‘E.T.’ for adult viewers

Last Friday, June 3, we were all set to watch the new “X-Men” movie, but we got to our favorite cineplex late, so we had to “settle” for watching the much-smaller and less-heralded film, “Paul,” instead. But we were sure glad we did!

“Paul” is a deft and witty send-up of sci-fi films, with a specific hook on Steven Spielberg’s seminal, “E.T.”

In fact, the title character, an extraterrestrial on the lam from human researchers who want to cut off his brain for some top-secret experiments, is very much like a grown-up version of Spielberg’s little alien. Years of living in detention in the States have made him hip and cynical, very different from Spielberg’s innocent and whimsical creation.

Paul has a lot to feel cynical about, because he’s gotten word that his captors now want to do him in, so he’s sent word to his home planet to effect a last-minute spaceship reserve.

However, he first has to get to the designated meeting place, so he needs help. As chance would have it, he gets it from two hapless sci-fi comics buffs from England, who put their lives on the line to save him.

Thus, “Paul” shapes up as a sort of grown-up version of “E.T.,” and its witty expansion on and loving spoof of Spielberg’s heartwarming story about alien-human love and brotherhood has a uniquely sassy charm all its own.

The title character, a digitally animated creation, is sassily voice-acted by Seth Rogen, and succeeds in holding viewers’ interest despite the antic of a host of comics from “Saturday Night Live,” including Kristen Wiig as a “creational Christian” who refuses to believe in aliens—until Paul magically cures her of a severe eye affliction.

Paul’s main helpmeets from England are astutely played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and in the course of their mad road trip to the alien’s rendezvous with his planet’s rescue spaceship, they interact with their new friend from outer space in many winning ways.

In so doing, they affirm Spielberg’s old yarn and cinematic “sermon” about some men’s ability to feel for creations from outer space, no matter how weird they are.

In fact, since “Paul” takes a more with-it and less ethereally idealized look at Spielberg’s ethos, it makes the same point even more emphatically and believably for adult viewers.

To be sure, Greg Mottola’s spaced-out flick has its share of clunkers including the decision to name the initially “nasty” character played by Jason Bateman as “Lorenzo Zoil.”

On the whole, however, “Paul” manages to pack a lot of sense—and pointed nonsense—into its briskly paced story, and the deft and daft performances turned in by Pegg, Frost and Wiig (are these actor’s names for real?) makes Mottola’s movie the small, “sleeper” hit of the 2011 comedy film season.