Hot Fuzz Review

The story follows London Cop Nicholas Angel (Pegg) who is so good at his job and such a stickler for procedure and detail that his superiors (nice cameos, which I will not spoil) shuttle him off to a quaint little town of Sandford so he will stop making the rest of the city coppers look bad. Upon arriving, Angel is partnered up with the son of the local police constable Danny Butterman. Nick Frost, doing what he does best, is both a slacker-extraordinaire and a cop flick fanboy. He takes on a puppy-dog obedience to Simon Pegg’s Supercop immediately. Butterman doesn’t let the fact that Angel insists on letter of the law procedure get in the way of his worship hoping against hope that one-liners and unnecessary roughness is right around the corner now that a real cop is in town. Angel’s impassiveness holds off the violent theatrics on display in the movies (brilliantly chosen Point Break and Bad Boys II are representative of the lot) in Butterman’s fully loaded DVD library, at least until he is initiated in one or two of Buttermans all-night viewing extravaganzas. It is amusing that Buttermans influence sticks on Angel as much as vice versa, making Fuzz a better romantic comedy that most Rom-coms out there.

Of course, it turns out that there is crime on display in Sandford after all in the form of ‘accidents’ which are completely written off by the local lackadaisical police inspectors played by Paddy Considine (hilariously against type if you’ve caught him in either Dead Mans Shoes or In America, but this guy has serious range) and Rafe Spall (standing in for one of the greatest of British character actors of recent years - his dad, Timothy). The first half of the film has a surprising amount of gore, a nod as much to Sam Raimi and exploitive horror pictures of the 1970s as to the re-invention of the Serial Killer film in the 1990s perhaps? When Angel attempts to ‘bust this case wide open’ there is resistance from all sides of the community, and the film moves from a Doyle/Christie mystery into a quite exemplary entry into the Buddy Cop genre on its own. Hot Fuzz includes perhaps the longest list of homages and references insides its runtime as any Quentin Tarantino film. The film glories in the contradiction of transplanting the clichés from Hong Kong and American testosterone loaded movies into quaint little old Sandford. Wright is getting a better sense of how to frame his films cinematically and fully shakes off his TV roots (Even if that framing was oh so charming in Spaced). Remember that long shot of Pegg walking to the corner store (done in duplicate) in Shaun of the Dead or the triple version of ‘coming to get you, Barbara,’ picking up Mum. There is more of that type of film making on display here albeit of a bit more subtle delivery.

As a North American consumer of films from all regions of the UK, Hot Fuzz takes advantage of two things that I love about movies coming out of the Isles. First is the rich collection of character actors in that industry. One of the key joys of watching the films of Ealing Studios in the 50s, Hammer Horror films in the 60s and 70s and Mike Leigh and the many acquisitions of Fox Searchlight (from The Full Monty, Waking Ned Devine, Calender Girls and Saving Grace) more recently (not to mention the UKs rich TV production) is the seemingly endless variety of unusual faces and personalities on display. The casting of Hot Fuzz reflects this variety to full effect in populating the small town of Sandford using a diverse cast of character actors (Jim Broadbent, Edward Woodward, Billie Whitelaw (a personal favorite), Stuart Wilson, and the incredibly versatile Paul Freeman to name a few). I am nearly sure that if Alec Guinness was alive today he would have had a role in Hot Fuzz; he may even have scammed the role that Timothy Dalton plays to the hilt, that of Sandfords resident slimeball.

Second is a device often used in horror films, but stretched into many more genres and even dramatic uses in UK cinema: The strange and unusual small town which is intimidating to the more urban visitor. Hot Fuzz overtly references Straw Dogs (Pekinpah's film is not actually British, but an American Transplant onto UK soil - sort of the reverse of Hot Fuzz - but nevertheless an interesting spiritual choice for the film) and has so many clever winks at The Wicker Man throughout its running time, that there is clearly more going on than just a simple mocking of celluloid American macho cops. The films British-ness is its key strength. This obviously went down well with the mainstream British audience. They have lavished box office dollars on Hot Fuzz faster than a typical entry into the Bond Franchise.

Clearly everyone involved is having a blast in this production and it shows in the performances. This is always a good thing in a movie, especially a comedy, but the real joy is in the tiny details scattered everywhere. There are dozens of tiny things for the multiplex cinemaphile such as playing with sound cues and visual imagery found in big American action pictures. Hot Fuzz, like Shaun of the Dead is clearly for those who know the type of film very, very well. While the film is quite predictable (and it is in many parts), it is actually to the films strength for a savvy audience and possibly a hindrance of the worst kind for middle America or otherwise unsophisticated audience who will not get it. Knowing a joke or scene is coming just adds to the antici........pation of its payoff. This may fail in the mystery elements of the film (which are second fiddle anyway) but they are strong in the comedy and action scenes. And Wright manages to invert or skew the scene just enough to freshen it up. Take for instance one shot where a car flies into the air for an extended slow motion jump and how the scene is completely recontextualized only seconds later. Or take those visual masturbations Michael Bay and Tony Scott revel in: The spastic editing and over-use of blue and yellow filters. Wright applies them to the most mundane elements of police procedure complete with guitar-lick soundtrack. These type sight gags drive this movie into the territory which requires multiple viewings which will make the DVD a coveted must-own for fans.

Not to be underestimated is the Simon Pegg - Nick Frost chemistry which is solid as ever. Frost gets the lion-share of poignant moments and manages to craft a surprisingly full character (maybe too full for the genre), while Pegg plays so far against type that he becomes the one of most high strung straight-men ever. Hot Fuzz is structured and paced very similar to their previous effort, which may have people crying foul (as in ‘not original enough’). The slacker elements of their work actually graft nicely with the pace of Sandford though and drive the character aspects of the first half of the film. They have been carrying this theme forward with increasingly better results from Spaced to Shaun to the point that they push it to the level of boyfriend/girlfriend relationship here. I’ve never seen the homo-eroticism implicit in American cop films (particularly those from the mid 1980s until now) so hilariously and affectionately poked. The pacing of Hot Fuzz does not suffer the mild fatigue of the final like Shaun due to the pay off being huge after a long build-up. A weakness is perhaps one ending too many. It is a minor gripe though, as like all good Buddy Cop films, they use this to set up the possibility of a franchise. The film is by no means a re-hash (it is a step up in their development) even if nostalgia and originality will keep Shaun of the Dead more of a favorite to many.

Hot Fuzz is comfort food of the highest caliber - both for fans of the Buddy Cop picture and British cinema in general. The ability to have many laughs at the expense of what you love while simultaneously reveling in it is a tight line to walk. Wright, Pegg and Frost do it very, very well.