I wasn't as enamored. It seemed a little more paint by numbers and less authentic than something like Shaun of the Dead. A little more corporate, if I'm being cynical. I felt like they were getting a lot of mileage out of Pegg and Frost that wasn't necessarily in the material. None of which you should take to mean that I thought it was an abomination of a film. I laughed out loud a few times and overall thought it was pretty good. But I wouldn't put it on the awesome shelf next to Galaxy Quest.

But I could be being too harsh on it. I've only seen it the once and a preview screening at that. A DIF revisit would be interesting.

Ah, I didn't know it was written by them. Makes me feel like perhaps I did judge it a little too harshly.

It really does all come down to what your expectations are calibrated to before you even sit down. I think I definitely did have a certain amount of "Pegg and Frost in a non-Edgar Wright film. Okkaaaaay, let's see what you've got..." Crossed arms and a harumph.

It's been a while since I watched the film, but from memory: while being a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz, I found Paul just not funny. Can't point to specifics (not helpful I know  ) but "too much Nick Frost " springs to mind. As a supporting actor, yes, but as a co-lead (more screen time thus they needed to flesh out his character, adding depth, adding range), no.
As for it completing the Pegg/Frost trilogy, hmmmm, I think I'll wait for the next Pegg/EdgarWright film for that trilogy to be completed.

After watching Paul, I'm sort of realising that I don't really like Nick Frost that much - or at least, I'm growing tired of the obnoxious semi-unlikeable characters he plays.

I love the 'friends going to ComicCon and living the dream' part of the story, but I found the problem with Paul is that it's so predictable at times whereas the Wright stuff was always able to surprise.

PAUL, um, I actually loved it very much. I think Pegg and Frost plays their roles well and humor is well placed and pointed. Paul as character was many way excellent. To me the story was flowing nicely and the humor was nice. I fear what the movie would have been like if it was made by an American writer. Comedy probably would have gotten a very different perspective. Being a Finnish and living outside US or UK makes me see those things much more clearly. Even though the movie was quite straight forward the humor was much more intelligent than in American movies. SORRY

It is true that Hot Fuzz is definitely better movie but I still consider PAUL almost equal. Hot Fuzz is excellent parody of Hollywood police movies and nails all the marks it was trying to. Not even mentioning the SUPERB cast.

You must remember the fact that the seat of the director wasn't easy to fill. Pegg and Frost has done fine movies and comedy together and most of the people see this as a third installment on Pegg & Wright movies, which it is not. It is hard for me to say why it is a good movie because it just feels like one.

That pointless piece of text now finished, I wanna say something much more important:
I LOVE UMA THURMAN. aaaahhhh. Watching Kill Bill finally after many years and she is perfect. There you have it.

I have to say, I went in to Paul a few weeks ago with ... mixed expectations.

I had forgotten that it had come out on dvd, so was surprised to see it, and realized that I had missed it completely in the theatre. I had recalled that it had gotten mixed reactions, but ... not what they were specifically, and that I had given it a pass due to ... well being busy.

But as big Frost & Pegg fan, I felt I should give it a shot.

And I was pleasantly surprised. I can definitely see where Teague is coming from in his comparisons to Super8, and how it approached its nostalgic feelings, and have to agree that while JJ did a great job recreating those feelings, as they would have been back then, Frost & Pegg managed to drag them to a new era, showing how that sense of nostalgia was transferring onto our generations.

No they didn't, sit down.

We were* getting excited.

*I was.

Last edited by Dave (2011-09-12 23:16:11)