Wednesday Review: Paul

Susan:
When I first saw the trailer for Paul, I thought to myself, “Well, this could really go either way couldn’t it?”  I mean, in its favor was the fact that it was a Simon Pegg movie (Shaun of the Dead, Spaced, but also that bad one about cops).  But it also seems to star a CGI alien stoner dude with a beer belly and hippie pants who is voiced by Seth Rogan.  One had to wonder if the thing would be more Howard the Duck or more…well come to think of it, I can’t think of a movie that has a CGI/animated/animatronic lead that wasn’t kind of dumb.  I’m sure Geoff will have one he can think of due to his bibliographic knowledge of like everything.

But anyway here is what happens in the thing:  Two Brits named Graeme and Clive (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) come to America to go to Comic Con and drive along the Extraterrestrial Highway (or something) to look at alien landing sites.  Along the way, they see an accident and find that the driver of the car was actually a small alien named Paul who apparently landed on earth in the “Roswell” crash that didn’t actually happen in Roswell, but rather happened in Wyoming somewhere.  Apparently Paul has been helping the U.S. (both the government and film industry) for years, but now that he’s exhausted his wealth of knowledge they want to harvest his brain for stem cells so they can gain his powers.  The “they” to which I refer here is of course that same ominous “they” that hid the alien contact in the first place.  FBI or CIA or something.  The men in black.  But I digress.  Point is, Paul has escaped, and the two Brits help him continue his journey to where his alien friends will pick him up.  They are chased by three “agents” of whatever agency (Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, and Joe Lo Truglio) and encounter adventures along the way, including picking up a näive evangelical Christian woman (Kristen Wiig) with whom Graeme falls instantly in love.  Of course they narrowly escape all the bad stuff and eventually make it to the rendezvous point, only to be caught by “The Big Guy” (Sigourney Weaver) who is in charge of, you know, the shadow agency thing.  In a break with tradtion, I am not going to spoil the ending for you, readers, even though you can probably guess what happens.

The thing had its cheesy moments and a lot of the funniest jokes were in the trailer, which ruined them.  But there were also a lot of unexpectedly funny moments, especially those that made fun of the gun-toting, Bible-beating culture of the American West (or maybe just America if we’re honest with ourselves).  And there was also a lot of heart without sap.  I don’t know that I’d recommend someone pay to see this in a theater, but I also don’t really want to diss it too heartily.  It’s sort of like that really nice guy you know whom you don’t really *like* but whom you also can’t bring yourself to say anything to mean about.  It was just a pleasant film.  I had a fine time.

Geoff:
Hmm … E.T., maybe? Wait, no. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? That was a good animated-main-character movie. You’re right that they’re few and far between, though.

I feel like, if our feelings about this movie existed on a scale, Susan, you would be at maybe a 6 or 7, and I would be at a 4 or 5. You’re right that there are occasional little jokes that worked. I was amused by Paul’s arguments with a devout Christian, and I liked the remarks from the Brits on the small things they find odd in America (we leave the tea bags in the mug), and I had a good time with the references and allusions in the film, which you’ll usually get several of with a Pegg/Frost-written flick. Here, the film is largely an homage to various alien films, including Aliens (that they got Blythe Danner to say “get away from her, you bitch!” before hitting Sigourney Weaver was particularly fun), Star Wars, Star Trek, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T.—and as usual with Pegg and Frost, the references are at least a small treat if nothing else.

I think what I didn’t enjoy so much about the film is that it seemed to rely more on references and homage than on its own good humor, which might be due to a combination of Edgar Wright’s absence as director and Pegg and Frost maybe phoning it in a bit this time and Seth Rogen being himself. I’d say wait to see it for real cheap on Netflix Instant if you feel you absolutely must.

Susan:
I definitely don’t disagree with you, Geoff.  It’s just that I did find it charming and sweet enough to not really want to say anything too bad about it.  But really, this is an insta-Netflix classic in the making.  It’s going to be really good when it’s free.

I think it speaks to the dearth of good bits that I’m struggling now to think of more things I enjoyed to cite here.  Most of the jokes were joke-y and not really surprising enough to stick with you or to warrant repetition.  I guess my favorites were the ones that pointed out how awful America is–like the conversation with the cop in the gas station, where he says, “I heard they don’t have guns in England,” and when the Brits respond, “Yeah, not very many,” he said, “Well how are the police going to shoot anybody?”  I thought that was a pretty funny commentary on gun culture in the US and also the whole police-state thing that so many academic folks are talking about these days.

There was nothing really OFFENSIVE about the film, but there was also nothing really AWESOME.  Which is shocking mostly because the cast was full of people who I find almost inherently funny.  I mean Kirsten Wiig, Bill Hader, AND Jason Bateman all had major roles in the thing, and I’m still struggling to remember good moments?

I think you’re right:  The thing just relied too heavily on homage and kitsch.  It’s a bit like a tacky alien gift shop somewhere along the highway near a tourist spot–full of a bunch of junk that’s pretty neat but that you don’t really need to buy and take home.

Geoff:
An apt final analogy, Susan. And I’m left with very little else to say. The movie is an incredibly bland brand of funny. The pacing’s not all that great (something Edgar Wright probably would have helped with a lot–not to harp on that point too much) and the plot is just there to service the humor, so what you’re left to try to appreciate is the cleverness and/or wryness of the humor, which itself misses about as much as it hits.

Unlike you, Susan, I enjoyed “that cop movie” (better known as Hot Fuzz), and I thought maybe Pegg and Frost had found a niche for themselves writing good original mockery of/homage to specific film genres. But Paul ends up being more mockery/homage than anything all that original, which in a lot of ways makes me see it as a step back for the duo. I guess I’ll just have to wait around and hope their next thing’s better.