What would happen when two geeky and bumbling British UFO-enthusiasts run into a real, honest-to-goodness, short, Roswell-type alien who speaks perfectly good English and asks for their help? A lot of laughs! That's especially true if the situation is part of the plot of a movie! There's such a movie out there now and it's not your traditional serious extraterrestrial movie.

Aliens have always been portrayed as serious, otherworldly, and superior. But what if an alien you encounter acts and talks just like your old pal from college—a buddy and a dude in all respects. What if this alien is so cool you would actually want to hang out with him even if he looks like a busted light bulb with a face? Well there's a movie about such an alien called, Paul!

Yes, Paul is an alien and he befriends two dudes to help him fend off government “men in black.” He wears shorts, flip-flops, smokes, he dances, kids around, and speaks English that’s so American you’d think he belongs in the neighborhood. He also has a peace symbol tattoo on his shoulder which makes him a really lovable character in spite of his “alien” appearance. Basically, Paul is Seth Rogen (The Green Hornet) in disguise because the actor’s the one who voiced the computer-generated character.


Together with Star Trek’s Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, Rogen (Paul) goes on a road trip in a their trailer and gets into all manner of misadventures. Given the characters and the situation, it’s more like a buddy movie than a science-fiction flick. It’s a comedy because of the situations they have to get through to avoid getting noticed. Paul looks and acts so real audiences can accept and believe that what’s happening in the movie is true—or at least for the duration of the film.


Actors Pegg and Frost have worked together before in the movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, so it’s not surprising that they work together in another movie—again featuring a scenario that’s unlikely and totally implausible, but getting a huge audience nevertheless. It’s amazing how these two can alter their appearance and appear and act totally different in their movies. In Paul, they are just two happy-go-lucky dudes, who, as fans of UFOs, get lucky when they meet Paul, the alien. But who’s to say they are really lucky when people are out to get them because of Paul?

Paul is directed by Greg Motolla, who’s known for the movies The Daytrippers, Adventureland, and Superbad. By the way, Paul also features Sigourney Weaver in a cameo role. You might already know that Weaver is the tough woman in the original Alien series who does battle with acid dripping parasitic creatures from outer space. If there’s a woman who moviegoers associate with aliens, it’s got to be Weaver!