paul. [alien invasion/visitation movies – #2.]

The boys from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are at it again. This time, without the direction of Edgar Wright.

I was worried a bit going in, because for the most part I’ve found the trailers underwhelming. Gladly, I can report that I had a great time watching the movie, even if it does pale in comparison to Shaun and Hot Fuzz. It doesn’t equal anywhere near the epic hilarity of those two films, but it was still most definitely an entertaining homage to nerd culture. There were even scenes I didn’t find funny in the trailer, which were more entertaining in context.

Kristen Wiig was especially awesome, as a former fundamentalist trying on cursing for the first time, and being really, really terrible at it… in the best possible ways.

With all due respect to Greg Mottola, Paul did suffer from the lack of Edgar Wright’s directing awesomeness. Yet, it still managed to put together a satisfying adventure comedy. With references to popular alien movies coming out of its ears, plenty of somewhat foulmouthed humor from the all-star cast, and the sense to never take itself seriously, the film was far more satisfying to me than the trailer led me to expect.

There were a few things I found grating, which I can’t share without spoilers so I’ll leave off for another time.

The film gets the Scott Small thumbs up, but, granted, there is plenty of bias here, because I want to love movies with Pegg and Frost in them. However, that’s something I won’t apologize for, because everyone does that. It seems to me the people who bitch about that sort of bias the most are the biggest offenders in doing the same thing in ways they are blind to. We’re all biased, just enjoy it. Just like I enjoyed Paul.