Directed by Greg Mottola
Written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
Release Date: 18 March 2011
Running Time: 104 minutes
Editor’s Rating: 3 sweet alien boobs out of 3


Graeme and Clive are nerds embarking upon an epic quest. They’re starting by starting out at the Mecca for all nerd-dom, San Diego Comic-Con, and from there are taking a road trip to all of the most famous extraterrestrial sights and sites in the American Southwest. Area 51, Roswell, the Black Mailbox - all of it. Having been obsessed with sci-fi and the paranormal all their life, this is a trip of a lifetime to both of them. They’re also partners, Clive being a sci-fi writer of much more renown than he thinks, and Graeme being the artist who has one claim to fame: his ability to draw hot alien chicks with three boobs. It’s this running joke that’s a perfect barometer for setting one’s expectations when seeing this film. Can you not get tired of everyone on (and off) the planet giggling at an alien chick with three boobs? If so, then this is a film you should be able to get behind. I know I did.

So after a great time at Comic-Con, Graeme and Clive take their rented Winnebago and begin their trek. On the last leg of their trip, they witness a car spinning out of control. When they pull over to make sure no one’s been injured, a little green man emerges from the shadows. That’s when Clive passes out and pees himself, and this impromptu threesome’s real journey begins, and it’s going to be something that they, and everyone else they come across, will never forget.

It turns out that Paul is on the run from the government, who’ve been using him as a catalyst for technological innovation for the past fifty years or so, and the only secrets he has left are the ones of his evolution, which require a bit of… cutting insight, if you get my drift. So, in fear of his life, Paul has decided to get out of Dodge, which in this case is a planet and not some crappy car the Blues Brothers somehow fit a dozen guys into. Can Graeme and Clive get Paul to where he needs to go to evacuate before the tough-looking Agent Zoil and crew get to him? Well, watch the movie, you sillies.

Paul really tries to tackle some subjects that most high-functioning sci-fi flicks like to address, and it adds a welcome amount of depth to what essentially would have been Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke with an alien in it. Topics like our purpose in the universe, aversion to science in favor of religion, and how exactly mankind can coexist/cope with extraterrestrial entities mingle alongside bawdy humor and reckless swearing, and the cast and script bounces between the two tones perfectly. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are awesome together as always, but toss in players like Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Jason Bateman, and Joe Lo Truglio, and you get a film that never stops being smart and is always giggleworthy. If you’ve got the time and want to check out an awesome sci-fi movie that’s an irreverent love letter to other sci-fi flicks, give this one a shot. You won’t regret it.

**I own this film. Don’t let little ones watch this movie. I was not compensated for this review.**