Film

Hot Fuzz

16 Comments

I’ve long been a fan of British television. I like the atmospheric mystery shows like Poirot and Marple. I like the sweet natured comedy of shows like The Vicar of Dibley and As Time Goes By. I like the slapstick antics of shows like Mr. Bean and Fawlty Towers. And lets face facts: I am an American male so it is hardwired into my genes to like explosive action films! The mere fact that Edward Wright and Simon Pegg attempted to do a send up of all these genres was enough to make me want to see Hot Fuzz. The fact that they succeeded so brilliantly in every aspect makes me not only glad that I went to see it now while it is in theatres but also compels me to tell you to go see it.

Hot Fuzz tells the story of one Sergeant Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a super-cop, whose colleagues and superiors get so jealous of his superior police skills that they remove him from his London post to place him in the quaint, quiet village of Sandford…all to make themselves not look so bad.

As is to be expected, Sergeant Angel has a difficult job fitting in with a police force that is used to a more leisurely way of life. A way of life quite fitting for a place that frequently wins village-of-the-year awards. Angel is partnered with action movie buff Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) who further irritates Sergeant Angel by attempting to pry details from him of his life as a big city police officer.

A series of gruesome ‘accidents’ leads Sergeant Angel to believe that more sinister forces are at work within the sleepy hamlet of Sandford. Now if he can just convince his fellow officers that there is more going on in Sandford than meets the eye.

Writer/actor Simon Pegg and writer/director Edward Wright hit every note so well in this film. The village chosen (Somerset, I believe) was a perfect setting for the idealized English village. Every building, every tree, everything in the village is idyllic…just the kind of quiet place we Americans envision every small English town to be. The comedy was perfectly done. It was a farce, to be sure, but was never so over-the-top that it detracted from the joy of the film as a whole. And there were so many levels to the comedy. There were the typical small-town comedic elements. There was a film-long homage to movies like Point Break and Bad Boys II that added a whole other level of both visual humor and humorous dialogue. There was the kind of gross-out humor associated with movies like Shaun of the Dead as the ‘accidents’ were so gruesome at times that all you could do was laugh. There was just so much to giggle, chuckle and chortle about in this film.

At the same time, it wasn’t non-stop comedy. There was a sweetness to some of the character interaction that added a bit of an ‘aw, shucks’ feel to the film. There was also a sinister and mysterious element to the suspicious deaths that added a nice element of suspense to the film.

The cast was terrific. It is literally a who’s who of actors from several of the British films and television shows and I’ve seen over the years. Big name stars (like Jim Broadbent and Timothy Dalton…who were both phenomenal…Dalton should stick to comedy, he’s great) never overshadow the character actors in the film and I can only imagine that they all had a ball working on a film that required them to act as quaint English villagers and Jerry Bruckheimer style action movie stars.

In the end all I can really say is that this movie is rip-roaring fun. It could be called a quintessential guys film, but that would be an insult to all of the very cool women out there who like and get this sort of comedy. It is a film that earns its ‘R’ rating, primarily because of the gruesome nature of the death scenes, and yet for all that it could easily be a PG-13 film. Funny, action-packed, farcical, and a bit sweet, Hot Fuzz is a film that does what all films should endeavor to do–it entertains. “By the Power of Grayskull”, this is one I highly recommend.

16 thoughts on “Hot Fuzz”

  1. Looking forward to seeing this one in the near future.

    Spaced ranks among my favourite comedy series, and Shaun of the Dead is a great film. Very fun.

  2. Oh, I’m SO glad you liked it!! I hate to recommend movies to others because it
    seems like the movies I love are an “acquired taste”!! But I just loved this one!!
    Simon Pegg and Nick Frost just crack me up. Jim Broadbent was really great…
    and Timothy Dalton totally made me forget what a horrible Bond he was!! And
    yes, the Point Break and Bad Boys II scenes were probably my favorite in the movie.
    And the one-liners were great!

    John Cleese will always and forever be one of my favorites. Fawlty Towers ruled!
    And Black Adder….nothing funnier!

    By the way….did you see the previews for Run, Fatboy, Run??

  5. Oh….by the way. I was reading on IMDB about Hot Fuzz. Did you know
    that Cate Blanchett played Janine (I KNEW her voice was familiar) and Santa
    was Peter Jackson???

  6. Hilarious. I thought her eyes looked familiar. I saw in the credits that they thanked Peter Jackson and now I know why. Thanks for pointing those out.

    And yes, Janet. I think slipping away from work is a brilliant idea.

  7. Pingback: Susan Hated Literature » Blog Archive » Hot Fuzz

  9. My husband wants to see this one… I’ve kind of brushed it off (as I did with Shawn of the Dead — I just don’t do zombies, even if it is comedies), but maybe I’ll cave. It does sound fun.

    And I agree, Timothy Dalton should stick to comedies.

  10. Saw it some weeks ago (benefit of being a Brit) and thought it was wonderful (and I wasn’t even expecting to like it!)

    You’re right, the town was in Somerset (actually Wells-next-the-Sea, I believe). Sandford is apparently the name they give to the fictional town in police role-play training exercises!

    I thought Pegg did a great job of making us feel sympathetic to an initially rather difficult character. The only thing I found hard to take – he’d be rather an old constable. Maybe it’s the hard life he’s been leading that’s prematurely aged him! But it’s hard to imagine an actor in his 20s doing the part so well… so not really a quibble.

    I spotted Jackson and Blanchett, but I’d been warned to look out for famous cameos.

    Simon Pegg has a boxing comedy out next. I don’t like sports films (or boxing). But then, I don’t like cop films. Might have to give it a try.

  11. I haven’t heard of ” Spaced ” and will have to look for it. Thanks for the heads up on it for those who mentioned it. I loved both Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead and if Spaced is done by the same creative team I need to track it down.

  12. Another vote for the goodness of Hot Fuzz! Hmm. I should go see this, however Vaguely Inappropriate the title might seem. 😉 Oh, Britcoms, how I love you…

  14. Unfortunately Spaced isn’t available yet on Netflix because I’d love to see it!

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