Hot Fuzz

I have been collecting several reviews for this film. So first here are two reviews by other people.

1. Hi, Wannabe,
Couldn't wait until tomorrow to tell you we went to see Hot Fuzz. What a great spoof! Have you gotten to see it yet? The British humor is so much fun. We're trying to decide whether your wife would like it or not because of the blood... but it's so... British!! Did you say it had been at one of the film festivals? An Indie win, or something? We think our friend who has been studying forensics and is now teaching a college class in it, would really laugh a lot. He and his wife (our attorney who loves to read and watch British mysteries) are talking about taking a group of college students to London next May on a "Legal/Criminal Justice" tour.

The man, however, after seeing the movie, is afraid that with our quirks, we might get caught in some small village and have a hard time getting away.

Thanks for the (crazy) recommendation!

The Rents

2. Hehe...now after that quick jotted review, here's one from one of our other contributors, Castle.

Hot Fuzz

"Book ‘em dann'o, we got our front page"

It seems that I’ve fallen in love with the triumphant return of the unlikely duo of crime fighters... and no I’m not talking about Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers but bonus points if you were thinking that. Hot Fuzz shows that between the collaboration of director and actors and editors, this team knows how to make a bang on parody film. Using the same type of structure as the Shaun of the Dead Writer/Director Edgar Wright and Writer/Actor Simon Pegg create a buddy cop film that draws upon TONS of movies including (but certainly not limited to) Bad Boys II, He Man and the Masters of the Universe, Chinatown, Lethal Weapon and (of course) Shaun of the Dead. I think I even caught a reference to the fight between Andre the Giant and Prince Wesley from The Princess Bride... The film follows super cop Nick Angel (played by Simon Pegg) as he is taken out of London and placed in small town Sandford where he has to deal with annoying coworkers and a supposedly tranquil community. To complete the pair there is the delightfully goofy Nick Frost who plays Pegg’s right hand man, Danny Butterman, the dundering, malaprop-laden officer who follows Angel around like an eager puppy. The fact that Frost and Pegg are good friends comes through again to create a delightful ease to their chemistry and allow their scenes to sparkle with the sheen of great British humor. The rest of the cast hold their own and create one of the most bizarre and hilarious, two-faced British communities that I’ve seen.

While the chemistry and comic timing might be impressive enough by themselves, I found that the true strength of the film shows through the success of the editing and unity in design. Every shot fired and car chased was done in such a sexy, fast paced way that just fits perfectly into the goal of the movie. Hell, even drinking cranberry juice seemed hardcore. The music and sounds of the movie are equally fitting: a bunch of obscure, quirky, funny and well thought-out songs that compliment each scene they inhabit. . The shots were in interesting and well-done angles and lighting was just as complimentary. There were only a few blood spurts that seemed a little cheaply done but I’ll forgive them for a few “boo boos.”

Now I was a little taken back at first because this movie didn’t have the pace that I expected (no thanks to the trailers). They toyed with the audience’s sense of pace to comic effect but I was able to truly enjoy the film once I realized that this was not supposed to be 2 hours of a badass fight sequence (which was well waiting for and did not feel pushed aside at all). The only caution I give to viewers is that if you’ve seen Shaun of the Dead and were only a so-so fan of the film, you might find yourself caught in the “this movie’s just the same thing” trap. They do use the device of cyclical scenes and dialogue that can come across as predictable at times. I adored these moments. My advice, look beyond the similarities between their films. This is not the time to try and judge similarities between films like you would for Shrek/Spiderman/Pirates 1-3. Now if only the movie had a longer run in theatres and I didn’t have to wait for the DVD to release to see it again…

Conclusion:
See this film. It has great actors, over-the-top british cop themed humor, smart dialogue, and some truly kickass action sequences that I have come to expect from this creative team. There is a definite appeal to the teen-young adult male audience but I think that a wide variety of people can enjoy it just as well. This will be another film to quote and share with friends, who enjoy things like humor, guns, beer, and swans. Hurrah to good collaboration and I can’t wait to see what these guys have up their sleeves for the next one!

4.6 out of 5

Castle


Okay, now that you have had a chance to read these two previous glowing reviews, I'm going to write a lukewarm one and be hated for comparing it to Shaun of the Dead.

The recent film Hot Fuzz by Edgar Wright is absolutely hilarious and you should see the film for the awesome fight scene at the end and for the great role played by previous Mr. Bond, Timothy Dalton. My God he's great! And while the film delivers on the promise set by Shaun of the Dead by having numerous fun movie references and lots of comedy...it also fails to achieve its greatness due to overfulfilling the promise of creating a homage to buddy cop films...and slasher films, and thrillers, and Godzilla, and etc. This movie has been hotly anticipated for some time now and while I approve the idea of creating a homage parody of buddy cop films, somewhere along the way this film loses its focus and begins to be an homage to any film the creating team loved at some point in time, creating a hodge podge movie that doesn't attempt to make itself work better for teh audience. For example, the film is a comedy, a british comedy at the end of the day with some aspects of buddy cop right? So what is going on with the over the top gruesome deaths? The spire at the church tower comes to mind. And what is up with the Godzilla reference and scream lookalike and the Shyamalan twist? Although the story ties together and the build up for the awesome fight sequence at the end is paid off in full with constant shots at Bad Boys and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . The problem is that the tonal mix of the various genres they try to emulate creates a very confused film that they don't try to fix. Also, they stick to closely to the story elements of the traditional Michael Bay flick. Sure the action is cool and the cinematography rocks, but the story and characterizations of everyone in the film is no better than a sketch and they seem to be tone deaf as they prefer mastering one-note. Plus, a lot of the characters don't fit too well. The police chief is eh and even Pegg annoyed me when he tried to do his "I-m a badass" voice and yes its quite noticeable. The other problem I had was that the film tends to "preview" its jokes. The Keanu Reeves moment is a great one as is the over use of only so-so running gags and return jokes. Now truth be told, the film is still funny and a blast to watch as you get to see all of the highjinks and try to find the movie references. I can only imagine that this film becomes instantly better when seen in bigger groups. Its sad because when compared to its previous soul film Shaun of the Dead, Shaun didn't have any 2-d characters. Everyone had a third dimension to them and the jokes were smart and fierce and it stayed true to parodying only one genre which focused the energy and creativity more and resulted in a more powerful and funnier film. All that said, this is still a great funny film and I highly recommend it to anyone, except my wife who can't stand blood.

4.1 out of 5

Wannabe