I didn't know much about "Paul" going in to the screening but was prepared for it to be either stupidly dumb or hilarious. What it ended up being was a mix of the two, making for a decidedly average movie, but one that still provided enough laughs to be funny.
Graeme (Simon Pegg, "Star Trek") and Clive (Nick Frost, "Pirate Radio") are two British men who have come to the States for Comic-Con, and then plan to take a road trip to various U.S. sites where aliens have allegedly been spotted in the past, like Area 51. What they don't count on is running into Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen, "The Green Hornet"), an alien who is on the run from some people that want to dissect him. Graeme and Clive are a little scared of "Paul" at first, which is to be expected, but they soon find out they have a lot in common: Paul drinks coffee, his favorite candy is Reeses Pieces, and he even wears pants. Paul asks them to help him get to the place where he is supposed to meet his alien contacts - so they can "give him a ride home," so to speak - and so Graeme and Clive alter their road trip itinerary to try and get Paul to safety.
Paul is voiced by Seth Rogen and it was very easy to imagine him as a miniature alien version of him. There are tons of geek and "fanboy" references sprinkled throughout the film, most of which probably went over my head, but one favorite was when Graeme is sketching a picture of Paul and he asks him, "Are you going to draw me like one of your French girls, Jack?" (referencing "Titanic," when Leo's character is sketching Kate's)
The humor throughout the film was a little crude but not horrible (the film is rated "R") and I found myself laughing at most of it. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are great as the two British geeks, as well as Kristen Wiig (TV's "Saturday Night Live") as a bible-thumping woman who sort-of gets kidnapped by them, and there are tons of cameos in the movie by A-listers, including Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver, and Steven Spielberg.
Maybe see this movie. It's not a film I would see again but I enjoyed it; at the same time, however, I don't think it is everyone's "cup of tea." If you enjoy comedies and/or movies about aliens, though, you will get a kick out of Paul, an alien who is just as human as the rest of us.
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Liz Parker is a 2009 graduate of the University of Michigan. She currently works as an Assistant Medical Editor for a pathology website. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films
