Hot Fuzz [MA]

Nick Angel is the London Police Service’s top officer. His arrest rates are through the roof, and he does a fantastic job of outshining the other officers. So when he gets transferred to the seemingly-crime-free village of Sandford, he struggles with filling out paperwork for minor infringements and constant awed question from his oafish partner Danny. But when a series of grizzly murders begin to take place, Danny’s dreams of action, explosions, and car chases becomes a reality and it’s time for these small-town cops to dish out some big-city justice. 

THIS MOVIE IS FREAKING AWESOME! It’s official, anything Simon Pegg and Nick Frost write is complete gold and after revisiting Shaun of the Dead and Paul, which has just come out on DVD for those who have not yet seen it, Hot Fuzz was the next imperative step. It’s a fantastic combination of action, mystery, and comedy that will just have you in hysterics! AWESOME! 

Nick Angel is the London Police Service’s top officer. His arrest rates are through the roof, and he does a fantastic job of outshining the other officers. So when he is transferred to the seemingly-crime-free village of Sandford, he struggles with filling out paperwork for minor infringements and constant awed questions from his oafish partner Danny. But when a series of grizzly murders rock the village, Danny’s dreams of explosions, action, and car chases becomes real, and it’s time for these small-town cops to dish out some big-city justice. THE FUZZ ARE HERE TO BUST YOUR ARSE! 

Unlike Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz was a real spoof. Although Shaun of the Dead did, to some extent, take the piss out of zombie movies (I honestly would not know how much as I have never actually seen a real zombie movie, so that sentence is a bit biased), Hot Fuzz was a real, proper spoof, an homage to all action-packed cop movies, the two most prominently sampled being Point Break and Bad Boys II. 

The central story is really clever and simple to follow and is just filled with wonderful dark, and ironic, British humour that plays perfectly with the memorable action sequences of the film: the high speed car chases, the explosions, the classic punch-ups, the mind-blowing gunplay, and the classic Western shot (watch the film for that one). 

Simon Pegg is brilliant as Sergeant Nick Angel. His characters in Paul and Shaun of the Dead were a little subdued (aside from in times of panic and crisis), but in Hot Fuzz he delivered a brilliant performance that was very serious, intense, hardcore, and married to the job. 

Nick Frost was great as Danny, a loveable oaf whose dreams are too big for even him. Nick delivered a performance that was eager, awed, and had a real, almost star-struck, childish innocence that made his character really lovable and very memorable. 

The only negative thing that needs to be said about this movie is the editing. Now, I do like the way this movie is edited, with everything moving really fast and quick snappy patterns and zooming of the camera and scenes, but, because the film begins this way, it’s actually rather hard to follow the story, because your mind is still reeling excitedly from the adrenaline-fuelled camera motions. Thankfully, this pace does slow down as the real story comes into prominence and there are periods where the characters verbally let the audience know what has elapsed and what’s going to happen. This is a good technique because, without it, we’d all be completely lost. 

Starring Jim Broadbent, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Bill Bailey, Steve Coogan, Lucy Punch, and David Bradley, Hot Fuzz is a hysterical cop spoof filled with action, gore, violence, suspense, murder, drama, friendship, and brilliant dark and ironic comedy. It has to be said, this movie is fucking awesome!