PAUL is a funny movie with the heart that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are quickly coming to be known for.

         Pegg and Frost are the buddy-comedy duo from SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ. They’ve made a career out of being the friends or becoming friends in British homages to American genre pictures.  In PAUL they are once again friends, playing two geeks who love pop-culture and science fiction. Their love for this genre shines through in their performances and is seen in the script as well.

         The film starts at Comicon, but that’s not their main motivation for making the trek from England. They’re conspiracy theorists and they want to take the tour of America’s rich conspiracy history. If you’re going to make an alien conspiracy movie it should be where the conspiracies take place and Roswell, Area 51, and the black mailbox are all situated firmly in America’s heartland. A British road trip would take you to the sites of several crop circles and no one is going to watch that movie.

         There’s nothing more quintessentially American than the road trip, except maybe apple pie, and no movie genre more American than that of the road trip so when you follow two Brits down that road, especially two supremely geeky Brits, you’ve already turned the convention on it’s head and that’s where the humour of PAUL lives and breathes. Nothing in PAUL is sacred ground.

The movie is populated with great character actors. Jane Lynch plays a convincing waitress at a diner that caters to sky watchers. David Koechner and Jesse Plemons play two stereotypical Southwestern rednecks that Pegg and Frost run into, that is to say, into their truck. This starts the run away from the bad guys simplicity that is PAUL. Nothing is easier to relate to than two scared people running away from other, angrier, people.

         This leads them to the title character, voiced by Seth Rogen. Rogen is perfectly cast in this movie because, like Pegg and Frost, he has made a career out of male bonding movies and he brings even more of that innocent friendship that makes PAUL so appealing. The trio goes on the run, and the number of people in pursuit grows to include an intense Jason Bateman, the comedic duo of Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio and an angry John Carroll Lynch. This constant danger keeps the story moving even if it becomes a little repetitive at times.

The pop-culture references come fast and furious. Some are audio cues, others are visual and still others are dialogue driven, but all appealed to me as a lover of science fiction. It’s safe to say that the geek love directed toward Steven Spielberg and the science fiction genre adds some real heart to the movie. Yes, some of the jokes are crass and border on rude and there are entire comedic bits predicated on swearing, but the heart and love behind them makes it worthwhile.

         PAUL is a bromantic comedy for the geek crowd. If you grew up watching CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, E.T. or anything about aliens among us then you’ll enjoy this movie. If you didn’t I’d wager you’d still enjoy PAUL. It has issues with pace and story, but it’s the kind of funny movie with the heart that Pegg and Frost are quickly coming to be known for.