Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz

Directed: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost

The best cop in London has such a great arrest record that he is moved to a small, crime-free town so he won’t embarrass all the city cops.

Even though I loved Shaun of the Dead, I was wary of this movie. I enjoy a good action movie as much as the next person, but I wasn’t sure if a parody of buddy-cop action movies was going to be all that funny. The trailers for this movie do not do it justice. They also do not give away some of my favorite parts of the movie, which is good.

I found this movie as funny as Shaun of the Dead. Some of my favorite parts were little throwaway jokes. There were quite a few of them. One near the beginning involving Nicholas Angel, the best cop in London, going to find his ex-girlfriend who is working a crime scene, but mistakes someone else for her had me laughing when the joke happened. Then as the scene continued, I would just start laughing all over again thinking about it. I just found it really funny.

When Angel gets to his small town, he is partnered with the chief inspector’s son, Danny, who adores Angel and his cop skills. He thinks that everything in the big city (London) is like all the action films ever made, which he seems to own all of them. Whenever Angel does something even remotely like in an action film, Danny wants him to say a cool line like the hero would.

The small town has a lot of opportunities to poke fun at small-town life compared to big city life. In the police station, there is one guy whose accent is so thick that Angel can’t understand him. Good thing everyone else in the station does. I know I couldn’t understand him. That leads to another hilarious scene involving his crazy thick accent and another local who was shooting at his neighbor’s hedges. I also enjoyed the ongoing jokes of the yarp-saying Lurch-type guy and the escaping swan.

The success of the first one, led to a lot of bigger named British actors to play various roles in this movie. They are all well and good, but it is the comedy that kept me so entertained. Everything is played straight, including the action, even though it is poking fun at all the American-made action films. It is all done in good fun and with a lot of love.

I recommend this movie since it has been a while since I laughed out loud in the theater and had to keep covering my mouth so I wouldn’t disturb others. There weren’t many there during the matinee showing at the beer theater and I didn’t want to wake up the guy across the aisle that had enjoyed his beer to the point of napping and snoring during most of the movie.

Rating: A

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