Paul | C+

The question of intelligent life beyond Earth is always a popular subject of exploration for the film industry. With Paul, director Greg Mottola (Superbad) looked toward the heavens and decided to create a comedic experience that pays tribute to the science fiction genre. Unfortunately, the result is not quite out-of-this-world.

Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) star as Clive Gollings and Graeme Willy respectively, two British comic book geeks whose RV vacation across America takes them to several locales famous for UFO encounters. Upon investigating a freak car accident in the Nevada wasteland, the duo stumbles across Paul (Seth Rogen, The Green Hornet), a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking extraterrestrial who has been held captive on Earth for 60 years. Though initially taken aback, Clive and Graeme agree to help Paul find a way home. Their task is not easy; standing in their way is the enigmatic government official Lorenzo Zoil (Jason Bateman, Couples Retreat) and his contingent of inept FBI agents.

Casting was a relative strong point for the film, with the three lead roles comprised of comedic veterans who all know how to deliver a joke. Rogen's voice work is believable. As expected, Pegg and Frost work well together, having starred alongside one another in several other comedies and enjoying a close friendship off-screen. Characterization varies from bearable to lackluster. Clive and Graeme have an amusing relationship that is fairly well explored and their references to geek culture may warrant a few chuckles. Paul, on the other hand, is merely a CGI incarnation of almost every other character Seth Rogen has portrayed in his acting career.

Despite having a cast that has done genuinely funny works in the past, the film's humor is inconsistent. The charming science fiction references and occasional clever lines too often degrade into toilet humor. It would be unrealistic to expect a comedic alien encounter film to occur without a reference to anal probing, but Pegg and Frost (both of whom also wrote the screenplay) resort to this type of joke so often that it quickly becomes tasteless.

In particular, Graeme's love interest, Ruth Biggs (Kristen Wiig, MacGruber) is by far the most irritating character in the film. Initially a fundamentalist Christian, Ruth is reformed when Paul uses his otherworldly powers to share with her his knowledge of the universe. Ruth's newfound religious liberation manifests itself in a willingness to string swear words together. Her blatant obscenity is funny the first time but, as with many of the other bad jokes in the film, it is overdone and quickly becomes tiresome.

Paul is not an awful movie. It has a number of positive moments, but unfortunately they are outweighed by an overreliance on repetitive, juvenile humor. The ardent sci-fi junkie might find Paul to be clever homage to films of the genre, but from a comedic standpoint, it does not stand up to Frost and Pegg's finer work.