Hits the mark much more than it misses

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2007)

Despite how much I loved Shaun of the Dead, I had my reservations about seeing the follow-up collaboration, Hot Fuzz. Perhaps it was due to my pure indifference toward high-octane, shoot-em-up action flicks, or perhaps it was just because I couldn't believe that anything could match the brilliance of Shaun. The trailer seemed to confirmed my fears, as it was considerably less funny than I would have hoped for, but once the glowing reviews started rolling in, I was a bit relieved. All of them seemed to say the same thing: it was not as good as Shaun. So, with mild trepidation, I went out and saw Hot Fuzz to judge for myself.
And the result is: I agree. It is not as good as Shaun of the Dead, though that may be for a couple of reasons: I was expecting it not to be, Shaun took me a few viewings to fully appreciate its brilliance, or perhaps its just my lack of outright love for action flicks. Whatever the case, I still found it to pale in comparison to the brilliant zom-rom-com (or is it rom-zom-com?). Do not take this as a sign that the film is bad; quite to the contrary, it's one of the funniest films I've seen. It just was missing something. All of the ingredients were there: same director, same writers, same leading duo, same style of humour. So what went wrong? I suspect that it tripped over its plot. The story of Shaun was simple: it merely re-told the tale of every other zombie movie from the past 40 years; a relatively easy plot to follow. It just added its own spice to it. The problem with Hot Fuzz is that it gets too caught up in trying to tell its story that it forgets to make the audience laugh. As the mystery is solved about 2/3 of the way through  complete with a scene that made me remember The Da Vinci Code, whether intentional or not  the tone sharply turns from light to dark. The characters have been developed so well that it seems like almost a cheat to the audience to treat them this way. Thankfully, all is not as it seems, and the film soon redeems itself with a fantastic ending. But that section in the middle was enough for me to downgrade the grade, if it was only a brief hiccough.
The rest of the movie is absolutely terrific, though. Apart from a slightly awkward opening scene, the laughs are fast and furious, obvious and sly, dirty and dirtier. The cast of characters are so insanely colourful and yet somehow real; they're funny without being stupid. From the dirty-mouthed female cop to the asshole pair of detectives to the dastardly evil supermarket owner, every character has their moment in the sun and shines. The evolution of the relationship between the two leads feels real and yet somehow still manages to mock the typical buddy cop dynamic of most action flicks; like Shaun it mocks the genre in a loving way, paying homage to its roots while still laughing at them. The nods to other films aren't as apparent as in Shaun  perhaps that's due to my own relative inexperience with the action genre, though  but a few notable ones  Point Break  are not only obvious but embraced. The stunning death scenes are available in all their gory detail; in fact, I was so blown away by the death scenes that I will devote an entire paragraph to them.
The first death scene starts off normal enough: a killer cuts off the heads of his victims. But what happens next  the staging of the scene  is what blew me away. Two decapitated heads lie in the middle of a road; the town welcome sign stands crooked a few feet away, bloodied on the bottom and hopelessly mashed; a topless convertible sits perched over an embankment beyond it, showing the signs of an obvious accident, two headless corpses sitting in the front seats. In a comedy, it was stunning to see such a viciously gory and horrific accident scene  but it made me laugh. The second death is a mere house explosion, but the third death has to be the single most gruesome effect I've ever seen. A man has his head literally replaced by a giant cornerstone. To see it is to believe it. It must be witnessed.
All in all, Hot Fuzz is another worthy addition to the comedy subgenre of loving spoofs that includes Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and, of course, Shaun of the Dead. It doesn't quite measure up to those two, mostly due to the problems with the plot. Though the mystery was interesting, the payoff left something to be desired. Apart from that, the film is a hilarious take-off on the action genre, at once both acknowledging and ridiculing the influence of shoot-em-up flicks, and certainly should not be missed. And definitely should be seen twice.