Parents' Guide to

Paul

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Cheerfully dumb sci-fi comedy has sex, drug humor.

Movie R 2011 104 minutes
Paul Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 33 parent reviews

age 13+
Sweet, funny, we've watched this one many times over the years with our teens and have enjoyed the lightheartedness of the comedy. Yes, there's language and references to drugs and jokes about sex, but this is a comedy after all.
1 person found this helpful.
age 18+

Not a kids movie!

Very inappropriate and terrible. Don't recommend this to kids, as it has lots of drugs, sex, nudity, and profanity.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
1 person found this helpful.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (33):
Kids say (87):

Pegg and Frost wrote PAUL's screenplay, and after the sharpness of their first two outings -- Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz -- it feels a bit soft and sludgy, like it was deliberately dumbed down. Likewise, director Greg Mottola, whose previous movies Superbad and Adventureland were examples of emotional maturity combined with comic depravity, doesn't quite reach the level of his earlier work.

But Paul has a genuine sweetness and a relaxed quality that eventually works, even though it doesn't quite live up to its potential. The "shock" humor slowly smoothes itself out and meshes into the laid-back quality of the story, helped by the sheer presence of the cast. (Sigourney Weaver provides some memorable bite, as well as a bit of sci-fi history, as a mysterious government figure.) It could have been quite a bit more, but at least it's charming.

Movie Details

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