This was a well-made and funny film perfectly suited for fans of science fiction and/or comedy (as long as you're old enough to see an R rated movie.) In a way it's sort of the anti-E.T. movie. Where ET befriends one child and doesn't say much, this film has an alien befriend two grown men, and then never shut up. Luckily he's voiced by Seth Rogen (who I love to death,) and the two guys are not only hilarious but are also the extremely clever writers of this film. Without the writing of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg this film would have been a waste of time and money. Their understanding of sci-fi themes, comedic set-ups, and the nuances of good storytelling make this movie well worth seeing.

It's clear from the trailer that the plot of this film is pretty straight-forward. Two guys are traveling across the American mid-west to see all the best UFO hot spots when they suddenly bump into a real-life alien. The main focus is essentially the same as E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial from that point on. People help an alien to get back to its home planet while government officials chase them throughout. The biggest difference here is that this is a film for grown ups and even though masterfully veiled in dirty jokes and stoner humor it still manages to be a heartfelt picture.

One of the most interesting things in the film to me is how differently each character reacts when they first encounter Paul. Everyone sees the world in their own way and it is displayed so eloquently in that split second when they meet an alien. For example, when Nick Frost's character 'Clive' first meets Paul he gets angry. Clive refuses to befriend Paul even though this is literally all he's ever dreamed of, meeting a real-life alien. He quickly comes around, but for a few scenes it made me ask why he would be so hesitant? Was it because the wonder of it all was gone and the chase was over? Or was he still ashamed for pissing himself? Or was it that he was jealous of a third wheel coming in and ruining all of their road trip plans? Whatever the reasons, it felt genuine to me.

The side plots and secondary characters of this film also have their own richness and interesting world views. Kristen Wiig plays a closed minded and deeply religious RV park keeper that gets swept up into the story early on. Her character goes through the biggest arc of change throughout the film and offers some of the funniest lines. Nothing is greater than seeing someone learn to use profanity for the first time. Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, and Joe Lo Truglio round out the cast as the government officials. As with all of the characters they each have their own quirks, motives and most importantly, they each have their own satisfying conclusions. There's a few great cameos as well.

One of the earliest scenes with Paul has him explaining that he had been working with the US government in Area 51 since crash landing in Roswell. His job was making sure information about aliens was disseminated to the public through media, so if our two species were to meet we would be prepared (though it didn't stop several characters from fainting or wetting themselves when seeing him the first time.) We see a flashback with Paul talking on the phone to Steven Spielberg about the possibility of the ET character having a healing ability, similar to his own. The scene itself takes place in the giant storage facility from the end of Raiders, implying this isn't the only tip Paul has passed on to Hollywood. Since it's part of the story that most alien lore had been inspired by Paul himself, it gives the filmmakers here free rein to make any references to alien or sci-fi pop culture that they want.

The film is stuffed with one-liners from other movies, homages to entire sequences, and so many visuals from Spielberg movies that I lost count. Personally, I felt it hurt the story as much as it may have helped. I loved the movie, but it's hard to respect something fully with so much recycled material in it. As the film goes on it becomes a contest to see which references you can spot, which takes away from the film itself. It's a fanboy's wet dream I suppose. Music from the Star Wars Cantina scene plays in a bar sequence and they even managed to squeeze a Wilhelm scream in at one point. Regardless of what negative effect all of the references may have had collectively, the line I laughed at the hardest was from the movie Aliens, but it was so well placed I couldn't help it.

All in all this is a very enjoyable movie with a satisfying ending. It has great pacing so never a dull moment. The writing is superb, the directing is good, and the cast is hilarious, although I wouldn't rate it as high as I would the films it mimics. I would have preferred it be more like Shaun of the Dead, using satire without being so obvious about it the whole time, but it's still a great movie.

3 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

Afterthoughts: I feel we may be only a few years away from every line and image in movies being from something else. Whether it's from an earlier movie, book, video game, viral video, comic book, TV show, podcast, true story, tall tale, nursery rhyme, children's toys, company slogan, bumper sticker, snack food, or simply a famous historical quotation, nearly everything we'll see we would have already seen before.

Don't believe me? The recent Red Riding Hood movie seemed silly to me, but there are now two Snow White live action movies in pre-production. TWO!?! Currently some of the best filmmakers are tackling safe projects like the Star Trek reboots, while others are just combining two different existing concepts to make new things like Cowboys and Aliens.

I cannot wait until a computer is smart enough to write movies, because we humans seem to be out of ideas at this point.