Movie Time! Paul

Poster created by Tom Whalen for Alamo Drafthouse’s Mondo boutique*

 

Paul is an awesome movie about a sassy alien who knows more about the world than the two sci-fi lovers who pick him up. Paul is another great film from comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. After so many greats in their past (Hot Fuzz is one of my all time favourite movies), I was nervous about this one, thinking that maybe Paul will be the exception.

I’m glad that I was proven wrong.

The characters are very well written, and the plot is believable. There’s a couple of anchors that are quiet easy to pick up, but there is a twist or two that you won’t get.

Paul is so expressive, and although they stress his bad language he is a good guy. I was worried about Pegg and Frost in the US, because they are so quintessentially English and I didn’t want America to screw that up. Luckily they kept that about themselves without mocking America too much.

One thing that did annoy me was the movie and television industry’s love of mocking Christians. I kind of thought that Pegg and Frost would be different, but I guess that believers are easy to make fun of. The main female character wore a shirt with Jesus shooting Charles Darwin “because of his blasphemous remarks”! I found that more offensive then any talk about evolution ever would. After that, I didn’t take her or her apparently religious father seriously as characters. Pegg’s character convinces her that there’s no God because aliens exist where he could have tried to help her keep her faith, but the real reason she abandons her lifelong belief in God is because now she can swear and have sex!!! Even typing this is making me angry again. I would like to see one movie or TV show portray a Christian as a person and not a tool or mockery. Stargate: Universe is the best that I’ve seen in a long time.

But despite that, Paul is an awesome movie that I would recommend to everyone. 

Kathy

Picture found at http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/03/paul-giveaway/