Paul Review

By Peter Allen On March 18, 2011 the movie Paul was released. Let me say that when Paul was first announced, I was a bit disappointed that it would not be the last of the Edgar Wright comedies. However, I was not going to let that disappointment ruin the day. I noticed that it did have Simon Pegg and Nick Frost from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (my two favorite films.) I also did a bit more research back in December and found out that the Actor Seth Rogan would be the voice of the alien, Paul. This got me really excited and made me want to see the movie immediately. Now for anyone who knows anything on science fiction, if you see this movie you will see some similarities from other nerdy films. This is exactly what the writers wanted. The writers (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) wanted this to be as they called it a love letter to Spielberg. Like their last two films, they wanted to show all the amazing science fiction movies from the past fifty years. The story is pretty much two British nerds go to Comic Con in the U.S. After the convention, they decide to go on a road trip to America’s top UFO hotspots. However, near area 51, they come into contact with Paul, an alien who had escaped Area 51 and who is voiced by Seth Rogan. Now, they must help Paul escape from the government and get him back home. Anyone who has seen the classic movie, ET will defiantly realize that these films are a lot alike. In fact, a lot of people call this movie ET for adults. I loved the story, throughout the movie, they have smart puns making fun of movies like Star Wars, Star Trek and other classic. In fact, there is one scene when they get into a bar fight and you should listen to the music in the background. I was actually pissing my pants from laughter. Also, the famous Kristin Wigg from SNL (Saturday Night Live) makes an appearance, and plays the overly religious nut. Grahm sort of fancies her and it is really funny to see this progress through the movie. There are also other actors, like Jason Bateman who plays the FBI agent and also, the famous Sigourney Weaver. These actors all play there roles perfect and get the lines out at just the right time. However, that does not mean that this movie has no problems with it. I have seen movies like Star Wars and Star Trek. So I did get a lot of the jokes. However, I think that there was a bit to much of making fun of other movies. I’m sorry for the pun but I think a lot of the jokes will alienate the audience. This movie never really does become its own film and I was a bit sad about that. There were a lots of laughs in this movie, but I think that they were expecting for the audience to have seen all of these films in the past. I wish that they had added there own humor in this film. However, I am glad that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost did add their own friendship in life into this movie. I did like this, because they are nerds in laugh. This is no lie, they go to Comic Con every year. However, at the beginning, they show a bit of a bromance and I wanted them to add to this through out the movie, but after Paul showed up, they sort of stopped this. I also hated the rating for this movie. I was so shocked when they announced that it would be rated R. It is just a lot of teenage humor that fourteen year olds love. And as I knew it would be, it was only rated R for the swear words. So Paul is not a horrible movie. It is far from it. It has some hilarious jokes and all the actors were awesome. Is it as good as Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, no. It is not that smart as Hot Fuzz, and not enough action as Shaun of the Dead. But all in all, this is defiantly a movie for science geeks which is why I will give it 3 stars out of 4.