Principal Cast Simon Pegg -- Graeme Willy Nick Frost -- Clive Gollings Jeffrey Tambor -- Adam Shadowchild Jane Lynch -- Pat Stevens Jesse Plemons -- Jake Seth Rogen -- Paul (voice) Jason Bateman -- Agent Zoil Bill Hader -- Haggard Kristen Wiig -- Ruth Buggs John Carroll Lynch -- Moses Buggs Blythe Danner -- Tara Walton Ratings Ratings are based on Rick's four star system. One star - the commercials are more entertaining than the viewing. Two stars - watch if you have nothing better to do. Three stars - good solid entertainment. Four stars - you never dreamed viewing could be this good.

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I had high hopes for this sf comedy, because Simon Pegg worked on the script of Shaun of the Dead, as well as playing Shaun, and did a wonderful acting turn as Scotty in the new Star Trek. As the bishop said of the egg, parts of it were very good. For the first three minutes I thought it might be an all time sf humor classic, like the movie Galaxy Quest or the BBC radio programme The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Sadly, Paul has a few great moments followed by long slow stretches when the characters seem to be trying to figure out what to do next. The effect is not unlike being straight while listening to a joke told by someone who is stoned.

The guest star who plays The Big Guy is a hoot -- best guest star since Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The scenes at ComicCon look authentic. It's not a bad movie by any means. Just not as good as I hoped.

Simon Pegg is having a great year. In addition to writing and starring in Paul, he reprises the role of Benji Dunn in the next Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol film and plays Inspector Thompson in the upcoming The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn movie, in which Nick Frost plays Inspector Thomson. Since one of the running gags in the Tintin books is that Thompson and Thomson look exactly alike, and since Frost and Pegg look nothing alike, it will be interesting to see how Steven Spielberg pulls that off.

Rick Norwood is a mathematician and writer whose small press publishing house, Manuscript Press, has published books by Hal Clement, R.A. Lafferty, and Hal Foster. He is also the editor of Comics Revue Monthly, which publishes such classic comic strips as Flash Gordon, Sky Masters, Modesty Blaise, Tarzan, Odd Bodkins, Casey Ruggles, The Phantom, Gasoline Alley, Krazy Kat, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie, Barnaby, Buz Sawyer, and Steve Canyon.