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London,
Nick Curtis's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Edgar Wright.
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton
Description: Police Constable Nicholas Angel is one of the Metropolitan Police's shining lights - he's so good at his job, in fact, that he makes all of the other officers look bad in comparison. So Nicholas's superiors transfer him to the sleepy West Country backwater of Sandford, where nothing ever happens. Assisted by clumsy local constable Danny Butterman, Nicholas discovers that his new home isn't as idyllic as it appears, and that beneath the surface, Sandford harbours at least one psychopath with an insatiable bloodlust.
Country: UK. 2007. 120mins
Cut to the chase: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost go plodding through Toy Town
This is funny, charming and quintessentially English, but Hot Fuzz never quite matches up to Shaun of the Dead.
For their second film, director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg aim to replicate the formula of their 2004 sleeper hit by again cramming a big American genre into a comically small British frame.
But where the first film's tale of zombies in Crouch End was deft and fleet-footed, this transposition of a US-cop movie to dozy Somerset is a bit of a plod.
It's stuffed with gags, but also with rather too many knowing cinematic references, and a lot of flashy editing and sound design aimed at covering up faults in the plot.
Prime among these is the fact that the story falls in half. First, Pegg's prissy London supercop Nicholas Angel is shunted off to the West Country because his efficiency is embarrassing his superiors, and must learn to deal with lost swans and fêtes worse than death rather than armed drug dealers.
Then there's a great, clunking gear change in the script, in the shape of several gruesome murders, to justify Angel's decision to tool up and kick butt among the parochial busybodies, in the action sequences that are the film's raison d'être.
Pegg and Wright, who co-wrote the script, clearly started with the idea of a Peckinpah-esque shootout, but with bicycles and vicars and hanging baskets, then worked backwards.
They missed out quite a lot on the way, including the bit about emotionally involving the viewer.
One of the reasons Shaun of the Dead worked so well was that the imminent destruction of civilisation by the undead was of secondary importance to Shaun getting his girlfriend back.
Here, Angel has been irretrievably dumped, and with good reason. He's a humourless, emotionally stunted, by-the-book workaholic - a bore, in short.
Pegg, whose greatest asset as a performer is his blokey charm, can only wring so much humour from Angel's permanent air of clenched exasperation.
We're left rooting for his unwanted sidekick Butterman (Nick Frost), the local inspector's fat, idiot son, whose yearning for Angel's approval - and for automatic weapons and car chases - is rather touching.
Butterman introduces Angel to his concept of cop buddyhood with a boozy viewing of Point Break and Bad Boys II.
These movies are the most obvious influences on Wright and Pegg, but there are many others. Not just cop movies but the Scream trilogy, The Omen, The Matrix, the works of Jackie Chan - I stopped counting when they referenced Shaun of the Dead.
Similarly, I lost track of the times that a fast edit or an extra crunch or thunk on the soundtrack was used to give a bland act - the purchase of a Cornetto, say - the same impact as an assault rifle being cocked.
All this said, Hot Fuzz is often very funny. Pegg and Wright have a gift for planting small, comic timebombs in the script which detonate to hilarious effect later.
There are great sight gags and some laugh-out-loud one-liners. "Decaffeinated?" blurts a bleary Angel when informed of a double decapitation.
And alongside cameos from the usual suspects of modern British comedy acting - Bill Bailey, Steve Coogan, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent - there are revelatory comic performances from sometime straightmen: Timothy Dalton as a saturnine supermarket boss, and Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall as a pair of belligerently mustachioed detectives.
So Wright and Pegg's second film isn't as good as their first. That's a common enough problem and Shaun of the Dead raised ridiculously high expectations. Flawed as it is, Hot Fuzz makes me look forward to their third.
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Simon Pegg and Nick frost... na na na na na na na na... batman - or bad boys two - or Tango and Cash - Bodie and Doyle. Hot fuzz is a mickey take of all your cops and robbers type films. It's a bit slow to start off with as Nick Angel is posted to a quiet English village [or so it seems] but it's not long before there is a missing swan. Oh yes and dead bodies turning up everywhere by someone dressed as the scream murderer. Overall not a bad film at all. Shaun of the dead is a must see too!
- Kathy, Nottinghamshire. UK
I was disappointed by this because I was hoping for the same quality of film we were presented with in Shawn of the Dead. No it's not a stinker and no it's not un-funny but it isn't gripping and raises only one or two real laughs. I know all the haardcore fans won't agree with me but people should wait for this to be shown on TV before seeing it. It's not worth the money.
- Tim, London
No belly laughs here just mild amusement. Not half as good as Sean of the Dead and way too long.
- Anna Boyd, London
The kind of movie the critics hate but the cinema goers love! Gag on gag action and a great cast, have led to another creative and laugh out loud comedy caper. Look out for some brilliant (and very rude) visual gags.
- Kate Tilby, Ashford Kent
I'd been waiting AGES to see this and it was certainly worth the wait! It's easily the funniest film I've seen for months and although I'm not particularly in to action films, this film had me on the edge of my seat during the chase scenes and I was completely gripped - especially during the last shoot-em-up sequence where I hardly dared blink - what an adrenaline rush!
I left the cinema buzzing after seeing this film last night, what a film!
- Lynn Ellis, Gateshead
Loved it. Loved it. Loverd it!
I'm so glad that the humour I first witnessed in "Spaced" some years ago has continued and now promoted to the Silver screen. The style of humour and on sreen chemistry between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is comedy gold, and I thank them for it. Throw in a great cast from Timothy Dalton to Adam Buxton, fine directing from Edgar Wright and ... well, very, very funny jokes, Hot Fuzz becomes a highly enjoyable comedy movie. A step up (for me) from Shaun of the Dead, and I hope to see more from Simon and Nick in the future.
- Sion, London
HOT FUZZ is a great laugh-out-loud comedy because - unlike its slapstick American counterparts like LOADED WEAPON and NAKED GUN - it's witty, clever and very affectionate.
You'll probably need to see it twice to get all the gags. They come faster than a car chase. The plot takes some scary, splattery and unexpectedly serious turns now and then. And the shoot-em-up climax comes across like MIDSOMER MURDERS re-edited in the style of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3.
As in SHAUN OF THE DEAD (FUZZ might be funnier, it's a toss-up) Pegg and Frost make a glorious comedy partnership. More please.
- John Donnelly, London, England
Saw it last night and I'm not fully convinced, I've been a fan of Pegg and Frost since Spaced but although the Fuzz is good, it's not great, I prefer Sean of the Dead. Saying that, I have a feeling it's going to grow on me with a few more screenings.
It does have to be said that the murders are flat out hilarious.
- Lloyd, London
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