Hot Fuzz

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward … and many, many more

Dir. Edgar Wright
Scr. Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg

I was looking forward to this film like a kid looks forward to Christmas. Shaun of the Dead is genius cinema. Spaced is genius television. That’s a lot to live up to but I was confident Edgar and Simon could do it again. While Hot Fuzz certainly didn’t disappoint like socks at Christmas, neither was it a pony or a shiny new bike.

Simple premise: London cop extraordinaire, Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), is simply too good at his job so his jealous and petty colleagues transfer him to the sleepy village of Sandford, Somerset. Things are not as sleepy as they appear. Murder, gore, intrigue and hilarity ensue. It’s certainly not a startlingly original idea, but in the hands of Edgar and Simon, joined by almost every darling of British cinema from the last 30 years, it’s poetry in motion.

There’s a lot here to reward fans of Shaun, Spaced and almost every buddy-cop action movie ever made. The “cornetto” reference is from Shaun; the scene where Danny (Nick Frost) takes a bullet for Angel is from my favourite episode of Spaced; and … well, every scene with action, guns or gore can be seen as paying homage to the likes of Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys, Point Break and so on and so forth. There are so many in-jokes, in fact, that you’re not possibly going to catch them all the first time round. Which is clever – keeps you coming back for more.

There are plenty of laughs to be had. Belly laughs. Nick Frost is endearing and right on the money in this role, providing some of the best lines throughout the film. There are plenty of visual gags, some quite gruesome (the death of the reporter made me gasp loudly then nearly wet my pants with laughter, but that’s just me). If I had to pick one visual gag, it has to be the image of Angel flying through the air and delivering a kick to the face of an elderly woman. You just don’t see that every day. But it’s not all violence and gore. The script is clever, if somewhat predictable, and extremely quotable.

So, you might be asking, why isn’t Hot Fuzz a pony or shiny new bike? Well, it’s mainly a case of second-movie-syndrome. In my opinion, Shaun of the Dead was the best British comedy since Withnail and I. The expectation was that Hot Fuzz would blow us away. Well, while it was VERY funny and VERY clever, it wasn’t quite enough. It started slow. It was predictable. The style – the slick and fast camera work – has been done before … in Shaun. Having said that, I fully admit it might appeal to boys more than girls. My better half liked it more than Shaun of the Dead, perhaps because of the guns and bombs, who knows. But I’m more partial to a zombie theme, with some romance thrown in, than a piss-take buddy-cop movie.

By all means, see Hot Fuzz. You won’t be disappointed – it’s certainly worth $15 and a couple of hours of your precious time. Maybe though, like me, you won’t be utterly thrilled either. Edgar and Simon can be assured that I will be buying it on DVD however, if only to complete my collection of their work.

----------------

Danny Butterman: What made you want to become a policeman?
Nicholas Angel: Officer.
Danny Butterman: What made you want to become a policeman officer?
Nicholas Angel: I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a police officer... except for the summer of 1979, when I wanted to be Kermit the Frog.