I absolutely loved Shaun of the Dead. It, along with Zombieland, are the only undead movies I can rewatch. So, I was very excited when I saw that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were going to star in a science fiction alien comedy. And out came Paul. I don’t want to give the impression that Paul was a bad movie, since it wasn’t. But it wasn’t as good as Shaun of the Dead, just to set expectations. So, let’s go and see what Paul is about.

Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) are a couple of comic-book geeks who are attending the San Diego Comic Convention on vacation from England. Their master plan involves leaving San Diego in an RV and driving to Area 51 and hitting all the alien hotspots between there and Roswell. As they’re driving along a deserted Nevada highway, they are overtaken by a speeding car which then crashes. As they go to check it out, they find Paul. Paul is an alien who’s been in Area 51 for decades and has decided it’s time to leave. Graeme and Clive find themselves drawn into the mission to help Paul get back home.

But the feds are on his trail. Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) is working for the big boss (Sigourney Weaver) to get Paul back. He’s helped (and hindered) by two idiot federal agents (Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio) who think that capturing Paul will get them promotions. Along for the ride is Ruth (Kristin Wiig) and her father (John Carroll Lynch) as a religious family that gets a surprise when they see Paul, as well as a couple of hicks (Jesse Plemons and David Koechner) who aren’t happy with Graeme and Clive and Jane Lynch as a Nevada waitress. It also has Steven Spielberg in a voice cameo asking Paul for advice on E.T.

Overall, the movie is cute and has some decent humor. They also spend a lot of time using out of place quotes from other movies to great effect. The characters are rather broadly drawn with Ruth doing a 180 in personality over the span of about 30 seconds. We really don’t know much more about Graeme and Clive after the movie than we did before. The plot is decent and Seth Rogen does a great turn as Paul. But too much of the film seeming to be going for cheap laughs rather than great humor. I’d probably watch it again, because it was good enough to enjoy. But I can’t help feeling that it could have been better. Mildly recommended.