This movie seems to ask: what if E.T. could talk? And what if he acted and sounded like a stoner? The results is Paul, a movie that should really be called “nerd fanservice”.

After seeing this movie I can say with a good deal of certainty: a lot of people will like this movie, but you will like it even more if you get the references. If you like Simon Pegg’s style and humor, you’ll keep a steady chuckle throughout, though there were no all-out belly laughs like in Shaun of the Dead.

Just like in Shawn of the Dead, we have to “losers” who this time decide they’re going on a road-trip to the alien tourist spots in the US. On their way, they pick up a special kind of hitchhiker. What follows is a cross between a road-trip of self discovery, and desperate flee to safety while keeping away from the authorities. A Thelma and Louise with more toilet humor, if you will.

Some jokes, or maybe we should just call them references, were fairly obvious, and sometimes the movie just flattens out a bit. There are some nuggets of genius occasionally, and even though we were sometimes laughing all alone, we enjoyed ourselves. Because we’re nerds and this is a movie about nerds, by nerds and definitely for nerds.

Dice roll: 4