In the weeks leading up the release of Paul, I still was unsure what to make of it. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have become two of my favorite comedic actors and I'm a big fan of anything Greg Mottola makes (yes, I even enjoyed Adventureland) but I just couldn't get behind this one. From the trailers, it looked like Paul was just trying too hard to be a geek movie and a stoner comedy, and the title character seemed like the typical Seth Rogen pot-smoking slacker.
Well, I'm glad to say that the team of Mottola, Pegg, and Frost, managed to walk that line between stoner comedy/buddy road trip movie/geek comedy/sci-fi movie extremely well. I think most of the strength lies in the script by Pegg and Frost, whom you can tell have a deep passion for geek culture and it translates in their work extremely well. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz worked so well because they were parodies of popular genres, but they were also extremely respectful to those genres and almost worked in a Scream like fashion where they exploited the cliches of the genres for their own comedic benefit while also giving us something that fit right in that very same genre. While Paul isn't a straight up sci-fi parody, it also falls in those same line, mostly spoofing E.T. and other works of Spielberg.
Other than the comedy, there's plenty of action and more dramatic bits to go around. Hell, many of the action and car chase scenes were done better than most serious attempts (I said the same about the action scenes in Hot Fuzz). While there are some serious dramatic moments sprinkled through, the movie knows not to let them drag on for too long and quickly lightens them up with some humor.
As for the nerd humor, well there's plenty of that to go around. Lines of dialogue and geek references run amok in this movie, but it's spaced out enough that we don't go on pop culture overload (my favorites being a classic riff on a Star Wars line, delivered by Jason Bateman, and a great Aliens reference at the end). I'll probably get hell for this, but I'm not a fan of The Big Bang Theory because I think it paints a very stereotypical picture of us geeks, and I thought this movie would be done the same way. Thankfully, everything is treated with a great sense of fun and respect, especially the bits at Comic-Con at the beginning and end of the movie. The movie also stays very mainstream with the geek humor so that general audiences can join in on the fun as well.
But, as with most comedy movies, this movie draws a lot from it's all star cast. Pegg and Frost make their characters lovable and child like as usual, and Kristen Wiig proves once again why she's one of the break out stars of SNL (Bill Hader does the same with what could have been a cliche idiotic henchman role). Jason Bateman plays a good straight man as the Mulder-like government agent chasing them, and Sigourney Weaver gets a great cameo as his boss. Jeffrey Tambor gets a hilarious cameo as a Isaac Asimov type science fiction writer and Jane Lynch does her usual thing as a cafe owner. As for Seth Rogen as Paul, well he's the glue that holds it all together. As I said before, I figured Rogen was playing his same old character, and he basically does, but he infuses Paul with that charm and sarcastic humor to make you buy it. I really can't see anyone else playing the title role and wouldn't be surprised to hear that it was tailor made for Rogen, whom you can tell is having great fun with the role.
So overall Paul is a fun, geek ride but with plenty to offer to general audiences too. The cast, script, and direction were all pitch perfect and the movie never gets too caught up in its own sense of self important nerd humor(unlike Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, sorry folks but I wasn't a fan)and I for one hope Mottola, Pegg, and Frost collaborate again on something in the future. I've labeled 2011 as the Year of the Geek, and Paul seems like the perfect movie to prove that statement.