True Lies meets Monty Python

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2007)

Hot Fuzz is quite simply one of the funniest films to come out in years. After seeing it at the cinemas with a few friends we conclusively agreed that we have never laughed so hard in the space of two hours. Yes it's true, Hot Fuzz is absolutely great.
In HF we are introduced a hardened city cop (Simon Pegg) who is assigned to a sleepy country town because his exceptional performance is reflecting poorly on his peers. Upon his arrival it is apparent the town is not only steeped in stupidity but also a close-knit series of conventions shared only amongst the townsfolk. Pegg is an outsider who must try to find acceptance as well as decipher the meaning behind a series of suspicious accidents in the shire.
HF combines clever British-Comedy writing with a completely ridiculous physical violence. The later is very much in the tradition of Die Hard or Predator with extreme gun fights and brutal gore the name of the game. The former is in the vein of the British Comedy Faulty Towers. Some of the situations are predictable but Simon Pegg's displaced city cop is hilarious as he tries to contend with the idiocy on display within his new precinct. Moreover, every scene seems to have a restrained absurdity to it. Not obvious enough to make an audience openly reject the reality on screen, but subtle enough to keep you giggling the entire time. HF shines due to its tight writing and direction and lack of silly, bland sex jokes that seem to litter films these days.
The fighting on display is also hilarious. HF alludes to many classic cop films in its choreography and displaces them into a sleepy English town. The result encompasses obese traffic officers diving for cover and lovable English nanny's touting machine guns in their handbags. It's amazing how the film makes these scenes accessible. The stupidity of the situation is incredibly funny partly due to the deliberately slow pacing of the first two acts of the film. This in turn complements this extreme comedic violence.
Hot Fuzz is a genuine comedy classic. True Lies meets Monty Python is this film in a nutshell. I sincerely hope it attains the cult following it so thoroughly deserves.