I went to see Paul this weekend with Diana, and we were treated to a completely empty theater. It seems kind of strange whenever this happens, like everyone else got tipped to a really bad review or something. To add to the confusion, during the previews the vertical stabilization or something went off on the projector, and it was jostling up and down giving me a headache. I missed the opening titles. Despite these hiccups, the movie was quite enjoyable.

Paul is a movie about a couple of english guys played by the often seen together Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who also did B002HR1W1K and B0025VLEM0 together. They play classic sci-fi geeks who are going to comic con and then taking a extended RV trip to all of the famous places in conspiracy culture, like Area 51 and the black mailbox, While they are on their way, a mysterious black sedan crashes in front of them and they are introduced to Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), a little green alien who is rude, unexpected, and has mysterious powers. He is also running from the law.

The rest of the movie follows them running from two sets of mysterious and funny agents, played quite well by strong supporting actors Jason Bateman, Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio. A chase across the country and some zany situations follow, and a couple of twists near the end keep the whole thing interesting.

I felt like Paul got a slow start, but it really worked it’s way into a groove and soon the laughs were coming regularly. Cledd and Pegg play against each other well, and the situations they get a little into the unbelievable, but the alien addition to the cast make the whole thing work really well. There’s also a lot of callbacks that are funny to the die-hard sci-fi fan, but out of the way to the person who wouldn’t notice it. An example is the cantina band song from Star Wars being played in a country-western manner in one scene. It enhances the movie for those in the know but the whole scene is still hilarious without being tipped off.

Going out of this movie, I found myself unhappy that we were the only two who were seeing it that night - it certainly deserves to have an audience. I’d rate it at a 7.