Synopsis? What The Fuck For?!
Paul is the story of an alien named Paul. Truthfully, the alien being is not actually named "Paul". It's just a nickname, really. In 1947, a spaceship crashed near a rural home somewhere in Wyoming. It landed on a little girl's dog. The dog was named Paul. The little girl pulled the wounded alien from the burning wreck and called the authorities. Some ominous folks in sharp suits came along and took the alien to Area 51, where he was branded with the moniker "Paul" as a little joke. And it stuck. So there's that.
Over 60 years later, Paul decides to stage his own little prison break, contacting his alien pals with the help of a sympathetic agent, busting out in a stolen company car, and tearing ass for Wyoming, where he'll rendezvous with the mother ship. Being an inexperienced driver, Paul crashes his car and winds up in the care of Graeme and Clive, two British nerds fresh from Comic Con who rented an RV to tool around the desert, visiting UFO hotspots. You know, for fun.
There are shadowy government agents hunting Paul, including Teen Wolf Too. During their travels, the trio accidentally kidnaps a one-eyed Christian fundamentalist played by Saturday Night Live's Gilly. Paul uses his super-duper healing powers to fix her wonky eye and then blasts the entire genetic memory of his species into her brain with a mind meld. shattering her beliefs and transforming her into an awkward, swearing Atheist.
Are there hijinks? Did you not read that last paragraph? Teen Wolf Too, mind melds, and Atheism? I daresay that there is an abundance of hijinks in this film. Paul is a dope smoking asshole who likes to fuck with people. He's also a 4 foot tall alien being from the Andromeda galaxy who sounds suspiciously like that guy from Knocked Up. He can become invisible at will, but only if he holds his breath. He's a cool dude, man. He's just trying to get home, because if he sticks around, some government scientist-types are gonna cut him open to see what makes him tick.
After everybody gets acquainted, some stuff happens. Car chases, shoot-outs, practical jokes, cussing old ladies... real heartfelt shit. Eventually we wind up at Devil's Tower, that guy who jumped into lava to save some passed-out hobo in Volcano shoots Graeme, but Paul saves him so no harm done. Sigourney Weaver shows up in a big "surprise" cameo and grits her teeth, threatening to shoot everybody. Then the mother ship lands on her, so no harm done. Paul says goodbye to his new BFFs, and the movie ends.
Oh yeah, and as it turns out, Teen Wolf Too was actually Paul's inside man at Area 51 the whole time. Yeah.
I think that's about it. Sure, there are plenty of moments I'm leaving out, but I don't care. I just don't care.
Analysis?! Yeah, Right!
Is Paul a good movie? I suppose so. Written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who also star as Graeme and Clive, respectively, the film isn't as funny as one familiar with their previous work might expect. There are very few laugh-out-loud moments to be found here. And none of the really funny material comes from Pegg and Frost in the film. No, the only really funny characters in the story are Paul, the alien, and Ruth, the sheltered cyclops, played by Kristen Wiig.
Christ, I just used the word "funny" three times in that previous paragraph. I suppose I could have cracked open my trusty word dinosaur and plucked a few choice synonyms to spice it up a little. But that moment has passed.
Kristen Wiig is a gifted comedic actress. I believe this. I think she is used far too much in her regular SNL gig, and that kind of saturation can leave a person numb. It's like novacaine for the funny bone. Hey, maybe I could cut in on Weird Al's territory with an Eels parody cover called "Novacaine For The (Funny) Bone". Ah, who am I kidding? That would never work. I'd need to actually do something to get that done. And we all know that ain't happenin'. That is, after all, why I spend so much of my time blogging like some hipster douchebag instead of attempting to actually contribute to our rapidly decaying society.
Kristen Wiig? I think I was trying to say that... no, upon reviewing the previous paragraph I realize that I made my point. Funny lady, blah blah blah. She's good in Paul. She manages to be convincingly naive in her performance, before and after her consciousness-altering mind meld. I found it especially hilarious that Paul chose to share the vast wonders of his race's historical achievements, strangling her religious beliefs in the process, only because he was sick and tired of hearing her talk about God.
He teaches her how to curse like a sailor, and she goes overboard with her childish exuberance, peppering every sentence she utters with words like "dickbag" and "butthole". Just because she can. It's funny. It may not sound like it... and maybe it really isn't. I don't know. Comedy is subjective. Case in point: my cousin Ky and I love Tim and Eric. My brother wants to kill them with a ball peen hammer. This is the essence of comedy: murder hammer. Bob Hope understood this.
Was I finished rambling about Kristen Wiig? Hmm... Right, there was one more thing: I saw a trailer for a film called Bridesmaids before the film. The film stars Kristen Wiig, and I believe she also co-wrote the damned thing. It looked funny. I thought I briefly spotted Tim Heidecker at some point in the trailer, but after a check on IMDB I found I was mistaken. And now I'm done.
Until I actually saw the film, I wasn't sure if Seth Rogen was such a good fit for this material. His voice just seemed wrong coming out of a character like Paul in the trailers. Too big, I suppose. I was overcome with trepidation. But after actually seeing the movie, I can say that the character of Paul is absolutely the best thing about Paul. The idea of an alien that's spent the last 63 years on Earth, absorbing our pop culture and acting just like one of us could easily translate into utter garbage. If you close your eyes, you can just imagine how easily it could all go wrong.
Fortunately, Paul gets Paul right. He's not hanging around, spouting off a bunch of advertising slogans, being "cute". He's not exactly loveable. As I said earlier, Paul is kind of an asshole, and he doesn't care for the stupid or ignorant. But he's endearing. After about ten minutes or so, I forgot that I was looking at an entirely digital creation and just went with the flow. And Seth Rogen is the reason why the character works. He brings his stoner charm to the character, and it never feels forced. Probably because Paul is a stoner.
Ah, now I understand...
I also enjoyed Paul's utter disdain for religion. When he falls into a religious argument with Ruth in the RV, he reaches a point where he realizes that no matter how rational his points are, he'll simply never win the argument. So ends the conversation with his handy mind meld action. Just to shut her mouth. He doesn't care that afterward she'll have to wrestle with her faith in her own long dark night of the soul. He just wanted her to stop talking. Hilarious.
Also, at the end of the film the aforementioned lava diver from Volcano says something like "God bless you" as Paul leaves, and Paul dismisses his comment with a wave of his hand and a "whatever, man". He can't even accept a pseudo-religious farewell from a man he's never going to see again. He's so mean. And so endearing. Endearing to me, at any rate. As I said: murder hammer.
What about everybody else? Well, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost end up playing the straight men to a CG alien and Kristen Wiig. They never do anything particularly amusing in the film. Even the things that might sound funny on paper don't really work. There's a recurring gag involving a drawing of a three-breasted woman that Pegg's Graeme illustrated for his buddy Clive's terrible novel. When they attempt to show their masterwork to their favorite author (played by Jeffrey Tambor), the drawing catches his eye and he quietly exclaims "Three tits. Nice."
That was funny, because Jeffrey Tambor really sold the line. Then the film repeats the same gag several more times throughout, and it's never funny again. When one of Paul's alien pals says the exact same thing at the conclusion of the film, it's not amusing. It's fucking tired. And that's really as good as it gets with these characters. There just seems to be something missing.
The film itself has plenty of flaws. The entire opening bit at Comic Con fell flat. There was no subtlety to the affair. It was just a parade of fandom stereotype bullshit. I didn't find it funny because I am, in fact, a nerd. I don't give a shit about works that satirize or malign geek culture. I watch Days Of Our Lives, man. I don't give a shit about anything. I didn't find it funny because it wasn't funny. Fuck, I just did it again. "Funny" three times in a row. Of course, that last sentence ups the total to four.
Actually, everything leading up to Paul's arrival on a lonely desert road is kind of a slog. There's a sequence at a UFO-themed diner involving Graeme, Clive, and a pair of beered-up rednecks that's just embarassing. It's trying to be humorous, but it's just awkward. I was waiting for a punchline that never came.
And the geek-friendly references get annoying after a while. During a scene in a honky tonk tavern, the house band is playing a country-fried version of the cantina music from the original Star Wars. You know, the tune Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes were playing? Wait, that's too geeky. Let me try that again. You know, the tune that weird, butt-headed band was playing? That one. There's no reason for them to throw that shit in the film. I guess it's supposed to make the nerds smile. I didn't smile. Maybe I'm just a humorless prick. Remember: murder hammer.
Beyond that, the script keeps shoe-horning in lines from various sci-fi flicks, and the characters aren't making references when they recite these lines. They're not quoting Star Wars or Aliens. They're just talking. The script is quoting the films. It simply doesn't work. And when somebody actually says "get away from her, you bitch" to Sigourney Weaver, I couldn't fucking believe it. That was too much. What was the point of this shit? Nobody in my audience laughed at this. When the RV stops at a gas station, Paul tells his human chums to grab some Reece's Pieces without a hint of irony in his voice. Give me a fucking break.
And the film fucks up its own ending. After Paul's ship takes off, we're left with our human stars standing around, looking properly awed by what they have just seen. Clive turns to Graeme with a grin and says "that was cool, wasn't it?", and we cut to black. The end. Good enough, movie. Good enough. But of course, that's not it. No, we zoom ahead one year, to find our heroes attending Comic Con once again. Only this time they're attending as members of a popular panel hosted by their favorite author (Jeffrey Tambor, assholes!).
Why? Because Clive wrote a fictonalized account of their adventure with Paul, and it became a bestseller. And of course, Graeme provided the illustrations for the novel, including the cover image depicting Paul himself. And Paul has three tits. Never mind the fact that the real Paul didn't have tit one on his narrow torso. There's no reason for the illustrated Paul to have three tits. I doubt the Paul character in the novel is ambling around the desert with three huge breasts. Fuck that tired joke.
As I said near the beginning of this "review", I do like Paul. It is a decent comedy, all things considered. But knowing that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the guys who provided me with the two modern classics Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz (not to mention the amazing series Spaced) were behind this, I was expecting more. It seems to me that without the third member in their triangle of man-love (thanks, Colin Firth!), Mr. Edgar Wright, these two fall a little short. Oddly enough, I thought Wright did just fine without them with last year's Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, a film I absolutely adore.
In the end, if you take anything away from this little rant, let it be this: MURDER HAMMER.
P. S. - I saw Sucker Punch, and I'll soon unleash my thoughts on the film upon an unsuspecting Internet.
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