"Paul" (2011) - Movie Review

An alien who has become more of cool human in the process of living in the Earth for some time now combines forces with two nerds for a ride back home. How does that sound for a premise? “Paul” is exactly that and Seth Rogen voices this CGI generated space dude. I think if they put up some funny looking alien make up on the actor itself and eliminated the CGI it would have been more energetic. Nevertheless CGI helps in lot of fast motions and invisibility stuff he pulls off making it a compromise for this hilarious road trip buddy film.

Greg Mottola the director of “Superbad” and “Adventureland” recruits the best in business of comedy. He gets Nick Frost and Simon Pegg penned script for starters and then get them to star in it. Then comes Jason Bateman, Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader to finish off this flick which has nothing but promises for great laughs. It takes a strong leftist opinion given the subject but does not take itself seriously enough to stamp it as an agenda.

Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) are two Englishmen taking a road trip through the Area 51 after completing their dream destination at Comic-Con convention in San Diego. Their travel is interrupted by a road crashing incident revealing the egoistic wise ass alien Paul. Clive faints while Graeme acts as if everything is fine and this is not unusual to see an alien talking fluent cursing English. That does not matter as this character will be the central play for so many laugh riots through the cross country adventure to make him catch his flight back to his home planet.

It is one of those road films where random chaos makes a fun ride but lately it has become a tore down routine. Films that could have made a real connection or real fun never comes itself on understanding what it wants. “Due Date” is one such example which despite its moments becomes mundane in providing too good to be true settlement in the end. “Paul” never takes itself seriously and almost resembles a marijuana drug trip than anything else.

It meddles around with Darwinism against crazy Christians and guess who wins and who is made fun of? Of course when there is an alien coming from a distant planet, you do not have much of an argument out there. And if you have the power to heal, become invisible by holding breath and transform the knowledge through the palm of your hand, you definitely know the winner of this great debate. Paul voiced by Seth Rogen is a hoot providing some unusual gigs. With Simon Pegg and Nick Frost the best buddies continuing their reign from “Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz” through this one have no issues being the nerds and flair their bromance for each other.

Jason Bateman is such a cool actor. Any role he takes he fits in like a glove. Take it the blood sucking heartless boss in “Up in the Air” or the cool dude in “Juno”, he truly is the next door neighbour to be friended for good times even when he is a Federal Agent chasing the alien down. He is the MIB and is rightfully accompanied by two aspiring side kicks Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio. Hader and Truglio have been the best men to rely on these comedies wherein their support is as much as crucial as the main elements of the film and I am waiting for their main venture to employ their skills on central stage than being backstage characters.

Kristin Wiig does yet another SNL kind of parody on the Christian fundamentalists and then transforms into cursing free spirit to become the love interest for Graeme. As similar to being in SNL, she can go full on and willing to jump in the wagon and take us till we laugh crazily at her antics. Here she invents some awesome combo cuss words which requires to have a great imagination in itself to pull off.

“Paul” is convincingly hilarious because the fun is real. This is a fantasy world for the geeks and they are not alone heroes because of the script making them so but also because they make it on their own terms. Riding always on the wings of some goofy lines of Seth Rogen’s Paul, the film never suffers of a dull moment and even in the cliched sequences adds its touch of comedic bliss. While the film will not be taken serious like many under appreciated comedy films, “Paul” is very capable of becoming a cult film gaining DVD and Blu Ray popularity to be living like a legend.