Hot Fuzz - Edgar Wright

Hot Fuzz is the type of movie that offers up something for just about anyone, though unlike many such films it excels at multitasking. Easily classified as a comedy, an action movie, a mystery and a satire, it is an exceptionally well-rendered film and an instant classic.

The film centers on supercop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a London police officer who is so proficient that he puts the rest of the department to shame. As a result (and despite his vehement protests), his superiors reward him by transferring him to Sandford, a small village with a seemingly non-existent crime rate. For Angel, one so dedicated, that he follows the law to the letter even when it comes to minor things like jaywalking, such a transfer is a major blow to his morale, leaving him with a sinking sense of purpose.

The moment he sets foot in Sanford, Angel attempts to clean up what little crime he sees, amounting mostly to underage drinking and public drunkenness. Unfortunately, he quickly discovers that Sanford’s Police Inspector, Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent), subscribes to a more easy going enforcement style which calls for letting a lot of things slide. He also discovers that one of the men he arrested for public drunkenness is a police officer himself and Inspector Butterman’s son, Danny (Nick Frost). Danny, who is obsessed with Hollywood action movies, develops a sort of hero worship towards Angel, who finds him annoying at best and incompetent at worst.

Not long after Angel’s arrival, a series of bizarre deaths claim the lives of several Sanford residents. Though the circumstances of the deaths are incredibly suspicious, Inspector Butterman insists on writing them off as mere “accidents” – even after Angel spots the killer, clad in a disguise, in the act and gives chase, only to lose him or her. He is convinced that the culprit is Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton), the shady manager of the village’s supermarket, but when Skinner is able to provide an airtight alibi for the time of the murder, everyone becomes convinced that Angel has tricked himself into believing that there is a killer on the loose simply because he misses the action and excitement of being a big city police officer. Determined to prove that he’s not crazy, Angel ends up uncovering a secret he never could have anticipated and that is much darker than he ever suspected.

Written by Pegg and Edgar Wright, Hot Fuzz is the second entry in the “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy” which kicked off with Shaun of the Dead. It is a sharply written piece of work that cleverly plays on Hollywood action movie conventions and directly parodies certain scenes from other films. The film Point Break, in particular, is revered by Danny, especially a scene in which Keanu Reeves dramatically fires his gun multiple times into the air to express his frustration at finding himself unable to bring Patrick Swayze to justice. Although you know as a viewer that that scene will eventually be recreated here simply because it’s mentioned so many times, it nevertheless manages to be delightful when it finally happens. Hot Fuzz echoes a number of well-known films but it manages the impressive feat of seeming fresh while doing so.

Even though Hot Fuzz is an incredibly well-written film and very well-acted, it is not without a weakness. At 121 minutes, it is overlong for a comedy and the third act sort of lumbers along and offers up several potential endings which then give way to yet another scene. It’s only a slight debit to what is otherwise a great comedy (one of the best of the last decade, I’d wager), but it is a very pronounced flaw.

Watch a trailer of the movie here: