Lame

Rating: 5/10 (7 October 2007)

I'm a fan of British comedy, and quite honestly i'm not really a gourmet when it comes to comedy in the first place. I don't have a problem with laughing at both high and low. So i expected this movie to offer some serious laughs. Especially considering the hype. But i was disappointed.
We see this kind of comedy now and again. It's an attempt to mix old-fashioned small-town gag comedy with something cool and new. And it rarely works. The result is almost always too slow-paced, teeth-less and lacking any serious bite. Hot Fuzz has a few funny moments, but in general it's found wanting. The beginning is rather funny and i did see the potential in the whole set-up. But it's very poorly executed. Much of the movie just drags on with jokes few and far-between. The film-makers try to create a sense of action by some quick editing, which makes the movie seem even slower. Then, in the end, when we finally have our showdown... Well, it's a big anticlimax. Somehow it seems that they never really wanted to go all the way. Instead of going 100% in the end and make it the crazy shootout it needed to be, we instead have a mellow fight that never reaches more than 60%. This movie is not so bad that a huge blowout in the end couldn't have saved it, but that never happens.
In the end this movie warrants a few smiles and the occasional laugh. But it's far from great. Great actors are thrown away on small parts and Simon Pegg honestly isn't that funny. I don't know why they decided to make the whole affair so lame, there is certainly enough gore to make this movie appropriate for adults only... So why tone down the violence and the more no-holds-barred comedy? No, this won't do.