Rogue Pictures
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
Directed By: Edgar Wright
Rated: R (Violence, Language)

87%

As I said a couple of years back, Shaun of the Dead was an extremely funny movie. So, naturally, I was really anxious to see the next film by the same crew.

Hot Fuzz is the story of London police sergeant Nick Angel (Pegg). Angel is a good cop. In fact, he's over-the-top good. Early in the film, we get to see lots of clips of him in action, and he's always coming out on top and getting commendations. His arrest record is 400% higher than any other officer on the force. He eats, sleeps, and breathes police work. It's his entire life and he takes it very seriously. Eventually, it gets to the point where Angel is so good that his superiors are afraid he'll make the rest of the London police force look bad. With that in mind, they transfer him to a small village in the country called Sanford to get him out of the way. Angel arrives to find a place that is apparently crime free, and a police force that's laid back (at best). Nick is partnered with Danny Butterman (Frost), the police chief's son, who is fascinated by Nick's experiences in the big city. After a few weeks of investigating the non-crimes of Sandford, however, Nick finds that everything is not what it seems, and that murder is even more common in this little village than it was in London.

This film is basically a (more) comic take on buddy cop films like the Lethal Weapon series. The humor here is a little more slapstick and very British--very much in the same vein as Shaun of the Dead (but without zombies). It is amusing throughout--perhaps not as funny as Shaun, but certainly with more than its share of laughs. Probably the biggest problem with the film is it's about 100 minutes of story stretched out over two and a half hours of film. A little creative editing would have helped. Not that the film ever becomes boring. Even the slower stretches have their share of chuckles.

Richard Roeper's review of Hot Fuzz said that it had "more laughs per scene than any film of its kind since the Naked Gun." That's high praise, and I don't think I'd go that far (what with the Zucker brothers' films being the cornerstone for my entire sense of humor). But that said, Hot Fuzz is very funny and it is well worth a look.

Bottom line: Not as funny as Shaun of the Dead, but definitely worth watching.

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