Review: Paul is like one long wink

Written by Vince Mancini / 03.18.11

Paul-movie-alien-rogen-pegg

Not to excuse indifference to bloggerly responsibilities on my part, but Paul is the kind of movie that isn’t a lot of fun to review.  It’s not terrible, there aren’t any glaring inconsistencies, but it just doesn’t quite work.  It’s just not that funny.  It’s usually cute, but not quite laugh-worthy, and occasionally obnoxious, but not quite grating.  The word that most comes to mind is “thin.” It’s trivial.  It’s the acquaintance you always tell yourself you should call more but don’t, and deep down you know exactly why.

It’s a bit of a blue-ball dry rub considering the people involved.  I loved director Greg Mottola’s last two movies (Superbad and Adventureland), and getting the double-team from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (who also wrote the script) is almost always a good thing.  The plot, two nerds find a wacky alien (voiced by Seth Rogen) and have to help it escape the US government that wants to study its brain and harvest its penises for fuel or whatever, is cribbed from the standard 80s-alien-movie formula (ET, Mac & Me, etc).  But rather than the clever genre homage seen in the Pegg co-written (with Edgar Wright, whose influence might have been needed here) Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, or the glowy, rich nostalgia of Mottola’s last two movies, what we get instead is just a series of throwaway references to every 80s alien movie, like they wrote it by going down a checklist.  Reese’s Pieces reference goes here… okay now what?  Not homage, not parody, just, as my co-viewer Brendan from the Frotcast put it, “one long wink.”

Winking at the audience can be fine, but… you should probably tell a joke first.

Read the rest of this entry »

13 Comments TAGS: , , , , , , , ,

New red-band trailer for Paul

Written by Vince Mancini / 02.24.11
Your mom's ready for her pelvic exam

Your mom's ready for her pelvic exam

I already want to see Paul, Greg Mottola’s homage to Mac & Me starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and the voice of Seth Rogen as a wacky alien, so I’m not going to watch this new red-band trailer.  But I will give you the opportunity, for I am but a humble public servant with a God-like talent for pelvic thrusts.  Paul opens March 18th in the US, but it’s already out in the UK, where it’s playing to mostly positive reviews, no small feat in a country full of critics who write like this:

“From time to time, clever ideas rear their heads, but they soon return to the film’s default setting of laddish japes.” [TheIndependant]

OH NO, NOT LADDISH JAPES!  Cor bloimey, guv, dey’s ruined da souffles dey ‘as!  Curse you, laddish japes!  (*gestures angrily with parasol*)  But like I said, the pans were in the minority.  And if you can get those splotchy-faced gravy chuckers to agree on anything for more than five seconds, you get hereditary title and an estate in York.

Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments TAGS: , , , , , , ,

New trailer for ‘Paul’ has fewer nutshots, more Jane Lynch

Written by Vince Mancini / 01.06.11
Your mom's ready for her pelvic exam

Time for your mom's pelvic exam

Universal just released a new trailer for Paul, Greg Mottola’s homage to ET, Mac & Me, Harry and the Hendersons, etc., starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and a buttload of other comedic types.  It’s not the first trailer, so I don’t think I need to rehash my fervent Greg Mottola fandom for you again, but it is nice to see a trailer where no one gets hit in the nuts. Don’t get me wrong, I’d pay to see a trailer that was just Adam Levine or the Coldplay guy getting hit in the nuts over and over again, but in a movie, especially one I actually want to see, I worry it cheapens things.  And if I was the type of guy who wanted cheap, would I be dotting the I in my signature with a dollar sign?  I think not.

Paul opens March 10th, and I don’t want to get my hopes up TOO high, but 2010 was kind of a crappy one for comedy, and I’m hoping 2011 will be better.  I think I deserve that.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments TAGS: , , , , , , ,

Full-Length Trailer for Paul Is Making Me Look Like an Idiot

Written by Vince Mancini / 12.17.10
I wouldn't mind it if Kristen Wiig touched me like that.  Just sayin.  'Specially if she was doin her Bjork impression.

I wouldn't mind it if Kristen Wiig touched me like that. Just sayin. 'Specially if she was doin her Bjork impression.

It was only yesterday that I was explaining why Paul, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, from director Greg Mottola, was one of my most anticipated films of the year.  “It looks like an homage to weird 80s movies, Greg Mottola always does an amazing job capturing the spirit of 80s movies, and blah blah blah,” I said.

Now the full-length trailer is out, and I look like an idiot!  The thing’s chock-full of nutshots!  I’m already on record as saying that nutshots in the trailer are the kiss of death!  (For a comedy, anyway. In a Holocaust drama, each shot to the nuts in the trailer increases my desire to see the film by 30%).  Boy, is there egg on my face.  I still want to see this, it looks weird as hell.  But what of the nutshots?   This theory is very important to me.  Perhaps we could label  this old “exception that proves the rule.”  That phrase never made much sense to me before.  I think what happened was, the guy who invented it had come up with a theory, like nutshots in the trailer always making for a bad movie, and then someone publicly disproved it.  So he was all like, “No, see, the exception to the rule makes the rule EVEN MORE true!”  Then I bet he tossed a smoke grenade and dove out the window.  That’s what I would do.

Read the rest of this entry »

15 Comments TAGS: , , , , , , ,

‘Paul’ Looks Completely Bizarre

Written by Vince Mancini / 12.16.10

Paul-Poster-crop

Collider just debuted the new poster for Paul, and while I think the shelf life on Social Network parodies expired a couple months ago, I’m intrigued by how totally f*cking bizarre this movie looks. Two comic book dorks, played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, happen upon a slacker alien, voiced by Seth Rogen, during a cross-country road trip.  Hijinks, presumably, ensue.

It sounds like an homage to Mac & Me and the kind of high-concept, family movies from the 80s that seem like they could only have been cooked up under the influence of a loooot of cocaine (Harry And the Hendersons, anyone?).  But this one comes from Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland) who, aside from being one of my favorite directors currently working, is really, really good at making movies that feel like all the best parts of 80s movies — which is hard to do, because for the most part, the 80s sucked.  Just try to think of a decade more creatively bankrupt than the 80s.  Anyway, the fact that this looks so totally weird makes me strangely excited.  Seriously, get over here and feel this boner.

Paul-Poster-full

[opens March 11 -- trailer here]

20 Comments TAGS: , , , ,

Sign Up

Follow Us