Post by slapshot63 on Apr 22, 2007 17:49:35 GMT -5
Starring:
Simon Pegg - Nicholas Angel
Nick Frost - Danny Butterman
Timothy Dalton - Simon Skinner
Jim Broadbent - Inspector Frank Butterman
Director: Edgar Wright
Genre: Action/Comedy
Running Time: 120 Minutes
What's It About?
Nicholas Angel is a super cop with an arrest record 400% higher than anyone else. In fact he's so good, he makes everyone else look bad. So Angel is packed off to the picture-perfect village of Sandford, alone save for his beloved Japanese Peace Lilly. On arrival Angel finds it difficult to adjust to village life, constantly on the look out for crime in a place where there hasn't been a murder for over 20 years and the police station is so quiet that the staff spend most of their time eating cake and ice cream. He also finds himself partnered with over-eager constable Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), the son of amiable Police Chief Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent). Danny is obsessed with action films and believe's that Angel is his chance to live out his dreams of car chases and gunfights.
My Thoughts:
Let’s get this out of the way right at the beginning, I’m a BIG fan of 2004’s Shaun of The Dead. It was a hilarious send-up of Romero’s classic zombie films and a loving homage at the same time. It was, what they billed it, a rom-zom-com (romantic zombie comedy) and it was equal parts that. It was a horror movie infused with comedic elements wrapped around a love story. And it worked! There was enough obvious humor to make the general audience member laugh but enough subtle and in-joke humor to make the real people who this movie was made for, Romero fans, laugh until it hurt. So now, three years later we have Edgar Wright (Director), Simon Pegg (Nicholas Angel) and Nick Frost (Danny)’s newest effort, Hot Fuzz. If you didn’t know, it’s send-up of all the cheesy American action films from the 80’s. So can lightning strike twice or was Shaun a fluke?
I’ll answer that rather quickly for you all, Hot Fuzz is how you TOP Shaun of The Dead. Not only does it succeed in all the areas that Shaun did, it actually IMPROVES on them. The movie is leaner, funnier and meatier than Shaun was. While Shaun was, and still is, a truly hilarious movie and a comedy (and even horror!) classic, Hot Fuzz trumps Shaun in every way imaginable. For starters, you’ve got a really superb cast. Simon Pegg is as good as ever here as Nicholas Angel. His comic timing is impeccable and can really pull off the hard-ass über policeman, er police officer man, very well. Nick Frost is great once again as Danny Butterman. HIS comic timing is ALSO impeccable and it has to be for the kind of gags and jokes that are in this movie. Timothy Dalton is here as well as Simon Skinner, the hilarious owner of the local grocery store. Jim Broadbent is the inept Police Chief Frank Butterman. Paddy Constantine and Rafe Spall are hilarious as the two Detective Andy’s and Bill Nighy (Phil in Shaun) has a small cameo that’s really hilarious. Cult favorite Edward Woodward even shows up for a bit in a really funny role. The cast overall is the major success of this movie and just make everything gel and work.
I’m sure you read the plot outline and are thinking, “Man, that is cliché”. Good, that’s the point. Once settled in Sandford, Hot Fuzz becomes a vehicle designed to send up every action film that has ever taken itself even slightly seriously from Police Story to Point Break, and it does this brilliantly by simply taking everything from these films and pushing them that bit further, making them appear both ridiculous and awesome at the same time. The characters are massively exaggerated (especially Pegg's super-cop [who runs like the T1000] and Timothy Dalton's exceedingly over-the-top character [who is a riot!]). The action sequences are outrageous, exciting, and feature a surprising degree of rough justice. I’d love to give an example here but it’s too hilarious to ruin but you should know it when you see it. The dialogue ranges from obvious parody ("Did you tell him to cool off?") to clever Pegg-Frost exchanges, and even the music is perfectly balanced.
In their previous efforts together, Wright and Pegg have usually had a girlfriend character that wonders why the Pegg and Frost characters are so close, and there is always an implication that they are too close. For Hot Fuzz, they've cut the female voice of reason and have a huge time making fun of that notion. Buddy cop movies have always had a hint homoeroticism in the main relationships, and this is played to the hilt here. The male bonding between Nick and Danny is written like a romantic movie, yet without ever going for any obvious jokes or even having the characters say anything about it. By the time Nick trips over a murder scene while buying Danny flowers for his birthday, the giggles are too good to resist. Another great thing about this movie is how it never falls back on dirty or sexual humor. Everything is clean humor but is just plain hilarious. But don’t think that this makes it a family film, because it isn’t. It earns is “R” rating wholly.
Another of the movie’s strengths lies in its amazing editing. There’s really no way to describe it, it is simply impeccable. The movie should be up for an Oscar for best editing because it is really outstanding here. It would be a completely different movie if it were edited in any other way, and probably less funny.
However, that's not to say that Hot Fuzz is non-stop comic action. The first half an hour or so seems a little slow, but there's no reason to worry; the cast are simply setting up jokes to be knocked down later on, and it is definitely worth the brief (and it is brief. You get essentially 110 minutes of pure hilarity) wait for the well-paced comic-action masterpiece that's lying just around the corner. As with Shaun of the Dead, the people behind Hot Fuzz are affectionately poking fun at a genre that they clearly love, creating a film that embraces its genre's inherent ridiculousness, and is all the better for it. Hot Fuzz is not only one of my favorite comedies ever, it is one of my favorite movies of all time and I personally cannot wait for the next Wright-Pegg-Frost collaboration. You end up needing to see the movie twice in order to pick up on everything because you are laughing through most of it. This is one movie that really is un-reviewable though, because of what kind of movie it is. Really, all that needs to be said is that it is a terrific movie, is hilarious and you all need to see it. Now.
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