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Hot Fuzz
“Have you ever fired
your gun in the air and gone Ahh?” asks Danny, an over
weight, clumsy police officer. The man being asked the question is
Constable Nicolas Angel; a former London police officer, now working
in the tiny village-town of Sandford. He is immensely frustrated by
this question, as his new partner thinks police work is meant to be
like ‘Lethal Weapon’.
‘Hot Fuzz’ was more
or less the follow up to ‘Shaun of the Dead’; the very clever
British comedy that took the zombie genre and flipped it upside down.
Many zombie elements remained, but our hero in that story was a
pathetic, loser of a man called Shaun, whose idea of a romantic
evening was to take his girlfriend to the local pub – the
Winchester. During the zombie plague he is joined by his mate Ed, an
even more pathetic loser who Shaun is always standing up for.
Needless to say, Shaun comes out triumphant and defeats the zombies.
In Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg
and Nick Frost return, and both play police officers, worlds apart.
After being transferred from the London Police for being too good at
his job and making the rest of the force look bad, Angel (Pegg) has
no say and ends up in the sleepy town of Sandford. He tries to make a
go of it, but with nothing to police and a partner who just asks
endless questions to satisfy his belief that Angel is an amazing
police man, he quickly gets down in the dumps.
However, this small
town has a few dark secrets, and when a murderer shows up to pick off
some of the towns citizens, and in violent fashion, Angel steps up
and plays detective – as the towns two actual detectives couldn’t
give a rats arse. As Angel discovers the victims are linked in an
intricate way, his suspicions take him to the heart of a mystery
involving most of the town’s citizens.
British humour really
is in a league of its own, and Hot Fuzz pays respect to that while
also adding some new elements to the formula. If you loved Shaun of
the Dead you will want to see Hot Fuzz (if you haven’t already). It
was a great progression from the zombie outing to this tale, which
will please fans of the team behind Shaun.
There are many great
characters on display here. The actor’s chosen to play them were
the perfect choices; each of them embodies their characters,
including all their unusual quirks and flaws, with creativity and
charm. Just as in Shaun of the Dead, Pegg and Frost have great
chemistry together, although their characters and the dynamics
between them are much different this time around. Pegg has taken it
up a notch to be a responsible, serious officer of the law, where as
Frost is still the bumbling, hapless idiot he was in Shaun.
Movie buffs will love
Hot Fuzz, as it references several poplar action movies, the two main
ones being “Point Break” and “Bad Boys 2”; both of them
extremely over-the-top, adrenaline charged action spectacles which go
against everything police officers should do in the real world. At
first, the references to these movies come in the form of Danny
asking whether or not Angel has seen the movies. When he reveals that
he hasn’t, the two of the have a movie marathon and watch both
films back to back. Towards the end of the film, as the two cops take
on the villain(s), the references come thick and fast as certain
camera angles and recognisable shots are entirely replicated. This
was a clever touch to show just how deep into the case these cops get
and their only way to survive the carnage is to imagine it’s all
just a movie.
When watching Hot Fuzz,
sit back and be prepared for a hilarious and visually entertaining
film, which combines great music, sharp writing and over the top
action scenes to deliver what is definitely one of the best
Action-Comedy films ever made. Well, in my opinion anyway!
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