Hot Fuzz
(dir. Edgar Wright)
Big Cops. Small Town. Moderate Violence.
Decent enough attempt to replicate the success of Shaun Of The Dead from the Spaced crew, turning their attention to the cop buddy genre. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost wisely stick to their established roles (uptight straightman who needs to chill out a bit/ slightly dimmer slacker), the script's pretty tight, and it plays out the uzis in Middle England joke to a fairly satisfying conclusion.
Maybe it's the weight of expectation, or the fact that it's pretty similar to shows like Suburban Shootout, but somehow it's a slightly disappointing experience. Despite being consistently funny, tightly shot and not too long, it's somehow more lightweight than SOTD. Even though the rom part of the romzomcom equation was buried in the background, it did give the whole story a little more momentum, and the stuff w Pegg and stepdad Bill Nighy was nicely judged. Here, they touch on another failed romance for Pegg's over-achieving "Policeman Officer", and then don't go back to it. Instead the emotional frame is him learning to get on w Frost's chilled out plod, via a large collection of Point Break/ Bad Boys II DVDs.
Another solid cast of Britcom actors includes Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Adam Buxton, Paddy Considine, Edward Woodward, Kevin Eldon, Olivia Colman, Alice Lowe etc as well as lots of "hey it's that guy" cameos - Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan etc.
More a DVD/Pizza flick than a bigscreen outing, really. Not bad, and it's good to see a modern British film that just sets out to entertain without being in period costume etc - just all a bit predictable somehow.
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18th Jan 2007 - Tumblr
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