I meant to see Paul while it was in theaters last spring, but it’s perfectly enjoyable as weekend home entertainment fare. It tells the story of two British geeks, Graaeme and Clive, on a pilgrimage to America to attend Comic-Con and then visit famous U.F.O. sites across the Southwest in their rented R.V. Soon after embarking on their road trip, they run into (almost literally) Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), a shipwrecked alien on the lam from his government minders. Paul has been a “guest” of ours for several decades–long enough to have picked up colloquial English and a fondness for cigarettes and pot. He enlists the humans’ assistance in his quest to rendezvous with a rescue team sent by his people.
From there, Paul doesn’t deviate much from the buddy/road trip movie formula. Wackiness ensues, various things blow up, one of the nerds falls in love, and everyone learns a little something about themselves in the end. The script resorts to dick jokes a few too many times and the love interest (Kristen Wiig as a fundamentalist Christian) is a bit one-dimensional, but it generally treats its characters with endearment. The movie is something of an homage to geek culture and makes a few clever references to other well-known science fiction films. Paul tries a little too hard to get laughs, but it doesn’t wear out its welcome.
