Paul – Movie Discussion

Paul was awesome. I liked it a lot. It falls short of greatness because of Seth Rogen’s voice and the lack of director Edgar Wright, Pegg and Frost’s frequent collaborator.

Paul is about two nerds from England who travel from Comic Con to all the major alien sites in American. Now keep in mind when you’re reading this, that I’ve been to these places. My brother was one of these types when we were young. He was obsessed with aliens. He had books, movies, posters, and comics, all relating to aliens.

I’ve been to Area 51 exactly fifty years after the supposed landing there. Fact. It was a circus. I even signed a petition requesting that the government expose what it knows about the incident. This was only after my brother forced me to do so. I knew then, as I know now, that all these incidents were nonsense. But I digress…

Pegg and Frost, playing themselves basically, go cross-country and end up running into Paul. Paul is an alien who crashed during one of these incidents and has been helping the government ever since. He even helps out with other things…but I won’t spoil that. The movie is just a chase-type flick where the government is trying to catch them and kill them.

Many might not know this, but American Dad is one of the best cartoons, maybe even one of the best shows, on TV right now. This is largely due to their character Roger, who is up there with Cartman, in my opinion. Roger and Paul are very, very similar. The only difference is Roger’s character is comedically perfect and Paul’s character is not.

Moreover, one thing I want to note is Paul, the movie, is subversive in its own way. It is very much a love letter to American comic culture, but at the same time a critique of our religious extremism. It is a champion of Darwin and a champion of the awesomeness of the universe. Oddly enough, I’ve heard that Frost and Pegg believe in ghosts, which is weird. I mention this because, subtly, the movie is almost as anti-religious as recent Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying. However, manages to be much more fun than that flick.

Just a funny note, I’ve seen video of Pegg and Frost reenacting scenes from The Exorcist at the famous stair case the priest jumped down. They’re love of these things is genuine. They’re not just trying to abuse a segment of the population like so many other writers/directors do.

Lastly, I watched E.T. over and over and over when I was a little kid. I was sick often when I was young, so when I was home from school I would finish the movie, rewind it, and watch it again. No other movie has captured my imagination like that movie did. There are tons of E.T. references in Paul as well as dozens of references to other flicks. I grew up in a household of nerds and this movie will likely resonate deeply with them. Me? Well, I don’t know, I just hated that Rogen voice.
Collin says: B+