Paul (Blu-ray + DVD)

Not up with the best hifi films

This film is very funny taking the micky out of a few Sci-Fi genres

Paul sees two comic book geeks (Simon Pegg & Nick Frost) take a road trip to Area 51, where they run into alien called Paul (Seth Rogen). With federal agents (Jason Bateman, Bill Hader & Joe Lo Truglio) in pursuit they must find a way to return Paul to his spaceship.Despite lacking the creativity of Edgar Wright’s direction and the wit of his writing, Paul is still an entertaining road trip with Pegg & Frost’s usual great double lead chemistry, plus Rogen’s foul mouthed stoner alien and their writing balancing immaturity, sci-fi and friendship very well, whilst also being backed up by a brilliant supporting cast.The story takes the very familiar road trip comedy formula and adds a layer of sci-fi, comic book and geek culture that harks back to their Spaced roots as well as incorporating a more ‘American’ approach to the comedy, that admittedly does lack the cult and clever appeal of their work with Wright but also makes for several genuinely hilarious moments throughout and many memorable lines and callbacks.There is some surprisingly well choreographed and fast paced chase sequences that constantly keep the pace up of the film and are interspersed with more chilled out and character focused moments. From a direction and visual perspective the film is fairly basic but it gets the job done. The CGI and movements of Paul is done extremely well and looks very realistic at times even nearly 10 years later.As mentioned earlier Pegg & Frost are still great here as the lead duo, with Graham and Clive being a likeable pair. Seth Rogen brings his stoner persona and rude slapstick and toilet humour to Paul with great effect. Jason Bateman’s dry sarcastic tone and deadly serious persona as Agent Zoil works well and his bumbling colleagues played by Bill Hader & Joe Lo Truglio are a riot. Kristen Wiig is cooky and enthusiastic as very religious Ruth who gets dragged along on the trip and Sigourney Weaver gives a seething scenery chewing performance as The Big Guy.Paul is an underrated and entertaining early 10’s comedy with an excellent cast, fast paced and engaging road trip premise and some genuinely funny moments. It is very familiar at times and the character arcs and jokes are predictable at times, however that doesn’t stop it being a tonne of fun.

Love it

Loved watching this film

Funny but naughty film, good quality DVD

The syrupy geek sentiment that forms the lifeblood of Paul carries a charm that's nearly impossible to resist. And even if this loving homage to all things sci-fi never quite hits the sturdy comedic stride of, Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz (the two films audiences are most likely to compare it to) movie lovers will still have a field day wading through the nonstop film references and fans of in jokes and Easter eggs will find plenty to chuckle about.From Spaced onward, long-time collaborators (and renowned off-screen pals) Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have constructed nearly their entire careers on the foundation of clever film references and being nerdy about it. But it seems the longer the self-professed fan boys stick to their routine formula of paying homage, the less effective it becomes. Perhaps in this film it's due to the notable absence of long-time collaborator Edgar Wright? This road trip comedy does lack the creative flair that Wright brought in Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz.Still, saying that Paul is the least inspired work from the people who gave us some of the previous decade's best comedies isn't to say that it's an outright failure, just that it's pretty much on par with your average Hollywood comedy, only with a nerdy slant.It is hard not to love a film that's so unabashed in its love for all things nerd.And despite the fact that the gimmick of a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking Grey Alien with the personality of Seth Rogen could wear thin rather quickly, the character of Paul is animated in a way that still makes him endearing.Thankfully Paul brings geek humour to the masses relatively well; however, if Pegg and Frost are truly going to have any staying power on the big screen, I think future projects are best done under the creative eye of Edgar Wright.

Pegg/Frost's latest comedy collaboration is a space-alien/conspiracy genre road movie. Frost is a sci-fi writer and Pegg his artist who following a comic convention in the USA head along the UFO tourist trail in a hired Winnebago, taking in the famous sights from UFO and conspiracy lore. When following a mysterious car crash in the dead of night they come across a grey alien on the run from the ubiquitous "men in black", the film follows how two comic-book/UFO geeks would react if they actually did run into the true source of their fantasies.The alien, Paul, has learned English at the hands of the US authorities and as a result has turned out vulgar and foul-mouthed. After he joins them, Pegg and Frost's much more innocent characters "accidentally rescue" a Born Again Christian from her oppressive father while trying to keep Paul's presence a secret, which leads to a couple of scenes that the overly religious may find either insulting or funny, depending upon their level of fundamentalism.The Pegg/Frost collaborations often take a genre which has an existing cult fan base (e.g. Hot Fuzz the Dennis Wheatley film / Rosemary's Baby-style satanic conspiracy spoof, Shaun Of The Dead the spoof on cult zombie movies) and loads them with a range of genre references, much like their TV show  Spaced [1999 ].  Men In Black 1997) was another comedy in this genre to load-up with references, appealing to both the hard-line geek and the casual viewer in different ways.I personally enjoyed it very much and found it very funny, and like most of the duo's films it displays their ability to carry the similarities of Pegg and Frost's characters and relationship over into what often turn out to be very dissimilar films.