Nick Frost and Simon Pegg of Shaun of the Dead fame, co-write and star in this comedy about two fanboy geeks from Britain who attend Comic con and then go on a UFO road trip only to stumble upon a runaway Alien (voiced by Seth Rogen). Jam packed with many pop culture references from Star Wars to X-Files and surprise cameos to keep any fanboy entertained, what you have is a love letter to other geeks of the science fiction legion. This is great if you are a geek, like me, but if you're not you'll probably miss a lot of the inside jokes. I wouldn't say this is as good as I'd had hoped it would be. Greg Mottola does a pretty good job at directing a story that's mostly a road trip movie tied up with a fugitive-on-the-run plot but there's something missing. The comedy never really gels. I'm not saying it's bad or that I didn't laugh, I laughed a lot, but with all that happens I felt unsatisfied by the end. The alien special effects are great and I love Kristen Wiig's inclusion (even if Simon and her have zero romantic chemistry) but I wanted more with just Simon and Nick. If I had to narrow down a flaw I'd say there were too many characters. Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio are hilarious most of the time but I'd have to say their characters distract from the heart and soul of the story and that's Nick and Simon's relationship with Paul. Grade: B.
Spoiler: I'm still scratching my head with the whole twist at the end where we find out that Jason Bateman's Man in Black character is a good guy helping Paul out. This came out of nowhere and seemed to make huge chunks of the film seem unimportant. Which leads me to the main problem I had with this film, there's just too much going on. You have Jason Bateman's twist, Sigourney Weaver's reveal, John Lynch's trying to get his daughter back, Bill Hader and Joe Lo Trugklio turning psycho: it's all just too much. I'd have rather seen a buddy road trip movie with an alien instead of all that other junk.
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