A bit of a disappointment, unfortunately

Rating: 6/10 (21 July 2007)

After the hype around this movie, all the critical acclaim, the movie's position among IMDb's Top 250 (something one always should take with a grain of salt) and the fact that everything Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright had done since "Spaced" was brilliant, I expected a lot from this film. Unfortunately, "Hot Fuzz" couldn't really match my expectations. Wright and Pegg have become masters at writing comedy. From the beginning there are many funny lines of dialog as well as clever visual jokes. The problem is that from the get go all these jokes are also combined with over the top-editing and hectic sound effects. I am aware of the fact that this is supposed to be a parody of all the "classic" Bruckheimer action movies that are edited just like that, but it still was annoying and took away a lot from the comedy.
About halfway through the movie murders start to happen and Pegg's and Wright's soft spot for the horror genre shines through once again with some nifty splatter scenes. Of course, those scenes seem a bit out of place in a parody of buddy movies, but oh well, they were entertaining enough. The final act, however, is where this movie starts to fall apart. This is where even in "Shaun Of The Dead" things got a bit too serious. The problem in "Hot Fuzz" is that Pegg and Wright decide to just go along with a completely ridiculous explanation for the murders and have a big shoot-out. More annoying editing and sound effects are added and then, in true Peter Jackson-fashion, the movie ends about three times too often. Again, I am fully aware that the ridiculousness of the plot, the over the top finale and the multiple endings are all trademarks of the movies that are being parodied here, but one wished that the ending would have been executed a bit more thoughtfully, because it's not hilarious-silly, it's just silly.
There's an episode of "Spaced" where Tim and Daisy have a pretended shoot out with some street gang. This time Wright and Pegg could afford to shoot the same thing with real looking weapons and blood. The thing is, it was a lot funnier when it was only make believe.
"Hot Fuzz" isn't awful by any means. In fact it's a highly entertaining movie with a lot of original ideas and a great cast. I do hope, however, that Wright and Pegg structure the third act of their movies more carefully in the future and tame down the brute silliness in some places without losing their edge.