Paul (2011)

Director: Greg Mottola
Writer: Simon Pegg & Nick Frost

From zombie rampages to machine-gun-toting cops, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are back with their long-awaited follow-up to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Utterly crass and reading like a SF film homage checklist, Paul is definitely the brainchild of these two loveable geeks, but does it have enough substance to hold up on its own?

Pegg and Frost play Graeme Willy and “the writer Clive Gollings”, nerds living out every fanboy’s dream of a road trip across America, a nerd crusade to Comicon as well as half a dozen alleged UFO and extraterrestrial encounter sites. But things go awry as they always do and the duo find themselves face to face with Paul, the wise-cracking, potty-mouthed, pot-smoking, well-endowed little green man, a triumph of visual effects voiced by Seth Rogan. It’s a kind of magic when actors play themselves on screen. From here, the characters flee across the States, pursued by FBI agents, rednecks and a Christian fundamentalist with a shotgun.

The thing that most noticeably separates Paul from Pegg and Frost’s previous efforts is that the film seems instantly more accessible, more simplified, more Americanised. The bromance remains the same, but the actual flashes of genius are less frequent, the clever British humour swiftly reverting back to the default assurance that the word “cocksucker” will conjure laughs. It does in this case, but Pegg and Frost have proven that they are better than that on multiple occasions. Maybe it’s the absence of Edgar Wright, previous collaborator with the pair, having Directed and co-wrote both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Paul lacks Wright’s frenetic montage style, instead being approached in a more straight-forward fashion.

On top of this the film is packed full of homages and references to classic Science Fiction films which threatens to alienate half the audience. These adulations are clever and often subtle, and done in a tasteful and respectful way to nerds and geeks everywhere, never lowering themselves to slighting their beloved culture. But does referencing a film that is better than your film increase the quality of your film? Especially if the film descends into in-jokes once its well of inspiration has dried up? It certainly doesn’t help when I’m saying the quotes and thinking of the references in unison with the actors. I’m surprised it took so long for the famous Aliens quote to reach fruition.

Paul conforms to a traditional three-act structure, with obligatory love interest, underdeveloped Big Bad, obvious Starman plot device, and a happily ever after ending, all seemingly thrown in without too much deliberation as an obligation to American audiences, to whom the film owes credit as its co-financer. The backing has half the cast of Arrested Development included, as if to ease Americans into associating with these crazy Brits.

Still, none of Paul’s flaws and concessions are really enough to dull the comedy. The film still retains enough substance of its own, and the standout moments are classic Pegg and Frost. The problem is that there just aren’t enough of them to make the film particularly memorable, falling short of the dizzying heights of the duo’s previous efforts. I know I laughed, but I just can’t remember what I laughed at.

3½ / 5