PAUL (Greg Mottola). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NNN
While not a breakthrough on the level of Shaun Of The Dead or Hot Fuzz, writer/stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Paul features an appealingly oddball premise.
An alien-encounter comedy for a generation raised on Star Trek and The X-Files, Paul finds Pegg and Frost celebrating their inner geeks as Graeme and Clive, a pair of English sci-fi nerds who stumble across an actual ET on a road trip through America’s most famous alien encounter sites. It’s up to them to help their new friend get home before the government can recapture him, which would be much easier if the good-time alien (voiced by Seth Rogen) didn’t keep insisting they stop for beer and weed.
Greg Mottola is a decent enough director, but he doesn’t have the same innate facility with pop texts as Edgar Wright, who set an awfully high bar with Pegg and Frost’s earlier features. Paul never becomes more than the sum of its references.
Still, watching the pair goof around with a CG alien is pleasantly charming, and the supporting cast – Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio – is solid. Even if Paul amounts to nothing more than a good time, it’s still a good time, right?
