When two English Sci-Fi nerds, Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) come to America for a Comic Con convention, they also plan to travel cross country in a mobile home to see all of the areas where there have been UFO events in history. While on their journey they come face to face with an actual alien being named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen). Paul has just escaped from a government base, where he has been held for the past 60 years. Paul convinces them to let him hitch a ride with them, as he is trying to get to a specific location so that he can send a transmission to his people so that he may return to his own planet. On Paul’s trail is an agent named Lorenzo Zoil (Jason Bateman), who is ordered to bring Paul back to the secret base, dead or alive. While trying to stay one step ahead of Agent Zoil, the three of them end up, unintentionally, kidnapping a religious fanatic named Ruth (Kristen Wiig), when she encounters Paul, and they have no choice but to bring here along for the ride. Ruth’s father Moses (John Carroll) sees the abduction, and he grabs his shotgun and follows in pursuit. With an government agent already on their trail, and now a father bent on rescuing his daughter, will the Graeme and Clive be able to help Paul get to his destination before they are all caught? If the government has plans on keeping Paul’s existence a secret from the rest of the world, what will they do if they catch the trio?
I have been a fan of Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost as a comedic duo, since their movie together, “Shaun of the Deadâ€. I feel that the two of these British actors are at their funniest when joined together. Then by adding Seth Rogen to the mix, it definitely enhanced my interest. The movie starts off kind of slow, but picks up speed when the three actors are all together. Then when Kristen Wiig comes into the film it jumps another level of funny. There are some moments when it gets kind of boring, but just when you think it’s getting to that point, the R rating takes effect and an “F†bomb joke comes into play and you remember that you’re watching an “R†rated comedy. There is a lot of cursing in this movie, especially coming from Seth and Kristen. The movie flows well over the duration of the film, and at no time was not being entertained by the humor on screen. Jason Bateman was also good in his role as the pursuing agent, who was bent on getting Paul before his boss “The Big Guy†would send out more reinforcements. Speaking of the “Bug Guyâ€, that role was played by the queen of Sci-Fi. Not to give away the name, but as a hint: “The movie is about an Alienâ€. That shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
The effects in the movie were subpar, except for the CGI’d Paul of course. There was a lot of action to go along with the comedy, which evened out the movie pretty well. I thought the story was cool, and they definitely picked the right cast to be joined together. I gave the movie 2 spaceships out of 4. I wasn’t disappointed, although it could have been a lot funnier in my opinion. The movie is rated R for language including sexual references and some drug use. It film was written by Simon Pegg & Nick Frost. It was directed by Greg Mottola. It was produced by Big Talk Productions, Working Title Films, and Relativity Media. It was distributed Universal Pictures.
It’s a vast galaxy we live in, who knows what’s out there. Ezo
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