily could have been ruined by a few edits to suit a PG-13 rating. But thankfully they got to keep it their way and give us something obscenely entertaining. Paul isn't one of those profound comedies that breaks the barriers of typical comedy or goes unforgettably above and beyond, but it is really funny. The jokes are hilarious almost every time. It's not high brow comedy by any means and there are a number of fart jokes, gay jokes, poop jokes, and so on and so forth, but I can't say that they didn't make me laugh because I most certainly did. But as an added bonus the film is filled to the brim with sci-fi film references. They range from blatant, like a set of fireworks that make the Close Encounters of the Third Kind tone, to as subtle as the band in the bar playing the Mos Eisley cantina song from Star Wars. This has got to be one of the nerdiest scripts ever written, and I absolutely loved it. I'm sure there are a number of references I missed or didn't get, but that's just because every little thing is a reference to some sort of sci-fi film or theme. To quote the Brits, "It's brilliant!" There's no two ways about it, Paul is cast perfectly. Pegg and Frost are obviously excellent and you couldn't find a better duo of British nerds anywhere. Seth Rogen does a surprisingly good job voicing the alien, whose animations are also excellent and add a lot of comedy to the film. Other supporting characters are great in their roles, like Kristen Wiig playing the neurotic ex-Christian Ruth Buggs. Jason Bateman plays a straight man role as the FBI agent leading the chase after Paul and he is hilarious in his own deadpan way. Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio play two other FBI agents who make a hilarious little side pair of characters who have their own running jokes and quirks. Then there are tons of cameos from very recognizable actors such and Jeffrey Tambor, Janey Lynch, David Koechner, and even Sigourney Weaver. There's hardly an actor in this film that I don't go, "Hey! I recognize that guy" when I seem him or her. Paul by no means transcends the comedy genre but it is no doubt funny. If you don't find at least some of the humor in this film amusing then there is something wrong with you. Sure it's cheesy at moments, OK it can be predictable at times, but as a comedy it really works and it gave me a solid hour and forty minutes of great entertainment. If you love a good R rated comedy, go see this movie, and if you're a sci-fi nerd you have to see this movie just for the fun of catching references. This is a great little comedy that is plenty of fun to watch.

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• After lampooning the cop-buddy and zombie flick genre, Pegg and Frost take their turn to meet E.T and do the same.

  musanna-ahmed2011-02-15

  Shaun of the Dead – great. Hot Fuzz – brilliant. Paul, The third collaboration between the two best friends Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is another action-packed comedy featuring an alien, guns, and Jason Bateman. Unlike the previous films the pair starred in, Paul still has the strong bromance between the two but takes a turn to be more of what Scott Pilgrim Vs the World was instead of Hot Fuzz. Scott Pilgrim – directed by Edgar Wright who also directed the first two films mentioned – was a geek-friendly action comedy. Paul is more of a geek-friendly comedy. It's crude, so think Superbad (Greg Mottola had directed that too) instead of Shaun. Then add the whole 'comic' tone of Scott Pilgrim – the great action scenes but less violent and amusing ones instead, and two geeks who are into comics rather than in the comic like Scott Pilgrim was. And add E.T gone comedy with the voice of Seth Rogen. Plus add a cameo from Sigourney Weaver. Then you have Paul, a geeky, clever, and very funny film but simultaneously you then have its problem. As you could probably figure from the description above, the problem being said is that Paul tries to pack too much in during the encounter with the alien itself. The running time is a perfect 104 minutes. But by the end of those 104 minutes, there are several suggested sub- plots and alternate directions that could have been taken to reach the destination. One sub-plot involves Paul shattering Ruth's (Kristen Wiig) faith. It's an odd film to have a religious subtext in and it will maybe have questions thrown at in terms of what message is trying to be said. Nevertheless, those 104 minutes are brimmed with pure entertainment and the plot is established enough to make sense and not take a wrong turn. With an ensemble cast, what makes Paul especially hilarious is how every character in the film has a moment of comedy gold. That includes Adam Stevenson – famous writer whom they meet at a Comic-Con festival and simply has five on-screen minutes. Five amusing on-screen minutes. Pegg and Frost are as funny as they were before, fizzing chemistry over Area 51, still the brilliant duo that work better than Pegg and Andy Serkis did in Pegg's last film Burke and Hare. They're buddies with mutual buddy-love that are better together than most odd pairings. It's (probably) guaranteed that they will stay as the best British duo even off-screen as Thomson and Thompson in the upcoming Tintin film which is to be directed by veteran sci-fi director Steven Spielberg. It's reported that Pegg and Frost said that Paul was a love letter to Spielberg – it sure is an amusing one, and is certainly the best Valentine-themed film this Valentine's Day. The pair wrote the screenplay for this film – so expect many contemporary references – plenty of sci-fi ones – and clever gags. At times, the jokes can feel a little self indulgent; inside jokes that would probably confuse most and only careful listeners can interpret the clever jokes. The majority of the script, however, is a laugh-a-minute ride with some recurring jokes that become funnier and funnier throughout. Paul's part of the script gives a big L to The Green Hornet; Seth Rogen was much funnier off screen. The actor was miscast as the green superhero so there were dreads of him being miscast as this green amiable alien but kudos to Pegg and Frost because this was the perfect script for Rogen to show that The Green Hornet's failed hilarity wasn't detrimental. Looking at another view, if Rogen was the screenwriter for Paul, then maybe it would have been of the dull standard of the Hornet unless he can still write something on par with Superbad. Imagine that. Paul may be a funnier film for the more clever/geeky viewer. If that's the case, the words 'Cult Following' can be seen written all over it. For all other audience, Pegg and Frost haven't diminished in their comedy quality from their previous films even though Paul may be broader than either of them. If Scott Pilgrim was the geekiest film of last year, Paul definitely wins that title for this year. It may not be an Out of This World film (pun partially intended) but lays claim to the most hilarious film of 2011 yet. Verdict: Your money's worth – Paul is the funniest film there has been in ages.

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