Perfect British Satire

Rating: 10/10 (28 June 2007)

I was afraid that Hot Fuzz would be a letdown - the trailers looked kind of lame, and I wasn't quite used to Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright yet. But I had read good reviews, and I absolutely loved Shaun of the Dead, so I thought I'd give Hot Fuzz a try. The trailers suck and don't even begin to do it justice - Hot Fuzz is the funniest and wittiest comedy I have seen in a long time, possibly even exceeding its predecessor.
Simon Pegg is Sergeant Nicholas Angel, a spectacular cop who is so spectacular he is making his colleagues look bad. As a solution, his superior officers have him transferred to the very small town of Sandford, where he must contend with the dangerous threat of underage drinkers, loiterers, and drunk drivers. For the most part, Sandford is apparently a small town with small problems.
Angel teams up with the inspector's son, Danny Butterman, a cop who is obsessed with cop movies, played by Nick Frost, who worked alongside Pegg in Shaun of the Dead. The two once again share perfect chemistry here as classic cop buddies. Eventually some murders begin to happen around time, murders that most everybody dismisses as accidents but which Angel suspects to be something more. An investigation ensues into the classic serial killer that you've seen in dozens of cop movies, parodied lovingly and perfectly here.
Everything about Hot Fuzz works. This is no simple parody that is content to just laugh at its source material. There are so many little things in Hot Fuzz, stuff that you'll need to look for if you want to catch it. Dozens of homages to cop movies are sprinkled all over the place, and the wonderful thing is is that they're subtle, discreet, under-the-counter, woven into the storyline and characters in such a way that they do not jump out and scream at you like in Austin Powers or Scary Movie. This isn't just a parody of cop movies. It's a cop movie. It's a true cop movie in every sense of the word, but its genius rests in the fact that it manages to be a complete cop movie while also making unashamed fun of the genre. As I walked out of this movie I kept on shaking my head at what genius this was - there was such a perfect pitch and feel to this movie I felt it almost literally has no equal in terms of spoofs.
A lot of it is due to the excellent cast and the perfect chemistry they share. Simon Pegg is absolutely brilliant and will eventually take his place among British comedic legends alongside the likes of Rowan Atkinson and Martin Freeman. (In my view he's already there.) The cameos from Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, and Steve Coogan at the beginning were absolutely perfect. Nick Frost and Simon Pegg share a virtually and subtly homo-erotic friendship in the film and it is perfectly and subtly funny, never over the top, but just enough there to catch and laugh at. The people in Sandford also perfectly fulfill their role, especially Jim Broadbent as the inspector. Timothy Dalton as the maybe-villain throughout the film is wonderful and you can tell he's having plenty of fun.
Another great thing that sells this movie is that it doesn't sell itself short on action. A lot of movies would have probably skimped on the action well known to cop movies and focused too much on the parody , but the final thirty minutes of Hot Fuzz are a hilariously climactic showdown. And it's not just cheesy action. There is some fun cheese and camp within the action, but overall, it's actually GOOD - this is action that wouldn't be out of place in a, for lack of a better word, normal action pic. It's a perfect homage to cop movies while also being a wonderfully thrilling scene in its own right. Shaun of the Dead was lacking a little in what truly constituted zombie action, and the final scene at the bar I found to be kind of disappointing and dragged out. Hot Fuzz's final scene is perfect and expertly executed. The rest of the movie contains plenty of creative gore, and thought sometimes I found it to be a little odd that they were putting so much gore into the film, I eventually accepted it as an homage to the many R-rated cop movies that exist out there - and it's not boring gore - most, if not all of it, had the entire audience cringing with how intense and creative it was.
The only thing that Hot Fuzz lacks from Shaun of the Dead is the smart social commentary. Shaun of the Dead was deep and it had some important and interesting things to say, but Hot Fuzz is meant to be just simple and great fun. It's also a better parody of cop movies than Shaun of the Dead was of zombie movies - on the whole it executes its goal with perfect grace and requires smarts and wits to watch. It's not some dumb mindless comedy - so many things in this movie are about watching closely and fully appreciating the love that these creators had for the original material. Many times directors will skimp on thought and originality when directing a spoof - sacrificing character development, plot, and action and just riding the wave of the original's success. Hot Fuzz doesn't even come close to doing this. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright could easily have gone the lazy route, but they absolutely refused, and I respect and admire them for that. This movie is such a film that it is likely people will end up parodying it. A pitch-perfect parody and comedy, Hot Fuzz is entertaining and hilarious and masterfully accomplished in every single way.