[critical] Paul

For 60 years, Paul, an extraterrestrial, living on earth and is working with the u.s. government. He hides out of sight in a military base secret ultra… Paul is at the origin of everything that one could imagine about the aliens, merchandising scenarios Encounters of the third kind , E. T. or X Files. Unfortunately for him, now that the us government has extracted all the interesting information about extraterrestrial life, he decided to get rid of him. Paul manages to escape and comes face to face with two teen-focused sci-fi fans who crisscross the United States in a motorhome. Paul convinces them to take her with them and help them to leave the earth. The task proves to be much more difficult for our two “heroes Sunday” that they are pursued by a cop relentless, assisted by two nickel plated feet to the FBI…

Author’s Note

[rating:7/10]

• Release Date : march 2, 2011

• Directed by Greg Mottola

• Film the american, british, Spanish, French

• With Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman, Jane Lynch

• Duration : 1h42min

• Original title : Paul

• Trailer :

As much be clear, any person who does not have a minimum of fibre or of culture, “geek” can quietly go his way and let Paul do a tour on Land and not worry about it. On the other hand, the duo from Shaun of the Dead ” will shiver of happiness any person having always a fondness for the SF, comics, UFOS, genre cinema, etc… Because without being a masterpiece of film, the endless stream of references, visual, verbal or musical in this road-movie crazy is already enough to justify its place in cinema for the pleasure to find a maximum number of funny details and ultraréférentiels.

This comedy, sometimes british in some respects, but often grossly ribald, makes it so deliciously disrespectful homage to many movies or series as, of course, Star Wars, Star Trek, E. T., etc., but pays for the luxury of having a conductor wire, and the characters pretty well thought out to justify the twists and delusions of this film. It might have been feared to see Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, without their fellow director Edgar Wright, left the care of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but the duo keeps its freshness and always generates as much good humor without really tons of them, their balance, sometimes think of Jay and Silent Bob films, Kevin Smith.

The one who did a ton, by contrast, it is Paul. And it’s going pretty not bad : even the VF-Philippe Manoeuvre seems to me bearable and relatively adapted to an alien being fundamentally rock-and-roll. Visually, this is not very rich, but the result is honest. The job of the director, Greg Mottola, to whom we owe, among others, Supergrave, works : the pace is relatively fast paced from the meeting with Paul and the exhibition at the beginning of the next outrageously “nerd” of the two heroes within the San Diego Comicon is mastered.

We can say that Paul is a tribute film, a film that declares his flame to the cinema of the 70s and 80s and all the codes of the SF modern with a detachment and a sense of humor very timely. We save some gags for better support on the other. And despite its visual side pretty clean, it is far from the family comedy with humour, slapstick and ribald well-mastered the film and it is overall soothing to laugh at what we love. For the geek (or semi-geek) only !