PAUL: appaulingly dismal entertainment

With each subsequent release it's becoming increasingly obvious that Simon Pegg's smash hit success as writer and star of 'Shaun of the Dead' was a fluke rather than the birth of a new cinematic comedy talent.
The eagerly anticipated follow-up 'Hot Fuzz' was a damp squib, 'Run Fatboy Run' limped along, and now comes PAUL which, uninspiring title aside, is bereft of any real laughs.

Pegg reteams with his 'Shaun' co-star Nick Frost as Graeme and Clive, a pair of comic book geeks who find themselves caught up in a surreal chase across the wilderness of Nevada, Utah and Wyoming in the company of a 4ft tall alien called Paul.
Paul looks like ET and sounds like Seth Rogen, which is probably because he is voiced by Rogen phoning in his performance with the minimum effort. Paul confounds almost every one of Graeme and Clive's long held expectations about how a space alien should behave but none of it's funny. His lines and most of the set-ups are lazy and flabby, relying on the old comedic fall back of "it's funny because we (Pegg and Frost) are in it and we are comedians ergo the scene's funny" instead of writing something that is actually funny.
I'd like to say it's self-indulgent humour of the "you had to be there" variety but I was there watching PAUL and I still didn't laugh. Not simply a misfire, and certainly not a future cult classic, PAUL is just a monumental waste of time.

ZOMBIELAND: they're dead and Woody's loving it

Ruben Fleischer's directorial debut is a reasonably satisfying blend of "Shaun of the Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" with a smidgin of John Hughes-esque coming of age angst thrown in for good measure.
ZOMBIELAND's rather thin storyline isn't going to win any wards for originality but it is fun in a very undemanding kind of way. Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus, a geeky, virginal, neurotic loner in his early 20s whose hermit-like existence has contributed to his surviving a virus which has turned the human race into flesh eating zombies.
Fate throws him together with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a gun-totin' "bring 'em on" kind of tough guy who just loves killing the undead. Heading east from California they team up with a couple of crafty sisters, Witchita (Emma Stone) and the younger Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The presence of female company - and Witchita in particular - gives Columbus a belated opportunity to discover his inner hero and start acting like a man.
It's something Eisenberg should be a pro at by now, having already experienced this particular rite of passage in "Adventureland." I'm not sure if there's any significance in this but theme parks provide the backdrop for his transition from boy to man in both films, although in the former he has the luxury of wrestling solely with his own insecurities uninterrupted by the living dead.
Part horror, part roadtrip and mostly comedy, the film's weak point is it's lack of focus. There's too many sub themes and subplots (Harrelson's quest for a Twinkie, for example) which kill some time but don't really go anywhere worthwhile. There's a sense of certain lines being spoken and certain events taking place solely to provide a quick laugh rather than develop the storyline. The film's biggest "what-was-that-all-about?" moment comes when the gang encounters a real life movie star, playing himself, hiding out in his palatial Beverly Hills mansion. 
For me the biggest downside to ZOMBIELAND is Woody Harrelson. I just don't like looking at him or listening to him. His thin high pitched voice and the way his jaw makes his lower lip stick out further than his upper lip makes me feel somehow unclean. 
Irrational I know but I can't help it and I've just got to learn to live with it.