Paul (Mottola, 2011)

[Morris Schæffer]

The Frost and The Pegg at it again.

Trailer:

http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=paul

Haha, yeah, I might watch it.

[[ETM]]

Crappy trailer but yeah, this could be lots of fun.

[Henry Gale]

I guess the motion capture and whatnot has caused this to have a longer post-production than Scott Pilgrim, but still it's weird to think that both were shot around the same time and we're just seeing a teaser for Paul now.

Either way, looks as enjoyable as I'd hoped, even just from those short clips. Mottola's last two are both incredibly rewatchable films, so add that to Pegg and Frost penning things, as well as being a part of most frames of it, and I can't see how this won't be awesome fun.

[megladon8]

I like the concept and the whole cast, except for Seth Rogen.

I'm getting mighty tired of him, and a lot of it is his voice and "YELLING THINGS MAKES IT MORE REAL!!!"

[Lasse]

The trailer made it look like a children's movie to me. Terrible trailer.

But it'll be fine, and I'll watch it.

[Henry Gale]

I hate to say that I saw a crappy downloaded cam version of this, but I was really looking forward to it so, it being a month ahead of it coming out here, I went ahead despite the iffy quality. The problem wasn't even so much the way I saw it as... well, the movie is not that good, and that's not something I expecting to think about it at all.

Considering how much I've loved the last two films from both Pegg & Frost and Greg Motolla, I'm really not sure what went wrong here, it's really devoid of too many great jokes or generally admirable setpieces, and even the ones that do work don't feel like they haven't really been done before. It's broad when it comes to its action and general premises but not at all how it wants to play anything actually important to the characters or the comedy that's going on for much of it. By the end of it it seems like it wants to show that it was trying to to have more heart than silliness, which is also a shame because what it goes for in the more emotional end of things doesn't make any impact either because of how underdeveloped and sidelined it is for the first two thirds.

As Lasse's suspicion was in the post above this (based on the trailer from several months back), it looks and goes along with the feel of a kids movie, just with a lot of swearing and humour built around sex and drugs. It may have been easier to defend as a film if those things were changed and adults weren't the target audience, but it is R-rated and so much of what makes it so feels unnecessary.

I'll reserve my full judgement for when (or if) I see it again under better circumstances once it's out in North America, but right now, I'm chalking this up as a huge disappointment.

[MadMan]

The trailer wasn't very good. I imagine I'll be amused by the movie, but I'm wondering if its as weak as Henry and the trailer suggests.

[megladon8]

Yeah I can't say I'm surprised.

It doesn't look very good at all. And I'm pretty sick of Seth Rogen.

[Bosco B Thug]

Yeah. Way average. FYI.

[eternity]

I don't know whether or not I should see this tonight. Mottola did direct Adventureland, but then again, he also directed Superbad. And the reactions are all sorts of mixed. Hmm.

[Pop Trash]

I don't know whether or not I should see this tonight. Mottola did direct Adventureland, but then again, he also directed Superbad. And the reactions are all sorts of mixed. Hmm.

I feel you. Love Adventureland, like Superbad...but mang this screams wait for the DVD.

[Sycophant]

This is bad.

[Bosco B Thug]

I feel you. Love Adventureland, like Superbad...but mang this screams wait for the DVD.
I like both Superbad and Adventureland for having directorial stampage (yeah, Superbad for directorial stampage!), and this surely does not have that. Both the directing and the screenwriting is unusually rote and formulaic.

It's an enjoyable, pleasant movie, though (I thought).

[Watashi]

I want to see this for Pegg, Frost, and for being a love-letter to Comic Con, but man... none of the jokes in the trailer are funny at all. Plus, Rogen is so grating.

[megladon8]

I want to see this for Pegg, Frost, and for being a love-letter to Comic Con, but man... none of the jokes in the trailer are funny at all. Plus, Rogen is so grating.


Thank you.

I've been "over" Seth Rogen for like 5 years now.

Just like Jonah Hill, I find he can be funny in bit parts and supporting roles, but his successes as a lead are few and far between.

In fact I'd say the only one I really like is Pineapple Express, and even there, he was annoying. James Franco stole the show.

[Sxottlan]

Some co-workers were watching a bootleg version of this at work a few weeks ago. What I saw of it did not look particularly hilarious. I don't know. I might wait until it's old enough a free pass will work.

[Watashi]

Yeah, this film was really dumb. I admire what Pegg and Frost did, but man, some of the nerd/comic references were obnoxious. Like Big Bang Theory obnoxious.

[Sven]

A bad, bad movie. I liked, though, that I paid Utah ticket prices for it. $12 for 2 people? Wow! I can't believe Frost and Pegg wrote this... it's a chasmic black hole of quality.

[eternity]

Adventureland is on in the other room. I cannot believe that a Mottola film with Pegg and Frost's involvement (who I don't think are the bees knees, but you know, they're alright) is bad. Just...no way.

Actually, I can, since Mottola didn't write it, but still, directorial stamp and all. I mean, that's the only thing Superbad had going for it /trolltrolltrolltroll

[eternity]

That was good.

[Bosco B Thug]

That was good.
Hmmm, well, I'm glad you liked it. I do think the film deserves a little more than to be Match-Cut dogpiled on, but did you really think it was anything more than painfully average?

[eternity]

Hmmm, well, I'm glad you liked it. I do think the film deserves a little more than to be Match-Cut dogpiled on, but did you really think it was anything more than painfully average?

The first act was more painful than average, but then I thought it really found its stride and it just kept getting better. Until the very end; then it got meh again.

Some notably great scenes, though.

[Sven]

Some notably great scenes, though.

Such as...?

[B-side]

This looks wretched.

[Thirdmango]

I liked it. I didn't love it but I liked it.

[eternity]

Such as...?
Kristen Wiig's argument with Paul was a highlight. The comic book store scene was also quite good.

[Sycophant]

It's pretty wretched. I don't hate or dislike Seth Rogen like a lot of people seem to (contrary to what meg is saying, it seems to me that the consensus--at least among cinephiles--is that he should've been put down around the time of Superbad), but he is miscast here. A friend told me that Pegg and Frost wrote the part of Paul for Rip Torn, but the studio rejected it. That really could've made the movie that much better.

Yet I don't blame Rogen. I think he plays his parts well. If he's miscast in this movie, I don't blame him. I blame the studio.

But anyway, this is loose, messy, aimless nonsense for the most part. Mottola's last two films were smart pieces about male and developmental anxieties. There are trace elements of those in this film, but it ultimately doesn't feel like it's about anything. The jokes are stale (I admit I chuckled at about a half dozen things), Pegg and Frost never really feel comfortable in their roles (I swear Frost's character is supposed to actually be genuinely in love with Pegg's character, but the characters' emotional dimensions never really get any kind of real attention), and all the comic convention (and other geeky) shout-outs reminded me more of Race to Witch Mountain than anything else.

The film's recurrent thing with not revealing characters' faces until absolutely necessary is strange. It spends a small amount (but still too much) of its running time on the kind of petty, smug Christian-bashing that seems to crop up in American comedies written by British guys. Obnoxious and uncomfortable.

Mottola doesn't really seem to be doing anything with his material, and the material isn't good in the first place. A real pity. This surely could've been something a lot better.

[[ETM]]

Is all the cussing intact in the US version? It was so obnoxiously artificial and forced in almost every instance.

[Sycophant]

Yup. It's real unfunny and terribly awkward.

[eternity]

;333516']Is all the cussing intact in the US version? It was so obnoxiously artificial and forced in almost every instance.

That was kind of the joke, as the obnoxious and artificial nature of it all had attention called to it practically every single time. Whether the joke was funny or not is up to one's own view, but let's not act like it's an unintentional flaw.

[Watashi]

The film's recurrent thing with not revealing characters' faces until absolutely necessary is strange. It spends a small amount (but still too much) of its running time on the kind of petty, smug Christian-bashing that seems to crop up in American comedies written by British guys. Obnoxious and uncomfortable.

I found this the most stupid part of the movie. Creationists are an easy group to target to make jokes at, but the jokes are so obvious and tiring, and yet Pegg and Frost keep sticking with them for the entire film. It really didn't go anywhere within the context of the film. It was just a cheap shot for Pegg and Frost to declare their atheist superiority to the mass audiences.

[Ezee E]

Rogen needs to be rated-R, and have something along the lines of Observe & Report. Which I think was after Superbad/Pineapple Express

[Watashi]

Rogen needs to be rated-R, and have something along the lines of Observe & Report. Which I think was after Superbad/Pineapple Express
Almost everything Rogen has been in (excluding his animated films) has been rated R.

[Ezee E]

Almost everything Rogen has been in (excluding his animated films) has been rated R.
Since Observe & Report, he's only done Funny People which was awful. And the Green Hornet, which I didn't see.

Guess there really isn't an overload of Rogen. I don't mind him though.

And I like Observe & Report (both as a movie and his performance) far more then Pineapple Express and Zack & Miri.

[[ETM]]

That was kind of the joke, as the obnoxious and artificial nature of it all had attention called to it practically every single time. Whether the joke was funny or not is up to one's own view, but let's not act like it's an unintentional flaw.

I get it with the girl and all, but I'm not just talking about that - even when the other characters did it, it was awkward.

[Sven]

That was kind of the joke, as the obnoxious and artificial nature of it all had attention called to it practically every single time. Whether the joke was funny or not is up to one's own view, but let's not act like it's an unintentional flaw.

But isn't Paul, through his instruction to Wiig, positioned as a corrective to awkward/unnatural Earth-mores? His own insults (and approval of Wiig's still-stilted profanities) are just as much a byproduct of derivative screenwriting (of which this entire film reeks) as the crass sitcom formula it co-opts. I don't buy your apologetics. Intentional flaw or not, it's still glaring and it's still a flaw. Most criminally, it's still not funny. Can't account for others' senses of humor, but practically every joke in this film has already been done to death.

I DID love Bill Hader in it. I don't know how he continues to always be the best part of every movie he's in. The scene where he and his partner are being slapped was the best laugh in the movie.

[eternity]

;333557']I get it with the girl and all, but I'm not just talking about that - even when the other characters did it, it was awkward.
The way the others approached her cursing talent (or lack of) clearly hinted that they had the same fault, just on the other end of the spectrum, like with their religious tolerance (or lack of) and tolerance of American stereotypes. They pretty much are everything they mock and visibly hold contempt for.

Or at least that's what I kept getting as I was watching it.

[KK2.0]

I love Pegg/Frost but the trailer screamed average and the impressions doesn't sound that great. will probably rent it/download. :(

hope they team up with Ed Wright again.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Bill Hader is great.

The rest of the film, not so much

[Irish]

This was bad. Really bad. Thin terrible uninteresting not funny. Best parts, if they can be called that, are all in the trailer (and the first 20 or so minutes of the movie).

Worst part is Rogen, who brings his one note stoner slacker persona completely intact to voice acting. I remain completely amazed that this guy has any kind of career.