Paul (2011): A blasphemous movie with a "alf" type alien. Yay! Its probing time

Meet Paul, the coolest extraterrestrial you'll ever meet. On the surface, this film might seem like another run of the mill comedy about an alien from outer space. However, "Paul" seems to carry a unique charm all it's own. The story is centered around two British comic book geeks that travel to America, to take in some of the sights. Exploring such lavish tourist attractions like Comic Con, and the infamous Roswell, New Mexico. However, all that changes when they happen to meet a strange extraterrestrial by the name of Paul (Seth Rogen).

Unlike most aliens, Paul isn't afraid to speak his mind, and he's one helluva a party animal too. In fact, he's probably the coolest alien I've ever seen since the TV series, "Alf." However, Paul isn't a wiseguy freeloader like Alf was. No, he's more of a cool drinking buddy you can hang out with, but you can also learn a lot from him as well. Indeed, Paul's probably one of the few aliens that I personally wouldn't mind becoming friends with, as he seems like a pretty cool guy.

Hell, he's certainly more normal than his friends, Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost), as they seem to know more about science fiction comics than they do about talking to girls. In fact, Graeme literally makes a fool of himself ASKING Ruth (Kristen Wiig) to kiss him. Literally saying, "You can kiss me if you like." Granted, she's a bit nutty herself, as the film does have somewhat of a anti-religious theme to her character. When she's first introduced, Ruth is a simple god fearing girl that believes that everything regarding Darwinism is wrong and to say anything else, it would be considered blasphemy. However, once Paul opens her mind, she quickly turns from a shy socially inept girl, to a woman that's willing to explore all of life's splendors from cussing to fornication. You got to love it.

Anyways, to get back to the story at hand, Paul and his friends embark on an epic adventure, to get him to meeting point where he's expected to be rescued. Along the way, they're chased by notorious government agents, and a hilly billy father, who thinks Paul is a demon. Don't ask.

Overall, "Paul" is definitely one of the funniest science fiction comedies since "Men In Black II." In fact, I can't remember the last time I laughed so much during an alien movie before. Plus, the references to classic science fiction pieces like "E.T" and "Star Trek" was a very nice touch. Of course, the special effects were pretty much what you'd expect from a film of this ilk.

However, the strength of the film lies more in the chemistry between the actors themselves, and Seth's lovable performance. Granted, Seth has a tendency to always play the same kind of character, in every film he plays, and "Paul" really isn't that much different other than he's an alien. In the end, I'd have to give "Paul" a solid three out of four. Unfortunately, the film is a bit predictable, and some of the science fiction references they refer to might go over the average movie goers head. However, if you're willing to look past that, then you might find "Paul" to be one of the funniest science fiction films ever made. Definitely worth a few laughs if your looking for a good comedy to see this year.