Hot Fuzz

Nicholas Angel(Pegg) is London’s top police officer, he excelled at all of all his classes, has won numerous honors and recommendations, and his arrest rate is 400% greater then any other officer in London. Unfortunately for everyone else his is so good, that he makes them look bad. So they decide the only way to get rid of the problem, is to get rid of him. They do so by "promoting" him to Sargent, in the small, crime free, and award winning country village of Sanford. Once there he finds himself and his new partner, the action film loving and real life action seeking son of the Police Chief(Broadbent) Danny Butterman(Frost), doing tedious meaningless duties, which includes trying to catch a loose swan.

Everything suddenly changes for Angel when certain members of the seemingly perfect community start showing up dead. What appears to be simple accidents, including a car collision, and a gas explosion start to seem like more then they appear when Angel begins linking the deaths. Unfortunately the entire town, including its sub-par police force are too set on the town being perfect and crime free to believe the deaths are more then mere accidents. So now Angel must work on his own, with the occasional assistance of his new partner, to solve the mysterious deaths before even more of the towns folks end up in body bags.

The guys who brought you Shaun of the Dead are back, and still in great form. This time around they have brought there love of action flicks with them. Hot Fuzz is to action films what Shaun was to zombie movies! The film is essentially a spoof of most buddy cop action films, its action moments are almost entirely built on references from many well known films, including Bad Boys 2, Die Hard, Point Break, and when the guns starts a’ blazing Hard Boiled. Not only do they show homage to these action films, but they also mention earlier in the film the moments they will eventually mimic during the films ultra violent climax!. Danny is a action film fanatic who became a cop mostly because his father is the chief, but also craves excitement. Knowing what Angel has been through he is almost a hero in Danny’s eyes. In one memorable scene Danny tells Angel about Point Break, a 1991 undercover cop film with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. He tells him about a certain scene where Reeves is lying on the ground with his gun pointed at a fleeing Swayze, but he can not bring himself to shoot. So when Swayze gets free, Reeves rolls over points his gun in the are fires and yells in anger. So Danny asks Angel, “Have you ever fired your gun in the air and yelled ‘ahh’” “What?” replies Angel. “Have you ever fired you gun in the air and yelled ‘ah’?” he asked a second time. “No, I have not fired my gun in the air and yelled ‘ah’!” That is just one of the many very funny moments in the corse of the film, and there are plenty.

Hot Fuzz has a very distinct style that anyone who watched Shaun will recognize. Very quick cuts to carry from one scene to another, clever writing(the film was written by director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg) and some wonderful physical comedy. But it also has a good story, one that starts off pretty simple, but quickly starts gaining some layers, and soon begins appearing to be a pretty damn good mystery thriller. That is until we reach the films climax, and this is where is really shines. I cannot describe in detail what happens without spoiling the films somewhat surprising twist(though you will probably guess before its reveled)but I will say that when Angel has a sudden change of attitude from the conservative by the book police officer, to an all out gun toting Arnold in Commando meets Chow Yun Fat in Hard Boiled action power house, Hot Fuzz turns into to an all out bullet ballet! And a wonderful ballet it is!

8.9

A Film by Edgar Wright