Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz is a brilliant new Britsh comedy that really hits its mark!!! Hands down this fantastic film is the new benchmark in British comedies!

Simon Pegg throws you into the extremely tongue in cheek narrative with its quick pace edits, booming sounds and terrific camera work that we have come to expect from Edgar Wright since Shaun of the Dead. Simon Pegg has really exceeded my expectations and credit must also go to Nick Frost who plays the classic sidekick which he accomplishes so well. The aforementioned crafty work by Edgar Wright proves that his style creates some of the best action sequences in the business. Whether it be the shoot'em ups, chase scenes or the jump out of your seat surprises, Wright can really make a film move and does this one ever!!!

This is definitely one of those films you have to watch at least twice to come close to getting every single joke, because they come so hard and fast it is sometimes hard to stop laughing at the previous one in time to hear the next.

Even though the film does take a lot of twists and turns there isn't really a moment where it lacks energy. Sure there are parts that slow it down, but it needs this to build momentum to one of the most climactic and hysterical pieces in film history.

Speed is the key! It keeps this insanely funny narrative flowing while at the same time giving a huge insight into the extremely detailed characters. Each character brings something to the table. It is an inventive yet classic comedy that reaches most audiences with its tongue in cheek and witty humour.

People who thought the cop-comedy genre was finished should definitely see this creative film which will pluck those heart strings and have you slapping that knee while feasting your eyes on the adrenaline fueled action!!!

This film did not get too much play in the USA and I count myself fortunate that I'm close enough to the Canadian border to get these occasional gems broadcast from the CBC. Lucky indeed that the CBC is part of my cable package.

Simon Pegg is a too good to be true London police officer who is wracking up arrests and making his colleagues look shameful. It's decided that the place to go to cool that zeal off a bit is the quiet and peaceful rural town of Sandford. In the United Kingdom it's the most crime free zone in the whole country.

In fact Pegg looks like he's going to die of sheer boredom. He makes four collars for minor offenses even before he officially is on the job there. It looks like he is not going to be a good fit for this quiet town. The only friend that Pegg has on the Sandford PD is Nick Frost, the somewhat oafish son of Broadbent whom Pegg is assigned as a partner. Frost who just loves American action flicks with guns and car chases would love for there to be something afoot.

The story behind Hot Fuzz is really quite bizarre and you'd have to go to the American film The Stepford Wives for a comparison. There are no experiments going on to turn the Sandford women into docile feminine drones, it's a mindset that has taken control of the place. The most sinister character is that of Timothy Dalton who is very much like the Arthur Hill character in The Stepford Wives.

This sleeper of a black comedy is really quite a gem. I hope that Hot Fuzz gets discovered on this side of the pond.

London Police Constable Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is a try-hard. He's too good at his job making everybody else look bad. He gets promoted and transferred out into the country. He starts his new job by arresting his new partner Danny (Nick Frost), the son of chief inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent). Sandford, Gloucestershire seems to be a sleepy little town until a series of murders occurs. Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton) owns the local supermarket.

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg mine the plentiful material from cop dramas to bring a dryly funny satirical take on the genre. This has Edgar's quick edit style. Pegg and Frost continue their great chemistry with Edgar for almost a decade. It also serves as a fun whodunnit mystery. It's choked full of big British stars doing cameos. The last act does get overwhelmed with gun action and the guys struggle to maintain the comedy. They took the Bad Boys and Point Break motif too seriously. Overall, this may not be a comedy for everybody but it's a comedy for me.

Saw this last night at a special screening followed by a Q&A with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I liked "Shaun of the Dead" but wasn't a huge fan but I liked what I'd heard about "Hot Fuzz". I still wasn't prepared to be quite as blown away by it as I was.

This film works both as an out-and-out comedy but also as a high paced action film and also manages to showcase the directing talents of Edgar Wright and the acting of Simon Pegg (who can really *act*) The first half is a gentle build up but is generally and genuinely amusing, but once we put the pedal to the floor for the second half the pace is relentless.

The plot is substantial enough but isn't really what we've all come to see - it's about the snappy dialogue and the gags. To describe it as a spoof is unfair - they just corrupt the genre a little and turn up the comedy.

Great fun from start to finish.

Hot Fuzz satirizes American action films in a way that an American satire would not. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg don't simply spoof the plot threads and the car chases. They know the smaller details of Hollywood's formula, as they exemplify with its continuous references to the scene in Point Break where Keanu Reeves fires his gun into the sky in anger and the scene in Bad Boys II where Martin Lawrence, in a circling tracking shot, says, "S*** just got real." Not only do they tackle those less clear characteristics of Hollywood, they also perfectly portray people who talk about awesome scenes in action movies, hilariously by Nick Frost. The film is brilliantly in precise tune with the American mainstream action adventure.

The irony in this film is that it takes place in the serenely beautiful English countryside. In some ways, the film is very important for Americans to see. It delves very deeply into the conscious social mannerisms of the English, and parodies the timid insular English village life. Perhaps the most brilliant element of Hot Fuzz is the intertwining of a big-budget action film with gimmicks and a desperately fast pace and a quaint, atmospheric English village given the secrets-of-its-own flavor and a Agatha Christie-style expository structure.

The film-making style in and of itself is complicit in the satire. The cinematography and editing is a product of the school of Tony Scott and Guy Ritchie. It's filled with jump cuts accompanied by loud and constantly changing sound effects, occasional strobe, and montages of grainy, bleached out, extravagantly lit shots edited together at machine gun speed. The soundtrack is that of any super-cool action film from Hollywood. This works so well not only as a dead-on impression of Hollywood film-making but also as a hilarious opposition to the English countryside.

Simon Pegg's performance is a work of comic genius. His character is so well-developed as a man of invincible and authentic confidence and incredible drive, a workaholic, a zealot, and also an action hero stereotype. Nick Frost is a great second banana because not only is he the punchline to Pegg's straight line, he's also funny in such a direct, adolescent way, an unlikely comic relief sidekick.

The film's great surprise is a comeback performance from Timothy Dalton. Not only is it a reappearance from the abyss he's been lost in since his two-year stint as James Bond, but also a vindication against all who've continually dismissed his credibility as an actor and doubted his comic ability. He's very funny and one of the film's great highlights.

I've rarely seen a comedy so cleverly written, beautifully directed, atmospheric, or intelligently ridiculous.