Greg Mottola
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Paul (2011)
Plot Visuals
Although it’s a broad takeoff on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., it’s not in the superficial Scary Movie mode.
Tongue-in-cheek references to Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986) and other classic sci-fi flicks are consistently witty.
"Paul," which he cowrote with Nick Frost, his costar of those two films, is less a parody than a buddy bromance mired in adolescent homophobia with a lot of direct references to "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," as if just the idea of those films, or the casting of "Aliens'" Sigourney Weaver, should be a crackup.
He bathes the entirety of Paul in a patina of cinematic recall, channeling everything from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to ET, while Pegg and Frost are busy throwing in everything else (big brownie points for the Mac and Me shout-out!).
He takes credit for The X Files ("Mulder was my idea!") and for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.
It’s a movie of random hilarious bits — they duck into a road house where the boot-scooting band is playing the same music as the cantina band in “Star Wars,” and Paul settles, once and for all, the “Evolution vs. Creationism” debate with a a sheltered trailer park rube (Kristen Wiig, funny).
The whole thing is one big riff on “E.T.” but there are clever nods to “Star Wars” (note the song that the bluegrass band is playing during the bar scene), “Aliens,” “Close Encounters” and a few more.
Graeme and Clive's visit to a Nevada roadhouse, where John Williams' Star Wars cantina theme is played, underlines the actor-writers' debt to George Lucas a connection made explicit in their new vidcast , in which they play C-3PO and R2-D2 as the idiot descendants of Laurel and Hardy.
Recreating scenes from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in painstaking detail or having the house band at a roadside honky tonk playing the Star Wars cantina song is all well and good, but you also have to come up with something funny to happen in the foreground.
They are into comics, aliens, Star Wars and science-fiction, so they naturally start at San Diego's Comic-Con, a geeks' convention where every second person is dressed as a storm trooper or Princess Leia.
A galaxy of fantasy flicks get referenced, but the Star Wars allusions are so numerous that George Lucas could file for a writer's credit.
Despite being humorous in its outlook and providing numerous "Easter eggs" to fans of Star Wars , Aliens , Close Encounters , and E.T. (amongst others), this isn't a parody.
The rest of the film's targets are more in line with expectations, with "Star Wars," "Men in Black," "Aliens," "Back to the Future," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "Mac and Me" all cited at one time or another.
Sigourney Weaver puts in a brief appearance as Mr Big and shares a scene with Blythe Danner which features one of Weaver's signature lines from Aliens , a line that earns huge laughs in Paul.
Pegg and Frost freely drop clever references to iconic modern sci-fi cinema, from Close Encounters to Aliens to, of course, E.T. (one voice cameo in particular underlines the magic that should have permeated the entire film).
"Paul" borrows heavily from so many movies -- "E.T." obviously, but also "Jaws," "Aliens," "Easy Rider" and many more -- but while it definitely takes their lines or plots, it doesn't quite replicate their emotional stakes or dramatic payoffs.
Paul, however, is a sci-fi movie spoof, half its dialogue consisting of lines lifted from Star Wars , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Star Trek, Raiders of the Lost Ark , Aliens , Back to the Future , and all the other 70s and 80s sci-fi comfort-food staples fed to growing fanboys back then.
As fitting replacements for the hormone-driven teenage boys that are usually at the centre of these types of films (it’s difficult to not compare this to a similarly themed product like Superbad ), Max, Thor and Lucas’s age-appropriate dilemma centres around a “kissing party”.
The tendency is to compare this to something like “Superbad;” it’s an imperfect match, but it’s not that far off, either.
Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Good Boys aspires to be Superbad for tweens, starting with its structure featuring the main characters facing a series of obstacles as they try to get to a party.
They could have just called it Superbad, Jr. Good Boys, producers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s spiritual prequel to their (very) seminal coming of age comedy Superbad, certainly believes there are unending laughs in watching three 12-year-old boy virgins say “fuck” a lot, mess around with molly, and get sex wrong.
Taking a few pages from its most obvious cinematic inspiration, the 2007 comedy Superbad, Good Boys is just as side-splitting hilarious and a lot more adorable – like the Little Rascals if the Little Rascals wielded dildos and shot people in the face with paintballs.
Good Boys is produced by Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures, which also brought us Superbad , Neighbors , and Sausage Party , so it should be no surprise that raunch and drug-related shenanigans will be major themes for what lies ahead.
A gender-swapped Superbad.
Let’s get the obvious comparison out of the way: A clear antecedent to “Booksmart” is 2007’s “Superbad,” Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s hit raunchfest that made a star out of Jonah Hill, who also happens to be Feldstein’s big brother.
If this sounds a lot like Superbad —which starred Feldstein’s brother, Jonah Hill—be assured that nothing about Booksmart feels stale.
The comparisons have already begun; Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut has been branded the female Superbad, and lauded for its innovative use of classic high school comedy tropes like that of the big night out before graduation, and the nerd crushing on the jock.
In a strange, but wonderful way, Booksmart similarly topples over any expectations we may’ve beset not only upon it – coming out of SXSW, it was simplified by many as “Superbad with girls” – but the teenage genre as a whole.
Its story of friends out for an evening of partying echoes one-crazy-night movies like Booksmart and Superbad , beguiling the audience with drunken antics and sweet depictions of loyal friendship onscreen.
Since this is a take on the “one crazy night” narrative, I think you will hear people compare it to films like “Superbad.”
There are echoes of Superbad here, though as much as I love that film it very much remains a movie cloaked in obvious artifice.
At first glance, this film seems like your regular “wild night out” film in the vein of Booksmart or Superbad .
Initially the film gives off similar vibes to a college version of Superbad with these characters just looking to have one last good time together, but once they find the drunk girl in their living room, things quickly dissolve into a beautiful chaos, and that’s when the film gets more interesting and terrifying.
There are certainly shades of Superbad (2007) floating around here.
The Vasquez Rocks, featured in several "Star Trek" episodes, make a cameo appearance.
At one point they buy a Gorn mask so they can recreate a scene from "Star Trek" when they visit Vazquez rock.
Besides the work of Steven Spielberg there's also, of course, rather a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars, including a particularly witty use of the Cantina Bar theme.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Directed by Richard Linklater
influenced Adventureland (2009), Superbad (2007)
Themes Plot
Many movies about this theme have focused on male camaraderie on this quest, including American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused, and American Pie.
For all its R-rated talk about porn and genitalia, Superbad is part of an honorable ah-when-we-were-young tradition encompassing Richard Linklater�s Dazed and Confused, George Lucas� American Graffiti, Rob Reiner�s Stand by Me, and the granddaddy of them all, Fellini�s I Vitelloni (1953).
Like “American Graffiti” and “Dazed and Confused,” all the action takes place in one day.
Though not as consistently funny as June’s jocular Knocked Up, this far more ephemeral farce turns the last days of high school (ala Dazed and Confused) into a wickedly wild walk on the decidedly drunk and horny side of adolescence.
Like American Graffiti and Dazed And Confused, Superbad condenses all the cruelty, mixed emotions, angst, fun, and insanity of high-school life into a single night of kinetic mayhem.
“American Graffiti,” “Sixteen Candles” and “Dazed and Confused,” bow to your new master. ”Superbad” made me laugh so hard my pancreas came loose.
When Frost’s sci-fi geek asks whether he can understand Paul because the latter is using a Star Trek style “universal translator,” the scrawny extraterrestrial with the giant brainpan and the voice of Seth Rogen says, “I’m speaking English, you fucking idiot.”
There are so many references to science-fiction classics, including Star Wars , Star Trek and Close Encounters of the Third Kind , that a drinking game borne of the DVD seems a lock.
There’s even an out-of-nowhere callback to the 1993 Susan Sarandon drama “Lorenzo’s Oil” for no discernible reason.
(Although some of the touchstones — a “Lorenzo’s Oil” nod? — are simply inexplicable.)
The new Pegg-Frost film, like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Spaced, is crammed with gaggy allusions to movies of all kinds, from Capturing the Friedmans to Lorenzo's Oil; but the inexhaustible touchstone is Hollywood sci-fi.
Give "Paul" this much: it holds the unprecedented distinction of being the only mainstream comedy in existence with punchlines referencing the 2003 child molestation documentary "Capturing the Friedmans" and 1992's disease drama "Lorenzo's Oil."
What elevates this material to fanboy porn is the dialogue, which constantly appropriates signature lines from Star Wars, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters...even (huh?) Lorenzo's Oil.
It echoes all kinds of earlier teen flicks, from "American Graffiti" to "American Pie," and it has the lumpy construction of an oft-reworked script that's been knocking around for a long time with no takers.
Many movies about this theme have focused on male camaraderie on this quest, including American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused, and American Pie.
For all its R-rated talk about porn and genitalia, Superbad is part of an honorable ah-when-we-were-young tradition encompassing Richard Linklater�s Dazed and Confused, George Lucas� American Graffiti, Rob Reiner�s Stand by Me, and the granddaddy of them all, Fellini�s I Vitelloni (1953).
Like “American Graffiti” and “Dazed and Confused,” all the action takes place in one day.
If those crazy cops hadn’t shown up every 30 seconds to drag the movie off into the realm of the ridiculous, Superbad could stand as this decade’s American Graffiti.
Like American Graffiti and Dazed And Confused, Superbad condenses all the cruelty, mixed emotions, angst, fun, and insanity of high-school life into a single night of kinetic mayhem.
The Binge (2020)
Directed by Jeremy Garelick
influenced by Superbad (2007)
Plot Themes Visuals Characters
It’s impossible to watch Hulu’s new “original” comedy The Binge and not think of other, very similar films, most especially Superbad and Booksmart .
"The Binge" takes that concept and puts a "Superbad"-esque spin on it, which likely sounded creative on paper.
In the one-eventful-night tradition of “ The Hangover ,” “ Superbad ” and “ Booksmart ”—all far superior movies—“The Binge” sets its sights on a duo of friends who have just turned 18 and can thus participate in their town’s biggest Binge party.
The Binge isn't exactly a parody of The Purge, limiting the connection between the two to an opening credit sequence that riffs on the memorable opening of The Purge by replacing that movie's security camera footage of violent acts with cell phone footage of frat boys doing dumb drunken stunts, and pretty quickly abandons Purge-influenced plotting in favor of a Superbad -derived plot where the boys are trying to get to a party in order to impress the girls they like.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Binge is obviously a riff on The Purge , but it’s got the DNA of other teen party movies like Superbad , Booksmart , and Blockers thrown in there, too.
Modelling itself very much on the likes of Superbad (with Franco as the McLovin’), The Binge‘s strongest asset is the comic chemistry between the two leads.
The same year, some homegrown Hollywood guys hatched Easy Rider, another road movie about two guys who pick up a strange dude (though then it was Jack Nicholson).
The “in” references — to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Duel,” “Easy Rider,” “The Empire Strikes Back,“ “Star Trek,” “Spider-Man,” etc., etc. — are plentiful and painfully obvious.
And on a marquee at a movie theater are the titles Easy Rider and Duel -- a Spielberg film.
"Paul" borrows heavily from so many movies -- "E.T." obviously, but also "Jaws," "Aliens," "Easy Rider" and many more -- but while it definitely takes their lines or plots, it doesn't quite replicate their emotional stakes or dramatic payoffs.
Put another way, Greg Mottola covered similar territory with his far superior ‘80s flashback Adventureland.
It has its charms, most notably in Rockwell's wise-cracking put-on artist, but it never goes for anything really deep as 2009's similarly themed "Adventureland" did, while taking a few missteps along the way.
Not a great deal happens that is likely to surprise you, and the whole finding-yourself-while-working-at-an-amusement-park idea is likely to draw comparisons to Adventureland (2009).
Besides, moviegoers have seen nearly all this on-the-job stuff before, whether in Greg Mottola’s similarly autobiographical “Adventureland” or in corny ’80s movies that take place when this story clearly ought to.
A kindred cousin to 2009's amusement park-set " Adventureland ," "The Way Way Back" features a younger, but equally inexperienced, protagonist while following him during a summer of eye-opening internal growth.
Jason Bateman is solid as always, playing a government agent determined to find Paul, and Sigourney Weaver is his boss, so you know there will be an Alien reference eventually.
"Paul" also feels like a movie made of other movies -- shots out of Spielberg , quotes from " Star Wars " and " Alien ," scenery borrowed from " Close Encounters ."
Apatow is the writer-director of "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," but "Superbad" -- for all its outrageous action and crude sexual content -- owes as much to such time-compressed films as "American Graffiti," "Dazed and Confused" and even Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" as to Apatow's previous work and such frank predecessors as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
His movies "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," on the other hand, dealt with superannuated Beavises and Butt-heads stuck in a state of loutish arrested adolescence.
He wrote and directed "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and produced this movie.
Having found myself unable to join in the unstinting praise heaped on anything touched by Judd Apatow—I sat stone-faced throughout The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and laughed sporadically during last year’s Knocked Up (not believing its supposed serious side for a second)—I approached this Apatow-produced film with grave misgivings and gloomy foreboding.
The reason this and "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (Apatow's previous film) strike such a chord with viewers is that the movies' basic premises are plausible and the characters are believable -- and yet they're hysterically funny, too.
But unlike his recent megahits "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," not to mention other recent buddy comedies such as "Blades of Gory," the movie doesn't require the suspension of disbelief that more high-concept comedies do.
But the film loses it with strained references to "Titanic," "The Blues Brothers" and even the incest documentary "Capturing the Friedmans."
The new Pegg-Frost film, like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Spaced, is crammed with gaggy allusions to movies of all kinds, from Capturing the Friedmans to Lorenzo's Oil; but the inexhaustible touchstone is Hollywood sci-fi.
Give "Paul" this much: it holds the unprecedented distinction of being the only mainstream comedy in existence with punchlines referencing the 2003 child molestation documentary "Capturing the Friedmans" and 1992's disease drama "Lorenzo's Oil."
I mean you have to be pretty deep into sci-fi films to reference the 1988 alien kid's film "Mac and Me."
The nerds are the heroes here, like they were in “Revenge of the Nerds,” and there’s even a nod to “The Hollywood Knights,” thanks to a couple of bumbling cops played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader.
Short version: Funny, with echoes of Revenge of the Nerds and believe it or not, a bit of heart.
Set in a virtually unparented American everyburb, "Superbad" has a degree more sophistication than "Revenge of the Nerds" and "American Pie," and less than the underrated "House Party."
If Seth Rogan has his way, the real "Revenge of the Nerds" will come to pass, where the experiences of our landscape's social rejects pass as the rule and not the exception.
Like the hyperactive spawn of "Revenge of the Nerds" and "American Pie" born in the era of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," Greg Mottola's "Superbad" hits the screen spewing vulgarity, bodily fluids and antiauthoritarian rebellion in all directions.
But there are also lines lifted directly from "Star Wars," locations from "Close Encounters," jokes from "Back to the Future," and more.
The rest of the film's targets are more in line with expectations, with "Star Wars," "Men in Black," "Aliens," "Back to the Future," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "Mac and Me" all cited at one time or another.
Paul, however, is a sci-fi movie spoof, half its dialogue consisting of lines lifted from Star Wars , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Star Trek, Raiders of the Lost Ark , Aliens , Back to the Future , and all the other 70s and 80s sci-fi comfort-food staples fed to growing fanboys back then.
Along their quest to get Paul on an intergalactic ship back home, the trio pick up fundamentalist Christian trailer park manager Ruth (Kristen Wiig) and make innumerable jokes directed squarely at their target demographic, whose fondness for Predator, Back to the Future , and Spielberg classics (E.T., Close Encounters, the Indiana Jones movies) is indulged with a single-mindedness that's borderline alienating.
What elevates this material to fanboy porn is the dialogue, which constantly appropriates signature lines from Star Wars, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters...even (huh?) Lorenzo's Oil.