Hot Fuzz:
The second of Edgar Wright's "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy", a reference to the Italian "Three Flavours" trilogy. (The first movie being Shaun of the Dead and the upcoming World's End.) Simon Pegg plays top cop Nick Angel, who is a metropolitan investigator, who is demoted to an investigator in a small, perfect village by the name of Sandford. He begins to become friends with Sgt. Butterman, the police inspector's son who is obsessed with buddy cop films. He begins to notice a string of strange, gruesome (and I do mean gruesome) murders thoughout the village, and begins to suspect several powerful figures throughout the town, and decides to investigate, possibly with fatal consequences. A hilarious spoof/mystery/action/horror/thriller film, this movie tops even Shaun of the Dead. The cast are top-notch. Instead of playing a slacker, Pegg plays an uptight and serious character who's girlfriend ignores him due to his over-serious committment to his job. He becomes looser throughout the film, becoming a fun, likeable guy by the end of the film. His bonding with Butterman helps him get looser. Frost plays Butterman like in Shaun, a slacking, drunken, funny guy. He is well-meaning, and hopes to become an action hero. Pegg and Frost have great chemistry, but instead of being best mates from the get-go, they have to work on it, as at first, Pegg considers Frost an idiotic jackass who just embarasses himself. Timothy Dalton (one of the best Bonds ever) plays Skinner, the grocery store mogul who is slimy, creepy, and suspicous, and is Pegg's first guess as the killer. Jim Broadbent plays the police inspector Butterman, Sgt. Butterman's loving father. He is a likeable, nice fellow, but has his odd quirks, like many members of the town. In fact, besides Pegg, every characters has odd and weird quirks, reminiscent of Edgar Wright's films, which often have strange settings and surreal characters. (Scott Pilgrim is a good example.) Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan, and Bill Nighy make cameos at the opening of the film as Pegg's awkward and hilarious superiors who demote him. Cate Blanchett makes an uncredited cameo as Janine, a British police officer. The writing by Pegg and Frost is hilarious. They make the plot smart and complex, but that doesn't get pushed aside, because, unlike Seth McFarlane (no offense intended), they tie all the jokes straight to the plot. The jokes have that British flavor to them that an American writing staff couldn't capture. Also, as Doug Walker of thatguywiththeglasses.com pointed at, there are so many jokes, you can't catch them all. The story, like Shaun, moves along quickly, due to the fact that Wright's direction and editing are impressively fast. The music is cool, with a fast-paced techno beat. The horror elements are truly creepy, but aren't so scary they overshadow the jokes. The chemistry works because the director and duo worked on the show Spaced even before Shaun. Hot Fuzz is a smart, complex, hilarious, gory, and thrilling action-slasher-comedy with great acting, jokes, writing, editing, music, and scares. Great movie anytime, and one of my favorite comedies. 5/5 stars.
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