{"id":1425,"date":"2011-03-17T20:51:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T13:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dvdpinson.com\/?p=540"},"modified":"2011-03-17T20:51:40","modified_gmt":"2011-03-17T13:51:40","slug":"paul-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=1425","title":{"rendered":"Paul Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Paul<\/h2>\n

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A Sci-Fi Comedy with Depth<\/em><\/strong>
\nSimon Pegg<\/a> and Nick Frost<\/a>, the team that brought us “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” have teamed up yet again for “Paul.” This time the two play Graeme Wily (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), two best friends on an adventure through America\u2019s UFO-related hotspots. Along the way they encounter an alien voiced by Seth Rogen<\/a> (\u201cKnocked Up\u201d<\/a>, \u201cFunny People\u201d<\/a>, \u201cThe Green Hornet\u201d<\/a>), who is on the run from the U.S. Federal Government.\u00a0 Hot on their trails are Jason Bateman<\/a> (\u201cArrested Development\u201d<\/a> , \u201cJuno\u201d<\/a>) as Agent Zoil and two Federal Agent rookies played by Bill Hader<\/a> (\u201cAdventureland\u201d<\/a>, \u201cForgetting Sarah Marshall\u201d<\/a>) and Jo Lo Truglio<\/a> (\u201cSuperbad\u201d<\/a>, \u201cThe State\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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The movie opens with our protagonists attending the San Diego Comic Con. It\u2019s readily apparent that Frost and Pegg have had some experience at these events, as they treated both the artists and the fans with both honesty and respect with their dialogue.\u00a0 It\u2019s also clear from the outset that the two have a genuine love and appreciation for Comic Con, as they did their best to highlight both the good and bad elements of the annual convention. Jeffrey Tambor<\/a> (\u201cThe Larry Sanders Show\u201d<\/a>) has a great turn as Adam Shadowchild, a comic-book creator that Graeme and Clive both idolize.<\/p>\n

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The action moves along quickly once the two leave the convention and set out on their RV road trip though the major UFO-haunts of the country\u2019s southwest region. Jane Lynch<\/a> (\u201cGlee\u201d<\/a>, \u201cThe 40 Year-Old Virgin\u201d<\/a>) and David Koechner<\/a> (\u201cAnchorman\u201d<\/a>) have some\u00a0 funny dialogue\u00a0in their\u00a0turns as locals\u00a0of a small New Mexico town. In these interactions, you can tell that Pegg and Frost view certain members of the population as possibly being a bit \u201chickish.\u201d However it isn\u2019t offensive in how they show the latent homophobia in the small town bullies.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in their interaction with Kristen Wiig<\/a> (\u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d<\/a>, \u201cMacGruber\u201d<\/a>) as Ruth Buggs, a devout born-again Christian that the audience sees some of the thematic undercurrent of the film come to the forefront. After all, the existence of an alien life form would challenge even the most staunchly faithful. The film states its beliefs on creationism versus evolution quite strongly, but never ventures into insulting those it may disagree with philosophically. It\u2019s clear that Pegg and Frost are firm believers in the evolutionary explanation of life, but they make the point\u00a0 that no one in the universe has all <\/em>the answers.<\/p>\n

As is to be expected from this pairing, this film definitely pays homage in several places to the classic films of the genre. \u00a0In fact, there\u2019s no one better at writing original stories that pay homage to the films they\u2019re inspired by. Any criticisms of the references could be some of them might be on the more obscure side and go over the \ufeffheads of some viewers. This could have been Pegg and Frost\u2019s intentions, however, so as not to hit the audience over the head with too many pop culture mentions.<\/p>\n

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Greg Mottola<\/a> (\u201cAdventureland\u201d<\/a>, \u201cSuperbad\u201d<\/a>) takes the helm as director for this film. It\u2019s the first motion picture Pegg and Frost have done as a team without Edgar Wright<\/a> (\u201cScott Pilgrim vs. the World\u201d<\/a>). The differences are quite apparent from the outset. While Wright\u2019s pacing tends to be full-tilt from the opening titles, Mottola seems more content to let the action unfold more organically, or at least as organically as a film like this can evolve.<\/p>\n

If there is one criticism, it could be that Rogen, while completely apt for this role can be a little distracting since he wasn\u2019t doing \u201ca voice.\u201d The decision to have Rogen use his own voice works both in favor and against the alien\u2019s character. On one hand it immediately lends a comedic quality, seeing a green alien speak with a pseudo-stoner lilt. But on the other you almost \u201csee\u201d Rogen instead of Paul in certain scenes.<\/p>\n

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As the film ramped to its conclusion, the pacing picked up and felt just like one of the films referenced either by dialogue or even by the shots themselves. It is impossible to create a film like this without a deep knowledge and understanding of how the genre works. \u201cShaun of the Dead\u201d and \u201cHot Fuzz\u201d showed Pegg and Frost\u2019s knowledge base was deep when it came to the horror and action genres; \u201cPaul\u201d proves their love of Sci-Fi is just as strong.
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hljxH-QJq1g
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul A Sci-Fi Comedy with Depth Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the team that brought us “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” have teamed up yet again for “Paul.” This time the two play Graeme Wily (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), two best friends on an adventure through America\u2019s UFO-related hotspots. Along the way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2739,6717,8005,8632,9359,10407,10537,10734,11865,11899,14802,15814,17697,17772,18073,18187,18424,19351,21238],"class_list":["post-1425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-bill-hader","tag-edgar-wright","tag-funny-people","tag-greg-mottola","tag-hot-fuzz","tag-jason-bateman","tag-jeffrey-tambor","tag-jo-lo-truglia","tag-knocked-up","tag-kristen-wiig","tag-nick-frost","tag-paul","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-sci-fi","tag-seth-rogen","tag-shaun-of-the-dead","tag-simon-pegg","tag-superbad","tag-the-larry-sanders-show"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}