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Film Review- Hot Fuzz
Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton,
Bill Bailey
Screenplay: Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright
Distributor: Universal
Running Time: 121 mins
What's The Story?
When top London cop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is transferred to a sleepy
village by his jealous superiors, he fears life is about to get very boring.
Things go from bad to worse when he is partnered with bumbling yet eager
Constable Danny Butterman (Nick Frost).However, when mysterious accidents
start to occur, Sergeant Angel discovers that Sandford is not as pleasant
and innocent as it seems…
The long wait is over. Fans of Shaun Of
The Dead rejoice, as Simon Pegg teams up with director Edgar Wright and
co-star Nick Frost once more for the eagerly anticipated Hot Fuzz. Having
successfully spoofed the Zombie-flick, the team that originally collaborated
on channel four's cult sitcom, Spaced, have now turned their comedy wand
on the Hollywood-buddy-action film. Think Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys, set
in the rural heart of the West Country. No, really.
It's an odd combination that works well,
and this is in no small part due to the comic chemistry between Pegg and
Frost, as partners in crime prevention Nick Angel and Danny Butterman.
The former is a hardened city cop with an exemplary record, the latter
is, well, an idiot in uniform, who just happens to be the son of the chief
constable. Much of the comedy revolves around this mismatch between the
two characters, beginning with Sergeant Angel arresting Butterman for
almost running him over whilst driving under the influence, only to later
discover that the inebriated slob is in fact his new partner.
For much of the first third of the film,
the seemingly idyllic and humdrum backwater community of Sandford lures
Angel into a false sense of security, with its obligatory church fetes,
amateur dramatic societies and underage drinking dens. But this illusion
is soon shattered when a series of seemingly random accidents throw Pegg's
character into the middle of a Wickerman-esque conspiracy.
Edgar Wright again proves his skills for
mixing deadpan, sometimes surreal comedy with fast-paced action sequences,
with more rapid cut editing than you can shake a severed limb at. As with
Shaun Of The Dead, the film has a healthy splattering of gore, which though
comic in nature, still has the capacity to shock the faint-hearted.
With an ensemble supporting cast that reads
like a who's-who of British comedy and character actors- including Steve
Coogan, Timothy Dalton (who is superb in his role as a charismatic yet
sinister Somerfields store manager), Bill Bailey and Jim Broadbent- Hot
Fuzz packs in the gags, yet falls a little way short of providing the
uproarious belly laughs and guffaws one might anticipate from such a strong
comic line-up. Nonetheless, it stands as another triumph of British comedy
that's as action-packed as it is witty.
Chris Glithero
VERDICT
Wright, Pegg and Frost do it again,
proving that British comedy's not
dead, it's very much alive and
kicking butt.
**** (Four Stars)
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