More than meets the eyes

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 2007)

Those who have seen "Shaun of the dead" (same director, same lead) would know what kind of a movie this is - a witty and sometimes outrageous spoof/parody: what Shaun does for zombie movies this does for supercop movies. But then, this movie has more than initially meets the eyes.
The story starts off, somewhat slowly, with a supercop in London who has become so good that the department finds him an embarrassment and sends him off, with a promotion, to a small out-of-the-way village. The interesting thing is that just as you think that it is settling down to a familiar genre, it throws you off balance by becoming something else. The new job throws our hero into a odd-couple-cops situation that you have seen far too often. For a while (which is actually half-an-hour), nothing much seems to happen as Sergeant Angel gets to know the village (but there's a meaning behind all this). Then we have a serial murder story unfolding. But before long, you find yourself watching something like "The dark secret of harvest home" (1978 TV mini series), with the chilling horror transported from suburban New England to suburban real England. The mood then changes again, to something like The Magnificent Seven, but with returning to the village only one individual, the male version of Ripley in Aliens (i.e. the second one). Then all hell breaks loose and it becomes Monty Python territory.
Therein lies the fun of this movie. It is funny, witty, satirical, but not without its moments of pathos. It can also get outrageously hilarious and gory - at the same time. When you see a sharp steeple break off, drop several stories right onto the head of a man below causing said head to kind of blow up with blood splashing like an erupting volcano, you ought to scream in horror. But you'll find yourself roaring in uncontrollable laughter of mirth at the sight of the broken off steeple resting on the now headless neck, taking the place of said head. Hot fuzz is that kind of a movie. If that is you cup of tea, you'll have a whale of a time.
Also most impressive is the astounding attention paid to the details. Everything that appears in the movie - objects ("deactivated" land mine), animal (lost swan), dialogue (a million ways of firing a shot) -is rounded up nicely at the end of the movie.