Uproarious Britcom valentine to Bruckheimer/Bay/Woo et al; frenetically funny

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2007)

HOT FUZZ (2007) *** Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Paddy Considine, Rafe Spall, Olivia Colman, Kevin Eldon, Karl Johnson, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward, Stuart Wilson, Billie Whitelaw, Eric Mason, Paul Freeman, Bill Bailey, Elizabeth Elvin, Trevor Nichols, Lorraine Hilton, Patricia Franklin, Anne Reid, Kenneth Cranham, Stephen Merchant., Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan, Bill Nighy,. Uproarious British spoof of Hollywood cop melodramas with the comic team of Pegg and Frost reunited as a straight-arrow-by-the-book top cop from London and his drunken new partner after the former has been re-assigned to the sleepy bedroom community of idyllic Sandford, where nothing is as it seems (at least as far as Pegg is concerned). A comic valentine send-up to the likes of Bruckheimer/Bay/Woo et al celebrating the over-the-top pyrotechniques and pulling out all the stops in the action packed grand finale. While the film is a tad hit-and-miss in its execution (and its grisly hilarious executions come to think of it) the boys are having a field day thanks to the lively, smart script by Pegg and director Edgar Wright. Fast, frenetic and funny and a big shout out for the outrageous editing by Chris Dickens. Look sharp for unbilled cameos by filmmaker Peter Jackson (as a homicidal Santa Claus!) and Cate Blanchett (also masked) as Pegg's ex.