So, because I'm a rabid fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, I saw the new movie Paul today. Decent story, (mostly) great characters, good action, and (mostly) good humor. I liked the movie, but nowhere near as much as Shaun of the Dead, or Hot Fuzz. Now, it could be that I expected way too much from this movie, but in the Americanization of this film, it was pretty predictable, and I think it lost some of the British originality of the previous films. That, and the fact that Pegg and Frost's characters seemed more like supporting roles than actual main characters.
The other thing that bugged me was definitely more of a personal ideological gripe than anything else. Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
There was a scene in the film in which a very sheltered fundamental christian girl is suddenly 'liberated' from her faith after a lengthy argument. So, we all know that a vast majority of all the Hollywood-types are 'progressives' that aren't jumping on the Christian bandwagon anytime soon, but do they really need to have another half-hour of christian-bashing in a film?
Now, for those of you who know the details of this scene, let's get some facts straight here:
Yes, Christianity has been around for quite a while, and a lot of people don't like it.
Yes, lots of supposed "Christians" have done horrible things in the name of their pagan faith.
Yes, there are still a lot of fundamental Christians out there (and we can both agree they are morons).
But, just because the world is nowhere near 4,000 to 13,000 years old, and that evolution IS true, does NOT mean that Christianity/creationism is senseless, evil, or that it is untrue in any way.
But throwing ideology and theology completely aside, don't they think that bashing Christians is an exasperated take? Hasn't everyone and their dog done something EXACTLY like this in their movie? I can name at least three dozen movies off the top of my head that make fun of Christianity, religion, or southern fundamentalism, and a few of them are actually good (i.e. Life of Brian, Dogma, etc.). But in this case, it aint original, it aint edgy, it aint funny, and in this generation, is it even relevant? Even a good portion of the generally leftist film critics thought those scenes were more than unimaginative and insulting. That's saying something right there.
Anyways, I thought the movie was still enjoyable, but could have been quite alot better. Hopefully, the next Pegg and Frost movie will ditch the tired old stereotype bandwagon, and do something truly great like SotD or Hot Fuzz again.
The other thing that bugged me was definitely more of a personal ideological gripe than anything else. Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
There was a scene in the film in which a very sheltered fundamental christian girl is suddenly 'liberated' from her faith after a lengthy argument. So, we all know that a vast majority of all the Hollywood-types are 'progressives' that aren't jumping on the Christian bandwagon anytime soon, but do they really need to have another half-hour of christian-bashing in a film?
Now, for those of you who know the details of this scene, let's get some facts straight here:
Yes, Christianity has been around for quite a while, and a lot of people don't like it.
Yes, lots of supposed "Christians" have done horrible things in the name of their pagan faith.
Yes, there are still a lot of fundamental Christians out there (and we can both agree they are morons).
But, just because the world is nowhere near 4,000 to 13,000 years old, and that evolution IS true, does NOT mean that Christianity/creationism is senseless, evil, or that it is untrue in any way.
But throwing ideology and theology completely aside, don't they think that bashing Christians is an exasperated take? Hasn't everyone and their dog done something EXACTLY like this in their movie? I can name at least three dozen movies off the top of my head that make fun of Christianity, religion, or southern fundamentalism, and a few of them are actually good (i.e. Life of Brian, Dogma, etc.). But in this case, it aint original, it aint edgy, it aint funny, and in this generation, is it even relevant? Even a good portion of the generally leftist film critics thought those scenes were more than unimaginative and insulting. That's saying something right there.
Anyways, I thought the movie was still enjoyable, but could have been quite alot better. Hopefully, the next Pegg and Frost movie will ditch the tired old stereotype bandwagon, and do something truly great like SotD or Hot Fuzz again.
I think they used the most extreme examples of EVERYTHING in that movie to try to amuse the target audience. The whole thing was supposed to be a cheap laugh, up to and including the extreme and hinted-to-be-abusive relationship within the Fundamentalist "family". You root for everyone else because the dad's presented as such a dick, not necessarily because of their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI totally get the "side character" thing, though - they're STARRING in the damned movie, but you almost have to think of the various players as "The Goonies", in a sense, because no one stands out above the other. Even "The Big Guy" (not spoiling it for anyone!) being who he/she is? AWESOME, right? But...it doesn't have the punch it should.
I still give it 4.5/5, though, because I laughed my ass off.
Well, like I said, I still really liked it. I'll still recommend it to others too, I just don't think I enjoyed it as much as the other ones they've made.
ReplyDeleteThat, and my gripes are nothing more than a personal bias that comes from personal experiences.
That's usually how it works. :-)
ReplyDeleteTouché Cost-mart, touché...
ReplyDelete