FILM CHALLENGE: 172) Hot Fuzz

172) Hot Fuzz

Director: Edgar Wright

Year: 2007

Plot Summary: Jealous colleagues conspire to get a top London cop transferred to a small town and paired with a witless new partner. On the beat, the pair stumble upon a series of suspicious accidents and events.

The second part of the 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy, a set of movies starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and directed by Edgar Wright, is Hot Fuzz. Both a homage and parody of the over-the-top and highly unrealistic action cinema of Point Break, Bad Boys and Police Story, it tells the story of a Nicholas Angel, the finest cop London who has an arrest record 400% higher than any other officer on the force. He's so good, in fact, that he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, Angel's superiors send him to a place where his talents won't be quite so embarrassing; the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford.

Concepts like this are usually a recipe for disaster. Just take one look at the terrible work of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, for example, who have been critically panned for their spoof comedies Meet The Spartans, Disaster Movie and Epic Movie. However, Hot Fuzz is one of the few instances in which it actually works.

This is because Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost all show such a deep passion for cinema here that it's difficult for any movie buff not to be swept along for the ride. Even if the story doesn't grab you - the mystery is, after all, completely contrived nonsense that you couldn't care less about - you'll watch onwanting to know what they pull out next. And they never disappoint either with hilarious references to The Wicker Man, Chinatown, The Shining and A Fistful Of Dollars.

Furthermore, because they are clearly huge fans of the buddy action movies I mentioned at the start of this review, it puts them in the perfect position to take all the conventions of this genre and turn them on their head. The "why'd you become a cop?" monologue that appears in almost every police movie, for example, is hilariously parodied by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost towards the half-way point of the movie. Similarly, there's an ingenious spoof on the "I've never shot someone before" cliche.

Even if you don't know or love movies that much, the writing is so golden that you will find yourself constantly laughing. In the first hour of Hot Fuzz, in fact, the jokes come so fast and so hard that you'll have to remind yourself to breathe.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost prove, once again, that they are one of the funniest double acts in modern British comedy. However, they are also backed up by the talents of many other iconic actors and actresses here with everyone from Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Cate Blanchett to Stephen Merchant and Steve Coogan making guest appearances. With so many cameos, Hot Fuzz runs the risk of slipping off the point, dwelling more on the cast than the actual humour and narrative, but Edgar Wright keeps a tight control on this. The cameos, therefore, work wonderfully in allowing some of the smaller scenes, like Nicholas visiting his girlfriend or investigating a missing swan, to be just as hilarious as the rest of the film.

Sure, the slasher elements don't work and the story is completely stupid, but because it never takes itself too seriously and always remaining tongue-in-cheek, Hot Fuzz is consistently funny from start to finish. Another great British comedy from Pegg, Frost and Wright.

3/5

By Daniel Sarath with 2 comments