droll, funny, but also very satiric film

Rating: 9/10 (3 June 2007)

This movie, from the creators of Shawn of the Dead, plows some of the same territory, but adds some acerbic social commentary to the mix. It is a clear homage to the buddy cop movies which have proliferated over the past 20 years, but it is also a comment on the sometimes corrosive, excessive, civic pride, almost incestuous in its intense devotion to all things local, in England specifically in this case, but it could be translated to other communities anywhere. It is very very funny and pointed, but this satire was not at all hinted at in the movie's marketing. The tribute to the banal buddy buddy cop movies of the last while is sometimes so broad and obvious that it is sometimes almost a re-make, but that said, it is nice that someone (director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the movie with Wright) recognize the pervasiveness of the genre. The story is that London police officer Nicholas Angel (a rather playful and unlikely name played by writer Simon Pegg) is exiled to the countryside because of his overly industrious ways and the fact that his industriousness revealed the laziness of the police. Once out in the countryside, he disrupts the routine of small town life by cracking down on small-time crime. He also, however, investigates a series of gruesome murders which the locals attempt to downplay but which he believes (correctly) are related. In so doing, he treads on the toes of many of the locals who have lived there for a long time and who feel they have some claim on the life of the community, to a much more literal extent than he might have anticipated. The acting is fine. No great performances are required. The satiric script drives the film and it is a very intriguing and clever plot. It is an interesting and amusing film with more layers to it than is suggested by the marketing.