Hot Fuzz Review

In 2004, they brought you the Zombie horror spoof Shaun of the Dead, a huge hit in their native Britain, and a film that developed quite the cult following here in America.

Now, director Edgar Wright, along with friends and co-writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, take on the big budget Hollywood blockbuster in Hot Fuzz.  Much like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz was gigantic in England, and is generating good word of mouth here in the States as well.

Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is London's top cop.  His arrest rate is 400% greater than anyone else, so jealousy steers the London hierarchy into moving him to a small, out of the way village.  There, he meets up with Danny Butterman (Frost), a small town cop obsessed with the way Hollywood depicts the life of a cop (car chases, shootouts, etc).  Before long, people start dying in a village that hasn't had a murder in 20 years.  They all look like accidents, but to Angel, it looks like murder.  The majority of the film follows Angel's investigation into the murders, and his butting heads with the local cops he now works with, who all think he's lost his mind.

Much like with Shaun of the Dead, everything about Hot Fuzz is completely over the top.  Danny is obsessed with scenes from films like Point Break and Bad Boys II, to the point where he aims to be able to live those scenes out.  Angel is an amalgam of every great movie and TV detective.  Nothing seems to get by him, and what does get by him is solved when another character gives one line that turns out to be the biggest clue he could've been given.

While there is a lot of action in this film (the last 25 minutes or so is nothing but), it is certainly a comedy first.  Those familiar with Shaun of the Dead know what Pegg and Frost, especially, are capable of.  Think of them as an English David Spade and Chris Farley, except imagine that David Spade actually had talent.  Their writing is so flush with jokes and comedy that it can be hard to catch everything in one viewing (I'm sure I missed some things last night).  And with an exceptional villain performance from Timothy Dalton of all people, Hot Fuzz has everything you could possibly want in an action comedy.

I will say that the deaths were excruciatingly violent and over the top.  It's done for comedic effect, but I can definitely see the other side of it too.  I also thought the film was just a tad too long, that it could've been tightened up a bit.  I'm not saying it needed to be chopped by a half hour (like, ironically enough, say Bad Boys II), but just a solid 10 minutes of extra cuts would've made the film flow much more smoothly.

If you like British humor and satire, then Hot Fuzz should be right up your alley.  If you find Hollywood action blockbusters to be mostly ridiculous, Hot Fuzz should be right up your alley.  And if you are at all a fan of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz is a must see.  Leave it to the Brits to satirize American filmmaking in the best way possible.