Simon Peggs for James Bond.....

Rating: 7/10 (30 October 2009)

There are no laugh-out loud, pee yourself moments in Hot Fuzz. -Well, maybe one comes close;, that's not what HF is about. This is a Simon Pegg film so, in a sense, in doesn't matter what its about -what you get, is that Nice Simon Pegg doing what he does so well -Being Nice. Simon Pegg represents the kind of person wed all like to know (or to be) no one does Nice like him -Cast him in any part and our sympathies are with his character. If he'd been in The Shining wed have handed him the fire axe, patted him on the head, and shoo him upstairs to polish of that nasty wife and little kid. Simon Pegg as Darth Vader; wed sympathise with that nasty sore throat. Nice is what he does, and to wheel out a cliché -nobody does it better. HF is in many ways a very reactionary piece of work: harking back to the golden era of Dads Army and Lively Lads or further back to the Ealing comedies. The jokes are mostly telegraphed a reel or two ahead so you can get back from making the tea in time for a chortle, and there's none of that smutty new-wave comedy to disturbed the middle-England tranquillity of the (apparently) sleepy village of Sandford. I smiled a lot in this movie -the homo-erotic undertone of the relationship between hopelessly uptight Sergeant Nicholas Angel (Pegg) and big hearted PC Danny Butterman is beautifully played. There's also a bewildering array of British comedy luminaries to gawk at. As to the plot, well its a load of nonsense about dark goings-on in rural paradise. But then, you're not watching this for the plot, or for that matter the laughs. Its Pegg's film, literally as well as figuratively -you're watching to be reassured that somewhere out there, there really are nice, decent people doing nice, decent things, and, in this area HF delivers in spades. Watch it, enjoy it & don't feel guilty about it. Now that's got me thinking..how about Simon Peggs as the next James Bond -don't laugh -think about it for a minute.