PAUL

Universal

Rated R

Running time: 104 minutes
















Click below to watch the Paul trailer.



Universal Pictures Paul has two English science fiction geeks, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, on an American road trip to Area 51 - when they come across an extra-terrestrial alien from space, Paul -  voiced by comedian Seth Rogen - who escaped and is on the run from the government.

As a fanboy, I appreciated all the science fiction movie references. A cross between Men in Black meets E.T.: The Extra-Terrerestrial and Due Date, I was expecting more biting humor from the movie after all the fanboy reviews I heard - especially with the geeks going to the San Diego Comic-Con. With science fiction writer Jeffrey Tambor as a sarcastic writer, I almost expected him to be a major part of the movie like a bad guy or an unlucky road companion. Fortunately his sarcasm was kept to a minimum and kept the movie from being mean, and the film really was rather cute with Kristen Wiig as the religious girl road companion who wants to kiss someone for the first time. Although Wiig and her religious father could turn off those with religious views because of their attitude, it was interesting to see their development as the film went on. With the science fiction references, it makes me wonder how the fanboys at the real San Diego Comic-Con reacted to the movie Paul.

The film is rated R and does not seem to deserve it. To me an R film is supposed to be very graphic. It is mostly because of the language that the film is rated R and even then it seems mostly like a PG-13 film to me, even a PG film. This is a shame as I think the film would have had more of an audience as a PG-13 family type film. Paul very easily could have related to children.

The computer generated motion capture animation for Paul is very good and realistic, especially the animation of the eyes. This is better than the animation of the similar grey Roswell aliens of Stargate SG-1. It makes you wish you could care more for Paul just as people cared for E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Paul is just a little too funny and rude for that kind of audience identification, even if he does want to go home - however it was cute to see how he was the fictional inspiration for E.T. along with a cameo voice-over by Steven Spielberg.

Jason Bateman and Sigourney Weaver are good as the intimidating government Men in Black who are after Paul, including the rookie Men in Black assigned to assist with their search - who realize the U.S. Air Force's investigation of UFO's in Project BLUE BOOK was real. Unfortunately, or fortunately for Paul, the rookies do not know how to shoot. Jane Lynch as a truck stop woman and Blythe Danner as the adult version of the kid who found Paul - who came to Earth and crash-landed on her dog 60 years ago - were also good.

Rated R for language, violence, and casual drug use. Running time: 104 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

The Green Hornet

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 119 minutes


















Click below to watch The Green Hornet trailer.



In Columbia Pictures The Green Hornet, playboy Seth Rogen's stern newspaper publisher father Tom Wilkinson, who writes about corruption in the city - is murdered. While trying to do something crazy to spite his stern late father, Rogan and his driver, Jay Chow, stop a mugging. Rogan then decides to become the crimefighter "The Green Hornet."

In a campy remake of the short-lived TV show from the 1960's The Green Hornet, starring martial artist Bruce Lee, The Green Hornet movie is the opposite of Batman in that playboy Seth Rogan as Britt Reid becomes a crimefighter while pretending to be a criminal - while Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne pretends to be a playboy in order to hide the fact that he has become a crimefighter that was wanted by the police for being a vigilante. While comedian Michael Keaton became too serious for playboy Bruce Wayne/Batman, comedian Seth Rogan is not serious enough as crimefighter Green Hornet/playboy Britt Reid. This is not surprising as the movie was co-written by Rogan. Although there are a couple of dramatic scenes for Rogan in which he was good at, there are very few of those scenes and the movie is really full of your typical Rogan comedic scenes. If we could combine the playboy Seth Rogan and the Michael Keaton's Dark Knight Batman, as well as treating the material seriously like The Dark Knight, we could have had the ideal dual identity/schizophrenic crimefighter.

Asian pop star Jay Chou as Bruce Lee's Kato is the brains of The Green Hornet duo - as Rogan's father's former mechanic, who not only designs and builds all of The Green Hornet's incredible gadgets - Kato also builds The Black Beauty, their car which kicks ass much better than The Batmobile. In fact, really The Black Beauty is why you want to see this action movie - with Jay Chou's martial arts the next reason. There is an homage to Bruce Lee with a sketch of him supposed to have been done by Kato, as well as homages to the old Batman TV show. It was great to hear the Green Hornet TV theme song at the end. The bad guy at first seemed to be a formidable foe, but he soon turned into a comic book character that even his henchman says that he is crazy. Rogan's secretary Cameron Diaz is the unsuspecting female brains of the duo as Chou and Rogan pick her journalistic brains to see what she thinks as to what the criminal "The Green Hornet" might do next.

Despite the fact that a paper newspaper seems old school, they have Edward James Olmos as the newspaper editor in the movie. Sadly - after an incredible performance in Battlestar Galactica - Olmos performance was practically non-existent in the movie as the newspaper editor, which is too bad as Olmos is in the perfect position to be Rogan's mentor. Rogan's desperation to upload incriminating evidence on the web seems very contradictory to the archaic newspaper technology in the newspaper plant that he finds himself fighting amongst. As friends of mine who work for newspapers will attest, the newspapers as a media for delivering news are moving more and more to being online and that there is less news paper being produced.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 119 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Funny People

Universal Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 146 minutes



Universal Pictures Funny People starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen is about comedian Adam Sandler who finds out he has a rare blood disease and hires fellow comedian Seth Rogen to write his jokes, but swears Rogen to secrecy about Sandler's disease. The marketing campaign makes the movie seem as more of a comedy, but this is really a dramatic film with Adam Sandler in his most dramatic role that I have ever seen him in. The comedy routines by the comedians can be funny, but do not expect the movie to be a laugh riot.

The first half of the movie deals with Sandler's life as a comedian, while the second half deals with Sandler's ex-girlfriend Leslie Mann who now has her own family. The film is also a long movie. I did not check my watch, but I did keep wondering towards the second half of the movie "when is this over?" The family aspect of the movie was interesting, but that made the film too long and the family storyline is good enough for a movie to be developed on it's own.

Rated R for language. Running time: 146 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews