Paul - Movie Review

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost find themselves moderately lost in this comedy about an alien that has a desperate need to escape from Area 51 and return to the stars with his people. Their characters, two nerdy Comic-Con attendees from England, find their first visit to the United States overwhelming and wonderful. They top off their road trip in the desert southwest by visiting the UFO hot spots, whereupon they meet Paul. Paul is driving a black sedan while our tourists rumble down the road in a thirty foot RV. For reasons that the movie never explains, Paul, in his attempt to drive past them, is honking his horn wildly when he crashes and the close encounter begins.

Needless to say, the black ops people are soon on their trail, attempting to thwart Paul's return trip home. There are minor car chases, encounters with rednecks who mistake the British travelers for a gay couple, and clashes with fundamental religious characters who initially see Paul as a manifestation of the devil.

The daughter of a right wing religious RV park owner ends up traveling with them, against her will at first. After Paul heals her vision, a defect from her birth, and imparts to her his collective knowledge through a hand to the head revelation, she jumps on board with the trio and the chase begins in earnest.

Okay, it doesn't go much beyond that for the entire length of the movie except for the occasional references to Steven Spielberg and a scene near the end that borrows it's setup from Close Encounters. While there is a twist at the end involving Justin Bateman's man-in-black character, the script as a whole lacked depth.

The most disappointing aspect to the screenplay was that whenever there was an opportunity to enhance character development, the writers seemed to find it easier to fill the time with overdone, sophomoric profanity. Certainly these two social misfits and their extra-terrestrial charge have reason to engage in dialogue of this nature to some degree, but it's overdone and detracted from the flow of the storyline in many places. The same goes for the mild stoner scenes scattered throughout. Less would really be more.

While humorous in many places, and an ending that proclaims that even nerds can win the day, don't expect too much from this flick. The photography and action scenes were generally okay and I can't complain about the sound mix. The story had promise, but failed to live up to it's full potential. In the end, the producers decided that some easy pandering to an early-teen audience would have to suffice.

In a five star rating system, I'd give the acting and direction a three. Unfortunately, they had lousy base material to work with, so I'd have to give the movie Paul an overall rating of two stars.