Impeccable pastiche of the action genre that is after a point a fine example of it.

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2019)

I really struggle to root for cops in movies but I can put my own biases aside for this movie.
"Simon Pegg plays an ace cop who is moved to a sleepy village to stop his superiors looking bad". Thus ran the newspaper review that my dad read to me when we were picking a movie to see. And like he said after words: "That summary DOES NOT prepare you for what you're about to see."
A pastiche of action movies the same way Shaun of the dead was sort of supposed to be a pastiche of zombie movies but this time they actually are.
Pegg is the no nonsense pig who "cannot turn off" while Frost is the film buff that's only on the force to be like his favourite cinematic actioneers. As usual they make wonderful chemisty and yes you will believe Simon Pegg is a serious character in contrast to his incompetent slacker from Shaun.
Many jokes are made on the banality of real police work in the fantasy of rural britain. This is our first act. And then people start dying. It's BRUTAL. I'd never seen actual deaths shown on screen before. But people in the theatre were laughing...
it develops pretty nicely as a sort of semi-gothic mystery and then climaxes in an unforgettable shoot-out where the film becomes the movie that it is trying parody (but still funny). It's an expectation vs reality check that then transforms into the expectation. It's awesome.
it is NOT for the squeamish. Even if you could take Shaun this could easily be too much for some people
Despite having an officer for its hero, I'm glad I saw this and I know I will one day watch it again.