Wonderfully witty film where Bad Boys meets Vicar of Dibley

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2007)

Nicholas Angel joined the police service and quickly made a name for himself, achieving an arrest rate 400% higher than anyone else and breaking many service records. Unfortunately this makes his colleagues look bad and he is "promoted" to Sergeant, not in London but in the leafy village of Sandford. Bitter but with no choice, Angel finds himself in the crime-free village and, although he tries to continue his work he finds the only criminals he can arrest are kids and a drunk-driver who turns out to be his new partner, Danny. However the accident rate in Sandford is surely far too high  a fact brought home to Angel when a series of grizzly "accidents" occur. But will anyone listen in a village where everyone knows no crimes ever occur.
It is perhaps unfortunate that Hot Fuzz came out in the same week as gun crime was the main story in the UK and politicians were falling over themselves to "take action" (because although black people have been being shot for years, the fact that "good" black people are dieing now means that the Government will act  fantastic). However it is testament to how much fun the film is that no tabloid jumped on this film in the way perhaps they would have knee-jerked against others. The film does glorify the American Hollywood action movie though, which indeed is the joke and entire reason for the film.
It does this very well by taking the conventions of the genre and putting them into rural England. The former is really well done and is never as lazy as some spoofs where such conventions are explained then spoofed  here they are part of the film and it works better for it. It is worth noting that they also do small village life to a tee as well. The obsession with keeping the image of the village and intolerance for outsiders is well used within the narrative and will strike a chord with those that know. The action is kept for the final third of the film but is better for it because, for the majority of the film it is witty, but the action is more silly humour  it works, but it is best that it is limited.
It is not a perfect film though and those expected a fantastic action movie with loads of laughs will be disappointed. The humour is more about wit and references rather than being a laugh a minute affair. Personally I found it very funny but then some people hated Spaced so I imagine they will also hate this. The direction from Wright is really good. Some of the cuts were a bit frantic at times for my liking but mostly it all looked good and played very well. The cast is roundly good and blessed with stars. Pegg mostly plays it straight and it is an approach that works as the script feeds a lot of the sillier lines to Frost, who delivers them spot on. The two have a great sense of semi-homoerotic camaraderie between them that really fits the action film idea. At first I did worry that the parade of British stars would distract but, aside from the early appearance of Coogan, Nighy and Freeman, it didn't really. Dalton was huge fun, Broadbent fitted his character like old slippers and support is roundly strong from Considine, Woodward, Bailey, Colman, Spall and others.
It won't be to everyone tastes then, and those expecting to be rolling in the aisles may be building it up too much. It a witty and English take on the staples of the Hollywood action movie. It is a bit long and gets silly at the end but mostly it is a lot of fun and the same audience that enjoyed Shaun will find this just as much fun.