Would it be premature to bestow Simon Pegg with the status of ‘national treasure’? Judging by the massive success of Paul’s opening week in the UK it looks like he’s heading there anyway.

Although if there was such a thing as a ’sure thing’ at the box office, Paul would be it (well, in Britain at least). Following increasing interest in Pegg and Nick Frost’s big screen outings; several TV stations repeating the sit-com that started it all, Spaced, practically simultaneously; an impossible to avoid promotional campaign (even if, as has been pointed out by other reviewers, it wasn’t a very good one); and even an odd release date meaning that the opening weekend’s figures included takings from an excessive amount of ‘preview’ screenings, it would have been something of a disaster if the film hadn’t gone straight to the top of the box office chart.

So it’s lucky that Paul’s actually a decent, solidly entertaining film then. As the lads have ’sold out’ and shipped themselves off to the States they’ve managed to surround themselves with an incredibly talented, star-studded cast and expensive special effects work and both are used well. To lavish praise on all of the American stars who provide excellent support would be both far too long, and a bit plot spoilery (although the geniuses behind the film’s promotion have already spoilt some of the big surprises unfortunately), but in particular Kristen Wiig shines in her role as the one-eyed, Christian love interest, who may well be the best female character to yet appear in any of Pegg and Frost’s films (great films as they were, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were far too busy being blokey, nerdy bromances to give their women much to do). As the voice of the titular Paul, Seth Rogan may, as ever, be playing himself, but it fits well, and he’s rather likeable. As the two are now dealing with the Hollywood system directly and with a much bigger budget, there was also some concern that the idiosyncratic humour that won them their audience in the first place would be replaced with lowest common denominator crudity to not alienate potential audiences, and while it would be fair to say that Paul is a lot filthier and swearier than its predecessors, it does pull off the exceptionally hard task of making excessive swearing seem creative, funny and not at all wearying as the film goes on.

That’s not to say that Paul is a film without flaws, in fact it’s the weakest Pegg-Frost collaboration so far. Back at the start of the partnership in Spaced, the two’s chemistry was complemented well by Pegg’s ability to write spot-on pop culture parodies, his co-writer (and star) Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson)’s grasp of character and everyday absurdity and director Edgar Wright’s sense of pacing and ability to make something filmed on the cheap look like a Hollywood blockbuster. With Hynes left out of the film partnership both Shaun and Hot Fuzz lost something in the way of character (but made up for it by giving Wright more toys to play with), now with Wright gone the pacing goes as well, and his replacement, Superbad director Greg Mottola provides a sturdy, but more anonymous visual sense to the film. The pacing issue is a huge problem as there are chunks of the film that feel completely overdrawn or unnecessary, in particular the opening section filmed at Comic-Con is clunky and pretty dreadful all round, other than an amusing cameo from Arrested Development/Larry Sanders/a whole load of other great stuff’s Jeffrey Tambor, the film doesn’t really kick off until Paul enters the picture, and then doesn’t get really good until Wiig joins the ride. And the abundance of obvious gay jokes is a bit depressing.

While it’s been a big hit in the UK and (for the most part) deserves it, it’ll be interesting to see what the American market makes of the film – Pegg and Frost may have won a sizeable cult over there, but some material – specifically the Christian stuff – is not going to go down well with some viewers, and the boys have a lot more to prove now that their ideas are getting more ambitious/expensive. But hopefully they’ll manage to pull it off, and maybe next time they decide to get Wright (and Hynes) involved as well.