Stars: Anne Reid, Steve Coogan, Nick Frost, Billie Whitelaw, Stuart Wilson, Timothy Dalton, David Bradley, Bill Bailey, Kevin Eldon, Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman, Edward Woodward, Paddy Considine, Paul Freeman, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Coleman

Director: Edgar Wright

Summary:

Pop culture sponges Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost team up again for HOT FUZZ, their follow-up to the hit movie SHAUN OF THE DEAD. HOT FUZZ follows a near-identical formula to its predecessor, simply replacing the various homages to horror movies by heaping on the adulation for action flicks such as POINT BREAK and BAD BOYS II--both of which are referenced throughout. The plot finds outstanding London-based police officer Nicholas Angel (Pegg) transferred to a rural village. On arrival, Angel teams up with the oaf-like PC Danny Butterman (Frost) and together they investigate a series of mysterious murders, all of which are classed as ‘accidents’ by the increasingly strange townsfolk. Director Wright combines gory set-pieces with traditional action-movie staples: moustachioed detectives in sunglasses, corny one-liners, rapid machine-gun fire, and blood-spattered fight scenes all feature heavily. References to other movies come thick and fast throughout, and HOT FUZZ will have film fans' memories working overtime as they try to catch all the allusions to Pegg, Wright, and Frost's favourite films. A veritable Who's Who of British comedy provides support, with Martin Freeman (THE OFFICE), Bill Bailey (BLACK BOOKS), Steve Coogan (I'M ALAN PARTRIDGE), and Olivia Colman (PEEP SHOW) in small roles. In addition, Timothy Dalton plays the movie’s bad guy with aplomb. HOT FUZZ eases up on the humour of SHAUN OF THE DEAD and often threatens to topple over into Chuck Norris territory, but Wright manages to insert enough gags to keep the balance just about perfect, providing a fitting, amusing, and occasionally touching homage to cinema’s action heroes.

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A major British hit, a lorryload of laughs and some sparkling action? We’ll have some of that. It’s fair to say that Hot Fuzz proves that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s brilliant Shaun Of The Dead was no one-off, serving up a superbly crafted British homage to the Hollywood action movie.

Deliberately set in the midst of a sleepy, quaint English village of Sandford, Pegg’s Nicholas Angel is sent there because, bluntly, he’s too good at his job, and he’s making his city colleagues look bad. The proverbial fish out of water, Angel soon discovers that not everything in Sandford is quite as it seems, and joins forces with Nick Frost’s lumbering Danny Butterman to find out what’s what.

Hot Fuzz then proceeds to have a rollicking good time in both tipping its hat to the genre films that are clearly its loving inspiration, and coming up with a few tricks of its own. It does comedy better than action, with plenty of genuine laugh-out-loud moments, but it’s no slouch either when the tempo needs raising. One of the many strong cards it plays is its terrific cast, which includes former 007 Timothy Dalton, Bill Nighy, Bill Bailey, Paddy Considine, Edward Woodward and Jim Broadbent.

Hot Fuzz, ultimately, just falls short of Shaun Of The Dead, but more than does enough to warrant many, many repeat viewings. It’s terrific fun, and in the true hit action movie style, all-but-demands some form of sequel. That said, with Pegg and Wright now with two excellent, and suitably different, genres ticked off, it’ll be interesting to see what they do next. A period drama, perhaps…? --Simon Brew

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	2007
Release Date:	December 17, 2007
Runtime:	116 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	8254178
Keywords:	Action, English, Comedy, Hot, Fuzz, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure