Great Movie!

Rating: Null/10 (17 May 2007)

Hot Fuzz(2007)
Starring: Simon Pegg as Sgt. Nicholas Angel Nick Frost as PC Danny Butterman Timothy Dalton as Simon Skinner Jim Broadbent as Inspector Frank Butterman
Plot: After making the entire London police service(they can't say "force") look bad, Sgt Nicholas Angel is transfered to Sandford. This is a small little town where the biggest thing to happen is the swan escapes. But soon there appear to be very grisly accidents that Angel is convinced are actually murder. Can he persuade his bumbling staff and new partner to see things his way, and save the day?
I was looking forward to this ever since it was announced. Shaun of the Dead was a hilarious spin on the zombie genre and I really wanted to see what these guys could do with the meandering buddy cop genre. All I can say is bravo. This movie not only was as good as Shaun of the Dead, it surpassed it.
But before I talk about what's wrong with this movie, let me get into it's flaws, because yes, there are some. Mainly, this movie runs two hours long and close to the middle there is a noticeable lag in things happening. The movie really could have used a trim here and there to tighten up the pace of the movie. And that's really the only problem I had with this movie. It was just too long and stretched out.
Now onto everything else. WOW. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg have done a completely wonderful job in bringing this movie to life. The characters are all completely three-dimensional, which is something that buddy cop movies lack anyway. In addition to that, Pegg and Nick Frost actually bring some acting to their roles and both handle them well. Pegg was hilarious, even though he was supposed to be the straight-man, in playing the tough by-the-book cop. Frost plays his sidekick role to perfection. And the supporting cast all have their roles to play and they do so wonderfully.
Another thing I loved about this movie? Edgar Wright chooses NOT to go the PC route. There's lots of gore(including a brilliant impaling scene), and the gore itself is almost over the top with how much blood comes from these deaths. In addition to that, we get swearing priests, a mentally-handicapped guy named "Lurch" and old ladies get kicked in the head. It's all hilarious and works very well.
The final thirty minutes are great, but would be nothing if not for everything that led to them. With the well-written script and well-acted characters, something else is very present. The use of foreshadowing. Pay attention to things said or done in earlier parts of the movie and it makes it that much better when they are used in that last half hour. Which by the way, is very action packed. I'd argue it's more action-packed and executed better than a lot of the genre fare that is out there today. While also throwing out lots of references to films within this genre(such as Point Break and Bad Boys II).
Hot Fuzz is definitely the funniest movie I've seen this year, and it's also a good action movie on top of it. I think we can pretty much agree when Pegg, Wright and Frost work together it's gold. I recommend you see this as soon as possible.
Rating: ****1/2 of *****