Paul

Paul

I didn't expect a lot out of Paul.  I've seen Simon Pegg and Nick Frost do this before.  You basically get their take on alien movies, just like you got their take on action and zombie movies in Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead.  Unfortunately, it's the same take over and over, bumbling, lovable underachievers are thrust into the spotlight and then the audience gets to see if they can handle it.  Well, guess what, they can handle it.
The thing that makes Paul my favorite of the three is Kristin Wiig.  I love Kristin Wiig.  If she showed up at my house, unannounced, clearly on some sort of bizarre designer drug wanting to borrow my car, I'd think about if for a second before declining.  Actually, who am I kidding, I'd let her borrow it but I'd wait a half hour before I called the cops.  But then she could probably talk me into bailing her out of jail.  For some reason in this dream scenario I've just concocted, Kristin Wiig owes me money.  How's that for wild fantasies.  Anyway, I don't think there has ever been a funnier woman on SNL, in fact she's one of my three or four favorite cast members ever.  She steals the show in Paul.  Honestly though, that isn't hard to do.  Where I suppose you used to be able to call Simon Pegg affable, hell, even likable, I now just see a pandering British comedian straining for laughs.  He's trying too hard, perhaps to balance out Nick Frost who doesn't seem to be trying at all.  They've become a hard to watch duo.  Sort of a pathetic man's version of Dom Deluise and Burt Reynolds.  Seth Rogan was pretty good as the voice of Paul though, maybe I just like him better when I can't see him.
I did stay until the end of the movie so credit where credit is due.  I laughed out loud a few times and there were a lot of SF movie in jokes, some of them clever, some of them a little obvious for my taste.  I'd catch it on netflix or redbox, maybe the cheap seats if you're bored some Sunday.