Film review
Directed by Greg Mottola
Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Hader
Release date 14 February 2011

Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost) are best buds and full-time geeks. After attending the San Diego Comic-Con, the pair head out for a road trip to see America’s famous extraterrestrial landmarks. Just outside of Area 51 they run into a real-life alien – a wisecracking hipster named Paul (Rogen)…

Paul might just rival last year’s Scott Pilgrim Vs the World for the title of Geekiest Movie Ever. The story kicks off at the ultimate fan-fest, San Diego Comic-Con, and within the opening minutes we’re under assault from a relentless volley of Star Wars and Star Trek gags.

The film goes on to pay homage to Close Encounters, Aliens, Babylon 5 and around 950 other films and TV shows. Like the critically adored and commercially ignored Scott Pilgrim, it’s probably limited in terms of mass appeal, but if you know your E.T. from your Mac and Me, then there are plenty of laughs here – even if there’s a suspicion that film quotes replace actual jokes at times.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have put a new spin on the easy-going bromance shtick they’ve developed over Spaced, Shaun and Fuzz, this time playing two unashamed nerds who everyone mistakes for a gay couple. The early scenes, in which the pair enthusiastically discuss sci-fi while hicks and hotel staff look on incredulously, offer some of the funniest moments, and the film captures the shared language of fandom in an affectionate but believable way.

The duo’s dynamic is thrown into disarray by the arrival of the eponymous green-skinned alien (well, brief disarray: the film doesn’t exploit Clive’s jealously nearly enough). The rub here is that the doe-eyed visitor, voiced by Seth Rogen, is a hundred times cooler than the pair he hooks up with – he drinks, he smokes dope and he’s capable of busting a funky dance move.

Rogen's extraterrestrial is amusing and irritating in equal measure but the little fellah eventually wins you over – it's hard not to love a character who reanimates a dead bird only to stuff the poor creature into his gob. Yet the decision to render him in CGI is misjudged. For a film that riffs so much on old-school SF, Paul’s cold, slick, modern appearance feels out of place – more Phantom Menace than Return of the Jedi.

This is, of course, Pegg and Frost’s first joint venture without Edgar Wright (who was busy working on the aforementioned – and better – Scott Pilgrim), and in his place we have Superbad megaphone-wielder, Greg Mottola. You certainly notice the difference: this feels an awful lot like Mottola’s bawdy teen-pic at times, not least because of the presence of Rogen, Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio (the latter two playing characters not dissimilar from their Superbad roles). That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the mix of warm-hearted genre love-in and foul-mouthed, more adult material doesn't always sit entirely comfortably together – it almost feels like a cynical attempt to give an edge to material that’s mostly harmless at times. Although at least the bad language is from the Malcolm Tucker school of bad language...

But if Paul isn't quite a Starship Enterprise-sized success, its likeable characters and unashamed worship of science fiction and fandom ensure it's an appealing affair that you can tell was put together with a lot of love. And you've got to respect a film that chooses to name a character named after a Nick Nolte weepie... Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 6/10
Like that other recent Seth Rogen vehicle, The Green Hornet, Paul is much funnier than it looks from the weak trailer, even if the geek love-in won’t be for everyone.