…go see “Hot Fuzz,” the newest film from the creators of “Shawn of the Dead.”
An absolutely brilliant send-up of police action films, it tells the tale of Nick Angel (Simon Pegg of “Shawn”) who’s a hyperefficient London supercop reassigned to the British countryside because he’s making everyone else on the force look bad in comparison. In the sleepy town of Sanford where there hasn’t been a violent crime in twenty years, it’s figured that Angel will be nicely tucked away. But when the bodies start piling up in a series of increasingly unlikely “accidents,” Angel is drawn into an involved conspiracy in a town where (in classic tradition) nothing is as it seems.
Much better film than SM3, honestly. Rated “R” for some explicit gore and profanity (mostly by people witnessing the gore.)
PAD
• 
I enjoyed this movie very much, and I think even moreso than “Shaun of the Dead.”
I agree; I went to a press screening a while back and saw it again a few weeks ago with my wife and enjoyed it again. What Peter failed to mention is an astounding British cast; the first scene alone features cameos by Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Bill Nighy. But as with Shaun of the Dead, it’s the chemistry between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that really makes it work.
Didn’t I plug this weeks ago? 🙂
Definitely better than “Shaun”, absolutely my favourite film of the year so far. (The gore is totally OTT, my 15 year old daughter loved the movie and she’s not into gore at all…)
“Pure dead brilliant” as they say in Glasgae…
Think “Lethal Weapon” meets “The Wicker Man”
(No, the good, original “Wicker Man”)
“Yarp!”
absolutely brilliant – listen Peter y’all – this film will have you rolling!
scabby jugglers!
absolutely brilliant – listen Peter y’all – this film will have you rolling!
scabby jugglers!
absolutely brilliant – listen Peter y’all – this film will have you rolling!
scabby jugglers!
I just went to see Hot Fuzz for the second time, and it’s still fantastic. Way better then SM3, if only for the fact that there was space and not a million kids around.
I still think that Shaun of the Dead was better, but honestly, what isn’t it better than? Hot Fuzz, compared to anything else out there: brilliantly written and directed, go see immediately.
“…What? Decaffeinated?”
Easily my favorite movie of the year. Maybe the last two.
“Spaced” is one of my favourite TV shows ever, which is where I first came across this duo (a British friend of mine forced me to watch the series, and I haven’t stopped thanking him since!)
I can’t wait to see this movie, if it’s anything like their show, it’ll be nothing short of brilliant.
Much better film than SM3, honestly.
You are reading my mind, PAD. Not only is it kick ášš on its own, but it withstands multiple viewings.
I am so p****d off that this film isn’t doing better box office and getting more attention. It’s almost, but not quite, better then “Shawn of the Dead.”
And you have to understand something about the genius in what these guys have done and how it plays to such a wide audience. My wife is not, I’m completely embarrassed to say, a hardcore horror movie fanatic and she hates zombie films. She loves “Shaun of the Dead.” She even recommends it to friends.
She’s also not a huge fan of over the top cop action films. Her first response to seeing the trailers for this was, thanks to the strength of “Shawn,” to point blank state that we were seeing “Hot Fuzz” in theaters before I could get out the first whiny, pathetic, begging “please” from my mouth.
Pegg & Wright are comedic geniuses and should be getting far more success at the box office then the short shrift they’re being given now.
I absolutely loved this movie. My wife was in stitches. We’ve barely had time to see any movies at all this year but plan on seeing this one again soon.
And, yes, the gore was pretty graphic for a comedy. Yet it worked. I’m a horror junkie and it made even me wince.
I’d love to go see Hot Fuzz. However, showings for Spider-Man 3 have now taken over almost every showing of it, unless I want to see it late at night.
Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Jerry Chandler said:
“I am so p****d off that this film isn’t doing better box office and getting more attention.”
I wouldn’t worry about it–one of the great things about the era we live in is that word of mouth can spread over time, and the film will be available on DVD for a long while. Movies like this don’t make their money in one big opening weekend splash and then sink to the bottom (like, say, ‘Independence Day’…) They just keep gathering fans over the years and decades. This is the kind of movie kids will discover in college with reverent awe.
(Kinda like ‘Slither’, which was the best horror movie of 2006, and indeed the entire preceding decade.)
Fuzz was some funny Sh…
Frankly I loved both films, Spidey for what it is and Fuzz for it’s British sendup of American buddy cop movies. I must say the motivations of the big bad, has me rolling on the floor every time I think of the scene. I also think an argument can be made that the British made a better buddy cop movie than we have made in years.
Hot Fuzz was great. I went to see it when it opened; thank god for independent theatres.
I’ll have to check it out, since I’ve read and heard nothing but good things. First review I saw of it was here:
http://mightygodking.livejournal.com/316588.html
1I saw both films on the same day and I had to agree, “Hot Fuzz” was th ebetter of the two.
(Kinda like ‘Slither’, which was the best horror movie of 2006, and indeed the entire preceding decade.)
John, I don’t know about that, but it was certainly a breath of fresh air, wasn’t it? Nathan Fillion is quickly becoming my favorite actor. And Elizabeth Banks is a goddess.
Yup, HOT FUZZ was brilliant, a parody that actally enjoys the genre it’s parodying. For a shameless plug, I reviewed it at The Armchair Critic http://thearmchaircritic.blogspot.com/ (Incidentally, I wrote and posted my review after a fellow reviewer trashed the movie, so if you look you’ll see two *very* different reviews!)
And while it’s sad that a brilliant movie like HOT FUZZ will make so much less than a big blockbuster like SM3, I think HOT FUZZ will do very well for its budget — and mucb better for its budget-to-profit earnings.
Dear Lord, yes. I loved ‘Hot Fuzz’ and have so far bugged at least 5 other grateful people to see it.
Just for icing on the cake, we also got the trailer for ‘Balls of Fury’, with the ever-disturbing-yet-hilarious Christopher Walken running a “Mortal Kombat” like ping-pong tournament to the death. That is definitely going to be an “Opening night” thing.
You can add me to the chorus of Hot Fuzz fans. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s better that Shaun of the Dead but few things are. The genuine affection that Pegg and Frost have for each other really comes across and you can’t help but share it.
Edgar Wright tends to get lost in all the love for the Pegg/Frost/Wright team but he’s really a terrific director–watch his pan and zoom style get ripped off by everybody in the years to come. His trailer in Grindhouse was pure brilliance. He’s slated to do either ANTMAN or THEM next (and no, THEM isn’t a remake of the giant ant movie, though if they DO make ANTMAN there will probably be lots of giant ant props lying around so someone might as well go ahead and do it.)
I wanted to go see it but the dámņ thing is sold out every time I go. Some people say it’s better than Shaun but I find that hard to believe.
Hot Fuzz is everything the critics say it is. Only the very ending pulls it down with needless joke cramming. The gory parts were out of place too, especially considering the ending.
Simon Pegg is great but Nick Frost, once he’s given the right vehicle, could become the more popular of the two.
I agree, it’s much better than Spider-Man 3. It’s not perfect — it’s overly long and thematically muddled, and as satire it’s mostly pretty toothless — but it’s very funny and entertaining, and Simon Pegg is outstanding.
I felt this flick was a big letdown, to be honest. It’s nowhere near the standard of Shaun Of The Dead, in gags or in execution. I am a Brit so saw it a while ago, but thinking about it now I still get disappointed.
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
You can see what Wright and Pegg were trying to do – they are quite meticulous in laying the groundwork in the plot to allow them to get the guns out at the end; however as soon as that happens you realise what the film is really about: a chance for the boys to play with guns. That’s really it. The delicate Agatha Christie-style plotting they were trying to pull off gets thrown away for a string of stupid gags (old women with handguns in their bicycle baskets? A vicar with two pistols up his sleeves?) that are really nonsensical and also, in the end, pussied out on – practically everyone gets shot in the shoulder or in some other non-lethal place.
The plot itself also twists itself in daft directions to try and maintain suspense – what was with Nick Frost being present as a “badguy” in the graveyard for the big villain reveal (a TOALLY Christie moment) and then talking about how he thought it was all a game afterward? EH?? This bit was bûllšhìŧ and done for the sake of a cheap shock moment that might have made a good twist if they hadn’t, again, wimped out and reversed it (in completely illogical fashion) in the next scene.
The film also pulls a Lord Of The Rings and ends about three times. All in all I was very disappointed with it.
Still, I liked the bit where he kicked the old woman.
One of the things that makes this movie so good is that very little is wasted. Throwaway comments suddenly take on new meaning as the movie progresses. There are a number of recurring gags that get expanded on in surprising ways. Characters (or what’s left of them) reappear to expand on how twisted the big bad really is. It’s just brilliant, really.
Loved this movie, if you’re a fan of these boys, there’s a new New Zealand film about killer sheep coming out that looks pretty dámņ funny, called “Black Sheep”. If you get the chance, check out the trailer – if only for WETA’s effects shot of the stampede.
Loved it as well – but I’ve been a sucker for Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost since Spaced. I’m very curious to see how Run, Fatboy, Run turns out…
Adam, I agree; just saw the trailer for Run, Fatboy, Run and it definitely made me want to see it.
I agree with the previous poster who mentioned the LOTR multiple endings. Personally, I think the film could have been 5-10 minutes shorter and been even better. The whole drive back to London sequence could have been deleted and maybe re-edited so that Pegg immediately went back to the police station.
But this is just a minor complaint. This is one of those films that definitely rewards repeat viewing- keep an eye out when Frost’s character looks through the video dump bin in Somerfields and you see a quick shot of a Shaun DVD in there. And I’m told that the crazed Father Christmas briefly glimpsed at the beginning is actually Peter Jackson, but it went by so quickly I didn’t notice. My favorite though, is the hedgehog seen in one of the deserted rooms at the police station early on; after the big blow near the end, Wright’s camera pans across the debris to reveal… the hedgehog is still alive!
I predict that Pegg and Wright will have their first major maintream hit within the next two or three years. Not that I haven’t enjoyed their first two films immensely of course.
I liked Slither (mentioned above), but found it almost a unpronounced remake of Night of the Creeps from the 1980’s…
And I’m told that the crazed Father Christmas briefly glimpsed at the beginning is actually Peter Jackson, but it went by so quickly I didn’t notice.
Yep, that was Peter Jackson.
And the ex-girlfriend at the crime scene at the beginning of the movie is Cate Blanchett.
Cameos are fun, more so when you get to guess where they’re at. 🙂
I also don’t see the problem with how the film ends, with the ‘endings’. Everybody seems to be assuming that the typical formula of “climax, then the movie ends” must apply to every single movie, when it’s simply not the case.
Yes, it’s brilliant.
Shaun, though was great on more levels, such as showing that we Starbucks-swilling salarymen are already zombies, and that it took a while to notice something’s wrong
What makes this better than the typical US send-up movie (aka Scary Movie) is that it’s done with love. Any film which can extol the virtues of Point Break (really, a fun film but hardly the exemplar of the genre) without making it all stoopid is what makes it so worthwhile.
However, after a while you get the ‘spot the reference’ game going, and you start to lose the plotting.
And the fact that nobody gets killed, that its all shoulder flesh wounds? Well (a) that’s UK ratings boards for you, much more restrictive on violence, and (b) that itself is funny — it’s on the level of Saturday cartoon levels of violence, where in the original Dungeons and Dragons ‘toon, weapons were only used to hit the ground to make bad guys fall over.
Really, though, I can’t want for “Don’t” to come out.
glad to hear it’s selling out in places. It was about 1/5 full at our theater (as an aside, frm now on I’m only going on opening nights or as close to it as possible. The full sold out Spidey 3 crowd was better behaved and more quiet than the far less full Hot Fuzz group. Apparently the prospect of being beaten about the head and shoulders by an entire theater’s worth of patrons encourages civility).
“Really, though, I can’t want for “Don’t” to come out.”
That was the best part of Grindhouse, by far.
(Spoiler alert:)
And the fact that nobody gets killed, that its all shoulder flesh wounds? Well (a) that’s UK ratings boards for you, much more restrictive on violence, and (b) that itself is funny — it’s on the level of Saturday cartoon levels of violence, where in the original Dungeons and Dragons ‘toon, weapons were only used to hit the ground to make bad guys fall over.
It’s also more realistic in some ways than the typical action movie, where minor bad guys fall over instantly dead after being lightly grazed–gunshot wounds aren’t that simple. The fact that the bad guys were shot to incapacitate rather than kill showed that Angel was staying in character (even after appearing to go off the deep end) by attempting to bring them in for proper justice rather than becoming judge, jury and executioner himself. I found it a refreshing change of pace from the usual approach, myself.
The fact that there was an entire third-act shootout, in which only three or four (out of at least a dozen) people were actually shot was the highlight of creativity for me. I felt that Shaun of the Dead was the better of the two, but that may be because I have more of an affinity for zombie movies than dumb action movies (“dumb” is not editorializing, just a description of the drama).
In Hot Fuzz the parody was a lot stronger than the satire, whereas Shaun felt the other way around.
To add to your enjoyment, Simon Pegg said that he modeled his performance almost exclusively on the T-1000, from Terminator 2, right down to the way he runs. I didn’t catch on the first time, but having watched it again…hilarious.
At the end of the first paragraph in the previous post, drama=genre. Don’t know how I confused the two.
Saw it opening weekend and enjoyed it immensely. Favorite moments, which are spoiler-free for those who haven’t seen it yet:
“Why are you dressed as a police officer?”
“Because I am one…?”
The first completely-logical Angel-explains-it-all scene. Those who’ve seen the film will know why.
The phrase “policeman officer.”
“Aaaaaaooooowwwwww….‘Is ‘eeee’y ‘urrrrr’s…“
I also give Pegg and Wright a lot of credit for making two consecutive fall-over-laughing comedies which include scenes that will bring tears to your eyes, and not from laughter.
Hot fuzz contains the single greatest kick-in-the-face scene I’ve ever seen.
Love it.
Hot fuzz contains the single greatest kick-in-the-face scene I’ve ever seen.
Love it.
Hot fuzz contains the single greatest kick-in-the-face scene I’ve ever seen.
Love it.
I’ve got to agree. Hot Fuzz was one of the funniest movies of this decade so far. I’ve never seen Point Break, but I still laughed my ášš off, even at the end, when I could see what was coming. Great flick. I want to go see it again.
One addendum. A guy above mentioned the trailer for Balls of Fury with Christopher Walken. You know Walken’ll be awesome and hilarious in it, but the rest of the movie looks stupid.
What I saw a trailer for that I can’t wait to see and laugh my a$$ off at is Superbad with George Michael from Arrested Development. Forget Pirates or Spidey or any other blockbuster, I’ll take movies with AD stars any day of the week. Hëll, I’m going to go see The Ex this weekend because Jason Bateman is in it.
I thought HOT FUZZ was brilliant, both in terms of skewering the cliches of the action movie and the “ideal” sleepy little English countryside town.
And for a cool SPOILER, this early exchange when Angel is being reassigned takes on a more sinister significance later in the movie:
Nicholas Angel: With respect, sir, you can’t just make people disappear.
Chief Inspector: Yes I can, I’m the Chief Inspector.
Way cool!
1My nephew just told me that Spider-Man 3 is the best one yet. Oh, well. I love him, but he has no taste in movies:-)
Paul, the one that got me was ‘Narp!’ And Steve Merchant trying to describe a runaway swan- and quickly running out of swan-like adjectives.
Moon Man said:
“I liked Slither (mentioned above), but found it almost a unpronounced remake of Night of the Creeps from the 1980’s…”
I’ve heard this before, but I think it’s really not that similar apart from the fact that both use “slugs burrow into people’s brains” as a motif. I think it’s really more that Gunn did a conscious style pastiche of 80s horror in general, and everyone tends to see the similarities to ‘Creeps’ more than to any other movie because of the immediacy of the slugs in the brain.
Sorry, I know I should be talking more about ‘Hot Fuzz’, but what is there to say? It was just brilliant. I could point to “He is not Judge Judy and executioner,” an absolutely brilliant line with absolutely perfect delivery; I could point to Martin Freeman’s appearance at the beginning (he was Ford Prefect in the BBC TV adaptation of ‘Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’)…but really, I’d just be pointing out the obvious.
I could point to Martin Freeman’s appearance at the beginning (he was Ford Prefect in the BBC TV adaptation of ‘Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’)
Martin Freeman played Arthur Dent in the recent HHGttG movie.
He was a little young for the tv adaptation. 🙂