A Boston band called The Machines had a 45 RPM entitled “Disposable Music”, which was a premonition of things to come…not all the music in 2011 as collector-oriented as that from just a few decades before.
And along the lines of that tune, the film Paul is a disposable movie, mildly entertaining, something to do for a day or evening, but at times so cloying with its predictable jokes that it inevitably turns into a bit of a roller coaster ride at a theme park…something to do once in a great while but not enticing enough to draw you back too soon. Like the movie trailer where the Seth Rogan-voiced alien, “Paul” resurrects a bird only to kill it again…by eating it, the jokes are sometimes unfunny or funny for just one spin.
But Sigourney Weaver is always fun and the picture has some redeeming qualities, some unique aspects to the script – perhaps had Simon Pegg and Nick Frost spent more time writing Paul than starring in it there would be more substance to this exercise.Taking a hint from Galaxy Quest and initiating the action in a fan setting – Comic Con of all places – is very cool. That the writers (Peg and Frost) and the director,Greg Matolla, showed up at Comic Con 2010 to advance Paul certainly was appealing to those who religiously attend such gatherings but, alas, the film doesn’t go deep enough into what fandom craves, and that’s not to its benefit.
Too smart-ass for its own good, Paul still delivers an interesting plot of an alien escaping Sigourney instead of the other way around. Not as much fun as her aforementioned Galaxy Quest and certainly no Avatar…but if you got nothing better to do…
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He was a film critic for Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com and produces and hosts Visual Radio. Visual Radio is a fifteen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed John Lennon’s Uncle Charlie, Margaret Cho, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere, Marty Balin, Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
