Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are back together! This time around they are Edgar Wright-less, but the laughs still come thick and fast in this nerd tribute written by the boys themselves and directed by Gregg Mottola (Adventureland and Superbad).
Peggster and The Frost play Graeme and Clive, two Brit geeks on the road trip of a lifetime. First they hit up nerd mecca: San Diego Comic-Con, in an opening sequence that perfectly captures the sheer joy of being an Englishman at Comic-Con and also what it’s sometimes like meeting your heroes at conventions. After basking in the beauty of all those slave Leia cosplayers, they hit the road in a rented RV on a tour of UFO hotspots and crash sites.
When, late one night, on a road in the middle of Nowheresville, a car crashes in front of them, the boys investigate and find themselves face to face with a pint size, wise cracking alien who smokes like a chimney – Paul. Agreeing to help their newfound intergalactic fugitive friend evade capture, the lads get back on the road, hotly pursued by a government spook (baby faced, man-boy Jason Bateman), a couple of feds and a bible-bashing redneck. Hijinx ensue.
Paul is a well crafted balance of yank and brit comedy, that while never quite scaling the heights to Shaun or Fuzz levels, is full of plenty of laughs and lots of heart. Pegg and Frost’s chemistry is as adorable as always and there are also plenty of great cameos: best of all being Sigourney Weaver, who beats everyone up and brings the house down twice – though I wouldn’t dare spoil.
What about the little green man himself? Paul looks fantastic. The special effects boys at Double Negative all deserve a pat on the back and a beer on the house for delivering a near photo realistic, lovable, believable extraterrestrial. The Seth Rogen voice work turns out to be a good call also. I initially feared that his unmistakeable vocal stylings might overpower the little guy, but he’s actually just right.
Things start to plod a little by three quarters of the way through though, and I wasn’t a fan of the instances of religious bickering and bitching either – not that I’m at all pious, it just all felt a bit awkward and tonally out of place.
Paul is a one hundred and ten minute geekgasm with a Wilhelm scream and nothing at the end of the credits, so leave the baseball capped boys and girls to pick up popcorn buckets in the dark.
UK Release: 18th February
US Release: 18th March