Paul not an alien film that will crash and burn

When two Britons come to the United States just about anything can happen, especially when little green men are involved.

Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) are two lifelong chums who spent years planning a special tour of America’s alien hot spots: Roswell, N.M. and Area 51 in the Nevada desert. Why they don’t choose Los Angeles, we’ll never know. After all, every other space invader movie has L.A. in it.

Regardless, a quirk of fate brings them face to face with Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), an extraterrestrial being who crash-landed on earth in 1947 because he doesn’t drive very well.

Paul has just escaped from Area 51 and needs his new pals to help him get to a secret location where his buddies said they would pick him up in a clandestine fashion. Paul sounds like a road trip movie with a twist, and it is.

Just like many other decent road trip tales, this one sees our protagonists meet an assortment of interesting characters along the way. That includes a pair of hunters and some secret agents, including Zoil (Jason Bateman), and a love interest for Willy in the form of Ruth (Kristen Wiig), a fundamentalist Christian who opposes the prospect of evolution and the possibility of other forms of intelligent life. Paul might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier but he does have special healing powers and mind transference.

Keep in mind this movie features the writing/acting team of Pegg and Frost of Shaun of the Dead fame, Greg Mottola (the director of Superbad) and the voice of Rogen who looms large in several recent frat house and stoner comedies.

It can also be safely assumed that Pegg and Frost are huge fans of popular science fiction movies going back 30 years or more. I mean the ones that have been so influential to our culture that they have become iconic.

This movie survives and thrives on the shoulders of those giants. It is enjoyable on its own but it’s practically a requirement for you to be familiar with the Predator and Alien series, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The X-Files, among others.

The fact is, this buddy movie is fairly insipid but immensely enjoyable. When I first watched Shaun of the Dead, I didn’t get it. But it grew on me and became a personal favourite if not a bona fide cult classic. Paul has the same potential. At the very least, it has the benefit of being quotable.

Even more importantly, however, it made me laugh. This is a crucial but oft overlooked element of a successful comedy. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated. It doesn’t need Oscar-winning performances. Just be happy that you can snort and guffaw at two goofballs and a computer-generated alien.