VERY, very funny

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2007)

HOT FUZZ is a very funny movie, but it works by (mostly) playing it straight. In fact, for the first half of the movie, Simon Pegg makes a fairly credible action hero.
I don't know that I'd call HOT FUZZ a send-up, or a parody, because it does play so straight. I'd call it more of a highly-skewed homage. The plot is negligible, though I've seen worse in mainstream action flicks. The lines are delivered with the same kind of earnest weight you'd see in any number of cop-buddy movies.
The story bogs down for a while in the middle, but that's because it's setting up for the climax. The last 45 minutes of HOT FUZZ is the most brilliant, sustained piece of comedy I can remember.
Yes, it's funnier than SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and probably anything else you're likely to see this year. TOTALLY worth a theatre viewing.