It's no Shaun but it's pretty great

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2007)

Everybody loves zombies, not that many people love the police, and this is the problem with Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's latest. The constant film references don't inspire the same feelings of fond reminiscence that their earlier love letter to George Romero achieved. Quite frankly, a love letter to Michael Bay is not going to appeal on the same level. Furthermore, while the going nowhere lives of 20 somethings Tim, Daisy and Mike and, later, Shaun and Ed, were something that everyone could relate to even when faced with a zombie invasion, London supercop Nicholas Angel offers little to empathise with, meaning the early scenes suffer. Even the film's dazzling cast and cameos cause problems in these early stages, spotting an A-list actress behind the forensic mask as Angel's ex-girlfriend is entertaining but Bill Nighy, in particular, so excellent in Shaun of the Dead, is criminally underused. In fact, Hot Fuzz seems a bit over bloated in general, while Shaun was taut and tightly plotted, effectively gripping all the way through, Fuzz seems to run for a bit too long. Having got the complaints out of the way, it only comes now to say that Hot Fuzz is a hilariously entertaining film with a number of memorably great moments. Once you get beyond the fact that it is in no sense perfect and is, and could never be, as good as Shaun of the Dead, you will be in for a great night of fun. While most publicity and reviews have dwelt on the film as a British parody of the Bay-Bruckheimer style of action film-making, this is only really true of the final twenty minutes and even then it is hardly a balls-out action fest. If you're looking for a great Bruckheimer parody then look no further than Team America. For the most part, Hot Fuzz instead comes across as an episode of Midsomer Murders directed by Sam Raimi. Fortunately, this turns out to be quite a brilliant move as it manages to make the central portion of the movie into a silly, bloody murder mystery, playing brilliantly on the creepiness of small communities (The Wicker Man's Edward Woodward even appears as the meddling, petty head of the local neighbourhood watch). Hot Fuzz does nothing to tone down the gore of the boy's previous effort, either, with some truly entertaining deaths including one in which a local journalist is impaled by a spike from the church spire at the village fête. Yes, all the rural England clichés are intact and that is part of the joy of the film, that despite all of the Bad Boys references it is a resolutely British film and, like Shaun, much of it centres on the pub building once again to a shoot-out there. Meanwhile, quite possibly the finest of the film's many mixtures of cringeworthy rural life and big American movies involves no horror or action staple but is instead a horribly accurate am dram production of Romeo and Juliet, that's Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet complete with Juliet's angel wings, neon crucifixes and a musical performance of The Cardigans' Love Fool. Woodward is not the only high profile actor populating this small village with ex-Bond Timothy Dalton giving a delightfully fruity performance as the sinister manager of the local Somerfield. Meanwhile, the police force, composed of respected film actors and British comedy stars provide amusing support. In particular Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall as the detectives who really don't want to do any detecting, their matching looks down to their facial hair is funny in itself and provides a great moment with a top lip covered in the head of a pint ("You've got a moustache", "I know"). In their sarcastic treatment of Angel's supercop eagerness, they also get to deliver the film's finest line. Of course, the film really revolves around the central pairing of Pegg and Nick Frost's PC Danny Butterman, the bumbling, naive and faintly childish son of Jim Broadbent's Inspector. After years of these best friends playing on screen best friends, here comes a film where they do not know each other at the start. Of course, the mismatched partners are quickly given the opportunity to slip into their old chemistry. This allows a little more humanity into Pegg's character as Angel lets up a bit in the face of Butterman's endearingly puppy dog enthusiasm ("What made you want to be a policeman?", "Officer", "What made you want to be a policeman, officer?"). Their pairing not just generating great dialogue but physical and visual comedy like their hamfisted attempts to catch a swan and the through garden chase that sees Butterman not quite capable of replicating Angel's athletic fence jumping technique. Frost is the film's heart and soul, his enthusiasm for action pictures and desire to be like the heroes in them is both charming and exasperating ("Have you ever fired two guns while jumping through the air?", "Have you ever fired one gun while jumping through the air?", "Is it true that there's a point on a man's head where if you shoot it, it will blow up?"), working especially well when he perceives Angel as like those heroes and tries to induct him into the ways of buddy cop action movies. Naturally, in the end the "shit gets real" and the film descends into car chases and shoot outs as promised on all the posters and trailers, frankly there are a little too many of these although the Somerfield shoot-out and the final moments in the model village are both great. Even though it's not Shaun of the Dead, you should certainly leave the cinema with a smile on your face and will no doubt be quoting for weeks afterwards. And quite rightly so, "You wanna be a big cop in a small town? F*ck off to the model village!" may be the best line you'll hear all year. ****