SCREEN IT! PARENTAL REVIEW: PAUL

"PAUL"
(2011) (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost) (R)

QUICK TAKE:: Comedy: While touring the great UFO sites of America, two sci-fi geeks from England befriend an extraterrestrial on the run from the U.S. government.

PLOT:

Graeme (SIMON PEGG) and Clive (NICK FROST) are a couple of sci-fi geeks from England on holiday in the States. After attending ComicCon in San Diego, the two set off across America in search of the country's great UFO sites. Instead, they come across Paul (voice of SETH ROGEN), a real-life extraterrestrial who had crashed on Earth in the 1940s and has been held by the U.S. government ever since.

Having escaped federal custody, Paul is pursued by Agents Zoil (JASON BATEMAN), Haggard (BILL HADER), and O'Reilly (JOE LO TRUGLIO) under the command of the enigmatic "Big Guy" (SIGOURNEY WEAVER). Their mission is to bring Paul back to base before he can be rescued by his species at a preordained landing site. One of the agents, though, is not who he seems and is actually helping the alien in his efforts to get home.

At one point, Paul, Clive, and Graeme take cover in a mobile home park where they meet Ruth (KRISTEN WIIG), a devout Christian with a lifelong eye problem that Paul heals with his alien abilities. She goes on the run with the trio and converts to atheism. In close pursuit is her strict, Bible-thumping, shotgun-wielding father (JOHN CARROLL LYNCH) and a couple of hicks named Gus and Jake (DAVID KOECHNER and JESSE PLEMONS) who Clive and Graeme angered in a diner and then unwittingly dented their truck.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: Teens will have some interest thanks to the sci-fi angle. Any small child who sees the commercials and thinks Paul the alien is cute and funny should be kept away on account of the hard "R" rating.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R: For language including sexual references, and some drug use.

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