'Paul' a hit-and-miss alien comedy
Paul Opens today at Rave, Quality 16, Showcase Review by Corey Hall of the Metro Times Grade: C+
The premise of a foul-mouthed, sarcastic extraterrestrial running amok on earth is certainly workable; it was enough to keep ALF on TV for years, but it has to be delicately finessed in a big-budget screen comedy. "Paul" prefers to throw pop culture references, swear words and anal probe jokes out to see what sticks, with mixed results.
As the flip-flop-wearing, wise-cracking, weed-toking, live-bird-munching title critter, Seth Rogen continues to balance between ingratiating and irritating, lending his stoned-out snark and breathy giggle to a CGI critter that's impressively rendered but fairly generic. His wingmen are two personifications of nerd rage, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (who wrote it), two funny blokes who should act their age.