Hot Fuzz

When you see a preview that starts out by saying from the guys who have watched every action movie ever made I was unsure what the movie would be like. However Hot fuzz is a great, funny comedy that pokes fun at action genre movies. The story of Hot Fuzz centers around Nicholas Angel. In a definite contradiction Angel is actually too good at being a cop there in London. As a result his superiors send him somewhere where his 400% higher arrest record than any other office on the force will not be so embarassing. So he is reassigned to the quaint and seemingly crime free village of Sandford.

Over the past few years I have become quite the fan of the British Comedy, and Hot Fuzz does not disappoint with its witty, intelligent dialogue that gives you non stop laughs. Nick Frost plays his part of the overeager new partnerof Danny to Simon Pegg's Officer Angel. With Hot Fuzz they take the American action movie and not only create a parody but they also take the small details of the action movie that the average moviegoer may not pick up on. The biggest point of driving this home is Danny's obsession with Keanu Reeve's scene in Point Break of firing his gun in the air in anger and believing that is the way that a cop in a big city may truly act. And the truth is how many of us know someone that talks about action movies the same way as Danny does throughout the movie, Frost hilariously plays this up to a "T" for all of us.

Pegg's performance is one of pure comedic genius. His character is so well developed as a man of invincible and strong confidence. Along with being a man with incredible drive, workaholic yet he still has the action hero stereotype. Frost plays the buddy role so well and the chemistry between the two is amazing. Frost ends up being the punchline to Pegg's straight line, but at the same time he is so funny in such a direct way that he has an adolescent aspect about him.

The film making comes directly from the school of Guy Ritchie. It is filled with jump cuts accompanied by loud and constant changing sound effects, and montages of grainy, bleached out, extravagantly lit shots that are edited together at lightning speed. The soundtrack is spot on with any other action film out there. This all works so well together as not only a dead on impression of the great action movies over the last twenty years but is also a hilarious opposition to the English countryside.

A word of caution I would give everyone about this movie is that it is violent. I think it can be said best when Reverend Shooter says will anyone stop this mindless violence (only to pull out two guns himself a couple moments later). This movie always seems to help me get through tough days because it makes me laugh. I am giving this movie three and a half buckets of popcorn out of five.

-The Movie Man-