Hot Fuzz

Rogue Pictures

Dir: Edgar Wright

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton

The American poster. The UK one used British slang.

The phrase “British action movie” is an oxymoron to most Americans. The American impression of U.K. cinema is usually limited to period romances and BBC productions of Shakespeare. Despite my rabid fervour (haha pun) for painstakingly accurate renditions of Jane Austen novels, it’s a crying shame those of us on the western side of the pond are unaware that some Brit-flicks make our gangster films look tame (and stupid) in comparison. Some night, when you’re bored, rent a mindless American action flick, say, Belly, then rent Michael Caine’s original, 1970 Get Carter. Compare DMX and Nas’s generic, idiot-brand performances to Michael Caine’s snarling, Old Testament fury, and you may decide that great action movies aren’t limited to only one combination of red, white and blue.

In Hot Fuzz, the new movie from the creative team behind Shaun of the Dead, director Edgar Wright wants to prove just that. Hot Fuzz centers around Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a tough-guy London police officer whose success leads to a transfer to Sandford, the safest village in England. Sandford is a picturesque, perfect village seemingly plagued by violent accidents. The truth, of course, is far messier, far more interesting, and requires the suitable application of firearms.  

I know it's a comedy, but Simon Pegg still looks completely legit.

Shaun of the Dead, the previous film by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, was parody and homage, but was also a legitimate film in its own right. The characters were sympathetic and the quirky romance genuinely interesting. Furthermore, Shaun did creative (and arguably brilliant) things with the zombie genre, like the final scene that shows the mundane aftermath of “Z-Day.” Shaun was pitch perfect, start to finish. It parodied the rhythm, camera work, and tepid characterizations of many undead flicks. Hot Fuzz, on the other hand, is parody and homage—and not much more. While Fuzz lacks the jene se quois that made Shaun of the Dead accessible, it keeps the same problems that plagued that earlier film.

Like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz can’t decide whether it’s comic or serious. The nature of Hot Fuzz’s violence distracts viewers.   A pair of disturbing severed heads, an unnecessary image of a charred corpse, and a church steeple that smashes into a man’s head and erases the upper half of his torso alter the otherwise humorous tone (for me at least, but if you like gore, here’s a winner). Likewise, Shaun included a disturbing scene where Shaun had to kill his mother, and a dismemberment that would make Tom Savini blush.

This is what happens every time Manchester United loses a match.

It’s not that a movie can’t marry the comic and the serious. Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop both married the two seamlessly, but it’s not an easy marriage. Despite Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s genius for parody and steeple-tip wit, they’re unable to string the opposing elements together successfully. They’re at their best when they focus solely on humor.

The humour (I’m a caution) in Hot Fuzz is as British as warm lager and horse-toothed royals. It’s supremely witty, heavily situational, and depends on one man’s frustration with the patent absurdities his fellow men fail to notice (remember Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch?). Despite the abundance of wit, though, Hot Fuzz isn’t necessarily funny.

Now, for those of you out there saying “HEY GEOFF WTF THOSE WORDS MEAN THE SAME THING,” allow me to elaborate. To my mind, the word funny implies belly laughs, but not necessarily intelligence. Wit implies intelligence, but not necessarily belly laughs. Blades of Glory and Anchorman were (in my opinion) funny, but not witty. A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman are witty, but (in my opinion) not that funny. If I haven’t lost you by now, rest assured that I laughed frequently during Hot Fuzz, but never that hard.

Nick Frost asks if a man's head can explode when shot.

The performances are excellent, and Timothy Dalton almost makes me forget he was in Looney Tunes Back in Action. Simon Pegg is wonderfully convincing as the hard-case Nicholas Angel, and at times, there are hints of a Michael Caine-like sneer on his lips. Nick Frost (Shaun’s loser roommate from Shaun of the Dead) is hilarious as Nicholas’ naive partner Frank. This movie gives Frost a chance to show some versatility: in Shaun, he was a dirty, boozing slacker, in Hot Fuzz, he’s a wide-eyed adolescent in a (chubby) twentysomething’s body. Jim Broadbent is, of course, amazing—but if you need to be told that, you probably think Sealab 2021 is funny (my sincerest apologies).

Is Hot Fuzz worth your money? That all depends. If you’re into brit humor, if you enjoy gore, or if you’re willing to blow ten bucks on a pretty entertaining film, sure thing. If, like me, you’re picky, wait for the second run theaters and save seven dollars.