Romping, laugh-a-minute ode to all the Stallones, Segals and Norris' of this world.

Rating: 7/10 (16 February 2007)

Attempting to parody the work of such uber-cheesy former actionites as Steven Segal and Chuck Norris is, on paper, such a redundant task, since most of those so-bad-they're-actually-quite-good action shoot-em-ups of the late 80s and early 90s were already teetering on the brink of self-ridicule. So how then, does Hott Fuzz, the new film from the makers of Shaun Of The Dead (2004), overcome a potential damp squib?
The story goes like this: Dedicated London cop Nicholas Angell (Pegg), with a near perfect arrest record, is transferred to a small countryside village, where the crime rate is so excruciatingly low, that our hapless hero is reduced to being assigned to arresting the human statue in the town centre for loitering. All appears well, that is, until a series of grisly deaths appear to pile up around town, all of which are strangely linked to business entrepreneur Simon Skinner (Dalton). Although Angell continuously suspects the worst, that the town is being stalked by a vicious murderer, the rest of the rather apathetic police force choose to view the incidents as merely coincidences, taking both a blind eye and a lackadaisical approach to police detective work. Shaun Of The Dead managed to work, not so much by parodying the works of such horror auteurs as George A. Romero, but rather paying high tribute to the man, and his creations. The patented Pegg & Wright style of humour was there simply as an added bonus to hoards of zombies who roamed the rather mundane looking streets of suburban London. Hot Fuzz takes that cue, and pots in the very same way. But my affections for this film greatly outweighed their previous project for three simple reasons. Firstly, having a bottle-smashing, trolley-romping, gun-blazing shootout in the middle of a Somerfield supermarket is funny just passively thinking about it. Secondly, Simon Pegg fly-kicking the hell out of a shotgun-touting OAP is about the funniest thing you are likely to see all year. But the main reason is much more broad: Hot Fuzz is in love with the Chuck Norris' of this world. The fact that it shows this much passion and unapologetic enthusiasm for the over-muscled, hyper-realised cheese-infested beefcakes of latter 20th century Hollywood, is what provides this film with the icing on the cake. At the same time  Pegg and Wright do not let the laughs let up for one second. This is very much a case of if you missed that last gag, don't worry there will another one along shortly.
Timothy Dalton plays the villainous antagonist with so much evil suavity you kind of wait for him to start cackling and stroking his beard, but seeing him in this just made me realised how long it had been before he did anything actually worth noticing. And there are various cameos from a pick-em selection of Britain's finest comedy acts, ranging from Bill Bailey and Steve Coogan, to serious thesps like Edward Woodward, Jim Broadbent and Paddy Considine.
The final 25 minutes of Hot Fuzz is kind of what Midsummer Murders might look like if John Woo had directed an episode of it. And the grand old daddy of action cinema would be proud. This is top quality British comedy, and in my opinion, even surpasses the laughter ratio on Shaun Of The Dead.