Paul

One of the most comfortable science-fiction comedies I've seen, Greg Mottola's Paul introduces several distracting characters whose down home urbanized savvy fuels a quaint campy road trip. This road trip includes science fiction writer Clive Gollings (Nick Frost), his best friend Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg), a devoted Christian (Kristen Wiig), and a pot smoking trash talking fun lovin' alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogan). Paul has escaped from the military facility which held him prisoner for decades and used his advanced knowledge to drive various technological/pop cultural/industrial/. . . economies.

He seeks to return home.

Clive and Graeme have arrived in America from Britain to attend Comic-Con and then travel the midwest. They accidentally meet Paul on the side of a highway one evening and agree to help him reach his destination. In hot pursuit are Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) and his reluctant sidekicks Haggard (Bill Hader) and O'Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio), intent on recapturing Paul so that the government can cut out his brain.

And reclaim their weed.

Every scene in Paul is well written, fun, and entertaining (written by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg). The humour isn't the most cerebral but it takes a lot of brains to be able to successfully write and sustain so many catchy one-liners, skilfully using repetition to recapture laughs throughout. There are many hilarious shots of characters standing there with bewildered quizzical looks on their faces, and including Moses Buggs (John Caroll Lynch) in those near the end was priceless. Knowing that the road trip will not likely be threateningly interrupted produces feelings of comfort, although you would think the military would be searching for Paul in greater numbers (this would have ruined the film however!). Paul structurally references myriad science-fiction classics and it's fun trying to unravel them all (I did not catch them all). Watching Graeme and Ruth Buggs (Wiig) exchange romantic observations works well. Frustration, Frost and Pegg are experts in comedically timing moments of productive frustration.

Are humans smart enough to have come up with all of the technological advances of the last 100 years on their own or have aliens been sharing their related knowledge with them? Paul's answer to this question is "no, they are not, aliens have been sharing their knowledge, period."