Paul

Paul is recently out on DVD and is an example of how far reaching American culture has become.


Two British fans of U.S. alien culture, Graeme and Clive (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), come to America hoping to visit Area 51 and other famous sites of alien sightings. They happen to meet an alien creature named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) who asks for their help in returning to his home planet. Paul claims that many years ago, he made contact with humans and the U.S. government has used him to gain knowledge of aliens while trying to incorporate his image into pop culture in hopes of one day revealing him to the public. But Paul has realized that eventually the government wants to disset his brain, which is spurring his desire to return home.

At first the guys are scared but come to see that Paul is a nice guy. On Paul's trail is a gung ho government agent (Jason Bateman). The guys also meet a sheltered woman (Kristen Wiig) who comes out of her shell bigtime. She is a love interest for Graeme, making Clive jealous, which causes a rift between the two friends.

While not as great as the duo's Hot Fuzz, I thought this was an okay movie, and it did a lot of homages and send ups of previous movies about aliens like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The film was smart to add a lot of seasoned comics/comic actors such as Jeffrey Tambor, Jane Lynch, some guys from Saturday Night Live or The Office, and while it had some sophomoric comedy, it wasn't too invasive/vulgar and was not mean. Sigourney Weaver costars and also has fun with her role and a sendup of her Alien movies as well. Blythe Danner costars as an old woman who had an alien encounter with Paul when she was a child.