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Subscribe to weekly newsletter » Replay Video times & tickets Paul in theaters Fandango Search movie Desert Flower showtimes and buy BY ROGER EBERT / March 16, 2011 Insidious tickets. Source Code Here's a movie that teeters Trust on the edge of being really cast & credits more current releases » about us pretty good and loses its way. I'm not sure quite what one-minute movie reviews goes wrong, but you can Graeme Willy About the site » see that it might have gone Clive right. Maybe Paul, its alien Paul Seth Rogen still playing Site FAQs » hero, should have been Ruth Contact us » sent back to the shop for a Moses John Carroll Lynch The Adjustment Bureau rewrite. He isn't merely Agent Zoil Jason Bateman Another Year Email the Movie voiced by Seth Rogen, he Adam Jeffrey Tambor Barney's Version Battle: Los Angeles Answer Man » is Seth Rogen, if Seth Pat Jane Lynch Rogen looked like your Biutiful The Big Guy Sigourney Weaver usual bulb-headed, big- Cedar Rapids on sale now eyed being from outer Certifiably Jonathan space. Universal Pictures presents a film Certified Copy directed by Greg Mottola. Written Cold Weather The premise is lovable. by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The Company Men Desert Flower Graeme and Clive (Simon Running time: 104 minutes. Rated Drive Angry 3D Pegg and Nick Frost) play R (for language including sexual The Eagle two overage fanboys from references, and some drug use). Even the Rain England who breathlessly The Green Hornet embark on their dream trip Printer-friendly » Hall Pass to America. Their E-mail this to a friend » Hidden Love destination: Comic Con in The Housemaid Buy now » San Diego, and then they I Am Number Four plan to rent an RV and tour I Will Follow such American landmarks The Illusionist as Roswell, N.M., where (as we all know) a flying saucer landed Insidious years ago, and the event has been covered up ever since, becoming Inspector Bellamy famous for allegedly being covered up. Ip Man 2 Jane Eyre Just Go With It The Comic Con scenes are priceless, as our lads vibrate with Kaboom excitement in the presence of the legendary sci-fi author Adam Limitless Buy now » Shadowchild, who Jeffrey Tambor invests with a dour impatience for The Lincoln Lawyer the species of fanboys. I don't know where Tambor got the Louder Than a Bomb inspiration to wear that hat, but sometimes you see a prop, and your Loveless heart leaps up because it is so right. The Mechanic No Strings Attached After San Diego, the boys drive to Area 51 in Nevada, the first leg of Of Gods and Men their odyssey. Pegg and Frost bring a wide-eyed innocence and Outside the Law sweetness to their characters, for whom just about everything in Paul America is more or less alien. That includes Paul, whose van Poetry crashes in front of them on the highway. If you are an alien and a Rango Red Riding Hood Buy now » bad driver, Graeme and Clive are the first two humans you want to The Rite meet. They've been inflamed for so long by images of creatures that Sanctum look exactly like you, that they aren't particularly surprised when you Source Code appear. So you join them in their RV and enlist them in your trip Strongman toward a rendezvous with your mothership. Take Me Home Tonight Trust Along the way, they all meet Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), an Intelligent Unknown Design advocate with a black lens in her glasses, who finds most of Vidal Sassoon: The Movie what they say shocking, but joins them in the RV for excellent Waste Land The Way Back Buy now » reasons, even though the existence of an alien poses a considerable challenge to her creationism. Win Win more current releases » As you expect with a movie that begins at Comic Con, “Paul” revels in its geekdom. The movie is wall to wall with references to other sci- fi movies, some overt, some subtle, as we gradually catch on that on dvd this one little creature, Paul, must have been singlehandedly behind most of the close encounters of the last 70 years. The movie even new on dvd supplies a new ending for one sci-fi classic, which brings it to a total of three. Tron: Legacy (4/5) Buy now » Tron (4/5) But Paul himself may be a miscalculation. He is Seth Rogen in every Jersey Girl (4/5) aspect, except physical appearance. His voice, his vocabulary, his I Love You Phillip Morris (4/5) thinking, even his wardrobe (such as it is). And he uses even more Araya (4/5) four- and 10-letter words than Seth Rogen characters usually do. I Topsy-Turvy (3/29) think that's a mistake in two ways. (1) If you're going to involve Seth The Times of Harvey Milk (3/29) Rogen in a live-action movie, put him on the screen. (2) Paul isn't Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (3/29) alien enough. The joy in characters like E.T. and Starman is that Mesrine: Killer Instinct (3/29) Fair Game (3/29) they are aliens. Their thinking is strange. Their reactions are Buy now » unexpected. Paul is somehow too … ordinary. more new on dvd »

So the movie's a miss, but not without its pleasures. One of them is coming on dvd the appearance of Sigourney Weaver, who knows a thing or two when it comes to aliens who are not ordinary. Dead Man (4/12) The Human Stain (4/12) Ricky (4/12) White Material (4/12) Somewhere (4/19) Blow Out (4/26) Buy now» DIRECTV® Official Site Ip Man 2 (5/3) Save Now. Get 50% Off DIRECTV® 150 Ch Pkg True Grit (6/7) www.DIRECTV.com more coming on dvd » great movies on dvd DISH® Official Site Choose From 5 Packages Under $50/mo & www.DISHNetwork.com Shoah (12/29) Santa Sangre (1/25) Senso (2/22) Buy now» Obama Urges Refinancing more great movies on dvd » If you owe under $729k you probably www.SeeRefinanceRates.com

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