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6/20/2015

Paul (2011) - Pegg, Frost and Mottola delve into SF with mixed results



A cool, funky poster for Greg Mottola's Paul

QUICK REVIEW:

Two science fiction nerds go on a road trip after the San Diego Comic-Con, on vacation from their safe home country England. Soon they meet an actual alien, and together the three get into a real mess.

Paul sports a really impressive cast: Among them Joe Lo Truglio (Knight of Cups (2015)), Kristen Wiig (Welcome to Me (2014)) and Jeffrey Tambor (Branded (2012)) are especially funny. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (The World's End (2013), both) work together, as on-screen actors, but they play somewhat bland characters here.
Paul is based on a funny and weird idea; it is a very sympathetic mash-up of more than 40 years of science fiction culture. Unfortunately it is needlessly hostile towards religion.
It is written by Pegg and Frost after their success with Shaun of the Dead (2004), and just like Shaun is a real zombie film as well as a comedy, Paul is a real piece of science fiction while also being a comedy. Paul just doesn't reach the same level of hilarity or innovation that Shaun did.
The film is directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad (2007)), who is now filming spy comedy Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016) starring Jon Hamm and Isla Fisher.






Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 98 mil. $
= Minor flop
[Pegg and Frost wrote the script inspired by an American road trip they had taken themselves, and Paul got green-lid just before the 2008 financial crash. Mottola has stated that he doesn't think it would have been made after the crash. The film opened to a 13 mil. $ first weekend in the US, curiously released for Valentine's Day. It grossed 37.3 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in North America.]

What do you think of Paul?

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