Film Reviews

Paul

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Simon Pegg
• Details: US/103mins 15A

Reuniting for the first time since Hot Fuzz, the Pacino and De Niro of the geek world, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, co-star and co-pen this amusing, star heavy production. Bringing along Superbad and Advetureland director Greg Mottola for the ride, and transferring their pop-culture saturated shenanigans to America were both wise moves - as was casting a scene-stealing Seth Rogen. Paul is slight, but an awful lot of fun, and fans and newcomers to the world of Pegg and Frost should find themselves thoroughly entertained.
Pegg and Frost play two British geeks hitting up Comic-Con in San Diego, before taking an unconventional road trip to some of the biggest Alien hot-spots through-out America. The holiday turns out to be even more eventful than they imagined, as they piss off a bunch of hillbillies, god freaks and an unnamed government agency. The latter are hot on their trail on account of their new pal, Paul - a chain smoking, sarcastic alien with a mouth like a possessed teenage girl. He wants off planet earth, and has managed to escape to clutches of the men in black, with the aforementioned geeks his only hope of getting home.
Whilst it certainly borrows liberally from other productions, Pegg and Frost's films have always done so with respect, firmly landing in the (flattering) homage category. Paul is basically Dumb and Dumber with some geek and science fiction elements thrown in to the pot, and mixed by a director who knows funny. Mottola completely gets the tone that Pegg and Frost were going for, and mixes all the elements together coherently. As a road movie, Paul needs to keep moving - not easy with a concoction of characters as vast, and silly, as this. So credit must go to the helmer for his steady hand.
Strangely, not a lot of the comedy comes from Pegg and Frost. They're too daft to be considered straight-up characters, but the chuckles don't transfer to belly laughs until Rogen's ET, Paul, turns up. The Knocked Up actor may only be on screen vocally, but his horsey, dulcet tones are used to their usual acerbic effect. Bateman hasn't a lot to do as the agent chasing them down, while recognisable faces Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio take the stupid to the next level as the bumbling rookies, assigned to help Bateman track down the tourists.
Spaced fans may be a little grated by the broadness of the some of the comedy, but Paul is less indulgent than previous efforts from the pairing, but every bit as fun.

Review by Mike Sheridan