Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are dynamite as a comedic duo, as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are two of the best comedies of the past decade. Paul is their first outing sans the directorial guidance of Edgar Wright, opting instead for the Judd Apatow injection of Greg Mottola behind the camera. Add in Apatow-regular Seth Rogen’s voice to the titular alien, and now they’re a comedic threesome. But we all know three’s a crowd, and this was only the beginning of Paul‘s problems.
The movie is about a couple of British sci-fi geeks (Pegg and Frost) who are road trippin’ across America to visit the big UFO sites after a stop at the Hollywood-hype convention known as Comic Con in San Diego. They soon have the close encounter they’ve always dreamed of when they run into Paul (Rogen), an alien on the run from shady government G-Men in suits and sunglasses, and soon the two fanboys, along with a sheltered Christian girl from a trailer park (Kristen Wiig), gotta help him phone home.
Paul seemingly comes from the same tradition as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. It sends up a genre movie that geeks love, packs it full of references, all within the vibe of a fun buddy movie. But Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz never lost sight of its characters, they wouldn’t have dared to sacrifice them at the filthy altar of cheap laughs.
What we have here with Paul is a film that unfortunately collapses under the weight of its geek cred. The pop-culture knowledge that was seen in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were almost incidental, but Paul practically stops and points at each one, you know, in case you missed it. It’s not like the unwatchable, witless Seltzer/Friedberg spoofs (Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie, et al), where they just present a pop culture reference and expect a laugh, there is a context given here which makes each situation somewhat humorous, but when the movie stops to wink at you, we have a problem. In other Pegg & Frost films, the films never pause to see if you got the joke. Instead, they move at such a quick pace that if you get it, you’ll notice it and laugh, and if you don’t, it doesn’t really matter, because the characters and story are more important. The opposite is true with Paul.
To make things more annoying, this is a film that brings up heavy topics, but approaches them in the most obnoxious way possible. Of course, I’m referring to the Kristen Wiig character. Wiig plays a Christian girl whose world is shattered when she meets Paul, who proclaims that his existence disproves any theory of the existence of any form of a Judeo-Christian God (he just kinda leaves it at that). John Carroll Lynch is cast as her overbearing, one-dimensional, Bible-thumping, shotgun-toting, stereotype simpleton father in an embarrassingly thin role, as he chases Paul & company along with the G-Men. Wiig, who is a wonderful comedic actress, undermines the mean-spirited caricature on the page with her natural, positive charm, but the movie expresses contempt for certain characters in a way that Edgar Wright’s movies with Pegg and Frost would never dream of doing. The question of faith and science is a hot-potato, one that was probed with beauty and wisdom in Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Carl Sagan’s Contact. Here, it is explored with all the wit and nuance of a fart joke.
I won’t pretend Paul didn’t make me laugh, it certainly has its funny moments, so it succeeds as a comedy on a certain level. It really isn’t fair to complain that it’s not as good as its big brothers, but Paul feels like a film made by some Hollywood execs who saw those movies, and tried to do the same thing with the same actors, but with the addition of American names like Rogen. Pegg, who co-wrote the film with Frost, even stated in an interview with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo that they took the studio’s suggestions to heart in trying to make the movie appeal to everyone, even going so far as to dumb down the explorations of faith versus science, which they claim were explored with more depth in early drafts of their screenplay. They put the comedy cart before the horse in the pop culture-driven comedy, leaving the ideas and the characters to lie on the page. Wright, Pegg and Frost’s previous collaborator, made an uncompromising big Hollywood film last summer called Scott Pilgrim Versus the World. It was a box-office failure, but is quickly proving to have legs as a smart cult offering. Paul took a solid opening weekend, but was an effort to make a movie “for everyone.” Guess which one we’ll be watching in ten years?
The Blu-ray however, does have a handsome bounty of features, including a commentary track with director Greg Mottola, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Bill Hader (who plays one of the G-Men), and the film’s producer, Nira Park. One of the more bizarre offerings is “Paul: The Musical”, where the cast performs an impromptu musical interpretation of the film. That sounds like it could either be a brilliant little featurette, or painful filler. We also get a small documentary on Adam Shadowchild, the fictitious sci-fi writer Jeffrey Tambor plays in the film, and given what a funny guy Tambor is, it sounds like fun. Of course, we also get the obligatory making-of, blooper reels, etc. I won’t say this isn’t worth checking out if you’re a fan of Pegg and Frost’s earlier films, but I won’t say it’s worth your hard-earned dollars either.
Other Noteworthy Releases
Your Highness: When I heard the premise for Your Highness back when it was announced, my reaction was “Hell yeah! Sign me up!” Then the trailer came out. It seemed that David Gordon Green, the director of great films like George Washington and All The Real Girls, had completely disappeared into the Judd Apatow world of comedy, this movie looked like anything his team of writers and directors could churn out. I liked Pineapple Express, but this one was asking a lot. Maybe I’ll see it one day, but there’s no hurry here.
Super: James Gunn’s new superhero film seems like a darker, nastier take on the territory explored in Kick-Ass. The comic book by the same name that Kick-Ass was written by Mark Millar, who is like the Michael Haneke of comics in that he enjoys spitting venom at his audience. Kick-Ass is no different, it’s a comic that heavily criticizes fanboy culture and the idea of the superhero. When the film came around, director Matthew Vaughn ejected this attitude, in favor of a more fanboy-friendly tone. Super, however, seems more in-line with Kick-Ass the comic book, as Rainn Wilson’s superhero protagonist, The Crimson Bolt, is a mentally ill, violent dog who bloodies people with a pipe wrench (his catch-phrase: “Shut up, crime!”), and Ellen Page plays his psychopath sidekick. Kevin Bacon c0-stars as the villain.
Mars Needs Moms: This movie came out to the sound of groans, yawns, and shrugs, resulting in Disney having to eat a big fat plate of “No One Cares.” Mars Needs Moms is pretty much one of the biggest bombs in movie history. I suspect that this movie’s spectacular failure is why Disney dropped the “of Mars” from their upcoming John Carter of Mars adaptation, but as I argued over at Christian Toto’s blog, it’s probably because the movie looked about as visually interesting as a cat’s litter box.
Available on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD
Dazed and Confused: Richard Linklater’s chronicle of hanging out with a bunch of kids in seventies is pretty much the quintessential Austin movie. This week, it comes to Blu-ray with scant special features. If you’re a big fan of this movie, I suggest you hold out for the upcoming Criterion release on Blu, which hits shelves October 25th.
Available on Blu-ray
Dead Man: Jim Jarmusch’s take on the western comes to Blu-ray, which is about as strange as you can imagine when you put the words “Jim Jarmusch” and “western” together. Johnny Depp stars alongside a gallery of big names, including Robert Mitchum, Crispin Glover, Gabriel Byrne, Iggy Pop, Michael Wincott, Billy Bob Thornton, and Lance Henriksen.
Available on Blu-ray
Battle of the Algiers: Gille Pontecorvo’s celebrated documentary-style depiction of violence and urban warfare comes to Blu-ray, with Criterion updating their edition of the film.
Available on Blu-ray
Fast Times at Ridgemont High: R.I.P. Sean Penn’s sense of humor.
Available on Blu-ray
Martial Arts of Shaolin: Jet Li fans rejoice! This early gem of Li’s career (pre-Once Upon a Time in China) comes to DVD, which features the prodigy in a film directed by the great Lau Kar Leung, who also directed Shaw Bros. classics like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Heroes of the East. This film came out in 1986, right around when the Shaw Bros. studio was about to fold into television production, resulting in a co-production between the Hong Kong studio and mainland China.
Available on DVD
Executioner from Shaolin: Another Shaw Bros. film from Lau Kar Leung, this one starring the great Chen Kuan Tai and the charismatic Lo Lieh. Fans of Kill Bill will know this one, as this is the film to feature the villainous Pai Mei. Tarantino lifted the character for his movie, and cast former Shaw Bros. star (and Lau Kar Leung regular) Gordon Liu in the role.
Available on DVD
Five Shaolin Masters: This 1974 Shaw Bros. film was directed by Chang Cheh, who was a bit like the John Ford of Hong Kong, except with kung fu flicks instead of westerns. This one stars excellent Shaw Bros. talents like Ti Lung, David Chaing, and the late Alexander Fu Sheng (also look out for Gordon Liu in a cameo role). This one also features choreography from Lau Kar Leung (who was a choreographer before he was a director), and his brother, Lau Kar Wing. The plot is classic Chang Cheh: bad guys destroy the Shaolin Temple, and five badasses must train in specialized techniques to take down their aggressors.
Available on DVD
Mad Monkey Kung Fu: Yet another Lau Kar Leung film from the Shaw studio, this being one that has gained a considerable cult following since its release in 1979. Hsaio Ho stars alongside Lo Lieh in a standard revenge plot spiced up with crazy acrobatics and action.
Available on DVD
Cameraman – The Life & Work of Jack Cardiff: Here’s a treat for classic movie fans, this documentary focuses on the cinematographer of iconic films like The African Queen, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and of course, Rambo: First Blood Part II.
This article originally appeared over at Parcbench