In a comment to my review of the three Simon Pegg-Nick Frost comedies, reader sumdum suggested that I might also enjoy seeing another film involving this pair and that is Paul, in which the duo leave the cozy confines of the English pub and play two science fiction graphic novel fans who attend the annual Comic-Con in San Diego and then go on a road trip in an RV to visit all the sites in the US that are believed to been the site of extra-terrestrial visitations.
On the way, they encounter stranded by the roadside Paul, an alien who had crashed to Earth in 1947 and been held captive since then by the US government in order to extract information from him. He finally managed to escape and the pair decide to help him get to the place where he can rendezvous with a spaceship and return home, all the while being chased by a trio of Men in Black-type government agents.
Along the way, the trio joins up with a young woman who has been indoctrinated by her evolution-hating, Bible-thumping father to think that the Earth is a few thousand years old and finds the idea of an intelligent alien from a highly advanced civilization hard to reconcile with what she believes.
I found the film to be great fun and want to thank sumdum for recommending it because I had never heard about it and would have missed it otherwise. Here’s the trailer.
Good!
Paul was a great movie. I especially like when they are fleeing in the RV from the Tara’s farm house. Tara’s exclamation of distress over what was actually destroyed had me laughing so hard.
Sean of the Dead is on of my favorite comedy movies of all time. Of all time!
Hot fuzz not so much. I may need to watch it again to get some more nuance.
My wife and I took the kids with us to see The World’s End in the theater, and it was pretty good. Did not go the direction I thought it would, at all, or even close.
I’m glad you discovered these films, good stuff.
I was actually surprised by this film, how fun it was. I love Pegg and Frost (I’m a huge fan of Spaced), but i hadn’t really expected much from this movie.
The film really is fun. My only gripe is Kristen Wiigs’ (playing the fundamentalist daughter Ruth Bugs) terrible acting in the beginning when she is supposed to be deeply offended by aliens evolution and all that because it is in conflict with her religion. It completely spoils the comedy when you’re not taking its dramatic parts seriously (in fact the more serious you play it, the funnier it is), and that’s a pity. She got better later in the film, but that I found horrible.
You should check out “Spaced”. It is the sitcom where Pegg / Wright first collaborated (though it was co-written by the excellent Jessica Stevenson / Hynes, who also co-stars, rather than Wright). Despite being a sitcom, it shares a lot of the same visual style as Wright’s movies.
It’s on Netflix in Canada. Not sure about the US.
I checked and it is not on US Netflix. Too bad. I would have watched it.
Every Simon Pegg Film is funny and unique. Paul was my favorite until i saw The World’s End and Now it is my favorite comedy film. SImon Pegg is best.
Just recentky watched this Paul’ movie -- loved it, really brilliant, funny and sweet film.