Paul (2011)
Directed by Greg Mottola
For the past 60 years, a space-traveling smart-ass named Paul has been locked up in a top-secret military base, advising world leaders about his kind. But when he worries he’s outlived his usefulness and the dissection table is drawing uncomfortably close, Paul escapes on the first RV that passes by his compound in Area 51. Fortunately, it contains the two earthlings who are most likely to rescue and harbor an alien on the run.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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 ."
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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."