Hot Fuzz Advance Screening at Vue Cinema, Inverness

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2007)

On the back of their success with Shaun of the Dead, the creative team of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright have struck comic gold again with Hot Fuzz. Their inspired pairing, since the mid 90s, has created an inspired comic look at British Policemen, sorry Officers, and made the Met cool again. Hot Fuzz references Shaun in both dialogue and the short-cut editing style, feeling like a welcome return for its audience.
They simultaneously pay homage to and make fun of cop films, particularly buddy movies like Point Break and Bad Boys 2, pairing Simon's Sgt. Nicholas Angel with Nick Frost's PC Danny Butterman. As their characters become partners and, eventually, buddies they reflect at first the audience's own outsider feelings towards the rural community in which they find themselves, then a genuine friendship which allows both to find their place; that's after they've shot-up and destroyed everything first, of course.
It is very, very funny, both on initial viewing and in the memory on the car drive home, that goes way beyond the jokes from the trailers. Its' cracking script and well told story is a joy to behold, as are the wonderfully created characters who are sometimes self-aware enough to know how silly it all is.
If you see no other films this year, see this one. Now.