Below is a review round-up for what’s looking like a left-wing, atheist polemic disguised as escapist comedy so that Pegg and Frost can get their bigotry on and line us up for a series of sucker-punch cheap shots. Unlike Monty Python, present-day “satirists” are too ignorant and mean-spirited to mock us with the kind of intelligence and affection we can appreciate, so it’s unlikely we’re looking forward to a couple hours of laughing at ourselves here. ”Paul” might well be the rare exception, but somehow I doubt it. Either way, it’s always good to know what you’re walking into, what you’re laying down your hard-earned money for. So here’s the heads up.

Bottom line: my guess is that the jokes will be less insulting than the “satiric” laziness involved in choosing the easiest, safest targets imaginable. And there’s simply nothing duller than an evangelical atheist.

i09: 

The bromance between Pegg and Frost is as great as ever, but the addition of a fundamentalist Christian woman (played by Kristin Wiig) dilutes their dynamic a bit. The film doesn’t entirely succeed as a fun road-trip comedy or a jaunty science fiction adventure comedy, and some of the jabs at Christianity may piss off Christian audiences.

Apparently Wiig’s character has a sort of anti-religious awakening, in which she rejects Christianity and learns to swear, and this is most likely the most controversial aspect of an otherwise standard comedy. At one point, Paul the alien says, “My existence doesn’t necessarily disprove religion: just all Judaeo-Christian denominations.”

The Hollywood Reporter:

Men in black, rednecks and fundamental Christians are the main heavies that get in the way of their plans. …  Christianity gets in the neck, which could hurt Bible-belt box office[.]

Den of Geek:

[A]n alien who has escaped from Area 51 and is looking to return to his home planet via a pick-up point all the way over on the East Coast. Paul hitches a ride in the boys’ RV as they make their way cross-country, whilst dodging FBI agents, religious fundamentalists and crazed hillbillies.

Obsessed With Film:

Yet the uncouth actress will never be punished, vilified or marginalized, because she openly disparaged the one ethnic group which enjoys no Hollywood protection. That would be white people. Particularly, white people from the South.

What do you think would happen should anyone turn the tables, reverse the races, change the geography, and denigrate an urban person of color? The conservatives I know do not resort to gutter talk. 

For her bold and unbridled racism – offenses that are sure to draw deafening applause by the American left – Janeane Garofalo is my Celebutard of the Week, in keeping with my book, “Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberals and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America.” 

Given a forum to comment on the previous day’s tea parties, in which hundreds of thousands of conservatives gathered to protest President Obama’s tax policies, she had the gall to declare,

“This is about hating a black man in the White House.” Huh?

“This is racism straight up.” She was just getting started:

“That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. And there is no way around that. And you know, you can tell these type of right wingers anything and they’ll believe it, except the truth. You tell them the truth and they become-it’s like showing Frankenstein’s monster fire. They become confused, and angry and highly volatile. That guy, causing them feelings they don’t know, because their limbic brain, we’ve discussed this before, the limbic brain inside a right-winger or Republican or conservative or your average white power activist, the limbic brain is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable person, and it’s pushing against the frontal lobe. So their synapses are misfiring. Is Bernie Goldberg listening?”

So there it is. Anyone who believes higher taxes would be ruinous to this country is deemed dangerous. Anyone who disagrees with any policy Obama might enact is racist.

Not just racist, but a “teabagging redneck.” That sure shuts down the debate before it can get off the ground. Which is the entire point.

I think I’ll have a T-shirt printed. “Teabagging Redneck Against Taxes.”

I wonder if Janeane would try to lock me up?