Paul (The Movie, Not The Me)

2.17.11

3:13 pm

Recently, I had the glorious good fortune to get an invite to a screening of the new Simon Pegg/Nick Frost joint, Paul.

Just a note before I begin...in the near future, if you see me randomly posting things in first person (e.g. Paul is very funny, Paul is just the right length, Paul is packed with cultural references, Jason Bateman is great in Paul), I'm not referring to myself, I'm referring to this movie...even though all the things just mentioned apply to both.

Anyway.

I was literally brimming with excitement over this movie as I'm a huge Simon Pegg fan, specifically of the stuff that he and Frost have written together like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Paul was also written by them and it goes right up there with the other two; it's snappy, childish, caustic and layered with humor, ranging from awful puns to alien dick jokes to subtle (and not so subtle) Star Wars nods to all the other stuff you'd expect from a movie made by these guys.

The three biggest differences between Paul and their first two films are that Edgar Wright didn't direct (the lack of his hyper-editing style is noticeable, but not overly detrimental), it's a lot less British (but still quite British) and, rather than focusing on Pegg and Frost, there's a whole slew of co-stars; Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio (who are all brilliant), and a whole bunch of cameos as well from Jeffery Tabor, Jane Lynch, David Koechner, Sigourney Weaver (whose appearance is a surprise only if you've never heard her voice before in your life) and, oddly, Blythe Danner.

It was especially good to see Joe Lo Truglio, originally of The State, doing more than his usual two or three scenes as Nameless Funny Guy, and I hope this means more stuff for him.

As fans would expect, Paul features that wonderful Pegg-Frost brand of homoeroticism which divided the audience between people who think "they gay" and people who understand that the images in front of them are not real and that the people in these images are pretending, but I digress.

The basic gist of the film is that Pegg and Frost are lifelong friends who are visiting America for the first time to attend the San Diego Comi-Con and then take a UFO tour of the Southwest. They meet people and things happen...funny things.

Much like the plots of their earlier works, Paul is full of tropes, but also like their earlier works, the joy isn't in the plot, it's in watching these guys experience the plot.

I had the honor of being the only person who got (or, at least, the only one who got and laughed at) a Star Wars reference (odd as I'm not a huge fan). At one point, our heroes end up in a shitkicker bar where a cuntry band is playing the song from the cantina scene in Star Wars.

I felt pride and shame, like a fly that has found a huge pile of shit all to himself.

I'm planning on seeing Paul again when it comes out as it is worth however much these Hollywood twats are charging for movies these days.

Oh, also it's rated R so you don't have those stupid moments where "fuck" is the right thing to say, but you can only say "screw".

Fuck that.

Hard.

With a dick.

So, on March 18th, go see Paul.

The movie, not me.

Although if you want to me, that's cool too.

Just call me so I can get you a ticket to Paul.

And me.

And last night, as I was home, Chris and watched the first two thirds of Reality Bites.

Why the first two thirds, one might boggle?

Well, heck, I'll tell you why!

Because Netflix needs to pay more attention to the condition of their DVDs.

But, the fact that I didn't ask them to send a new copy probably tells you what we thought of the movie.

Or at least the first two thirds.

Did we really talk like that?

Jesus.

I apologize to everyone who isn't in their 20's who has to listen to people in their 20's talk.

And that music?

And have you EVER seen Jeanine Garaflo be that sincere?!

It was weird.

In a bad way.

Oh and both Chris and I agree that Christian Slater and Ethan Hawke should battle to the death.

Before the screening yesterday, I managed to finish (part of) Plants Vs. Zombies, an excellent little game originally for the PC then the Xbox then the iPod Touch then the iPad and, finally, the PS3.

If you have any of these platforms, you should check it out.

It was totally worth the wait.

It's made by a company called Pop Cap, which was known for cell phone games and smaller, time-wasting things you'd play while waiting for a train or something, but PvZ has a depth and humor that allows it to stand out from the mire of games like itself.

And it has zombies being attacked by plants.

And AMAZING puns.

Like a Wall-Nut...which acts like a wall.

Or a plant that shoots a lot of peas in rapid succession...a Repeater.

Or a plant that spits out coins...a Marigold.

And the list goes on and on and on.

Today is a good day.

Can't say why.

Just saying it.

I feel a song comin' on...