In 2004 Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost took on the zombie genre and came out on top. Now, in 2007, they take on another beloved genre known the world over: The action/super cop film. This is my review of Hot Fuzz.
Hot Fuzz is an inspired gun-toting, blood squirting, F-word spewing love letter to the genre that has constantly inspired men to be even more manly. Paying homage to films like Die Hard and Point Break, Hot Fuzz takes some time out to acknowledge it's sources of inspiration while at the same time managing to have some serious ass-kicking fun of its own.
The plot here is that of super-cop Nicholas Angel (played by Simon Pegg) who, when his arrest rate reaches 400, is quickly reassigned to a seemingly idyllic country town named Sandford to prevent him from making all the other officers look bad. Once in his new home he is assigned a new partner in the guise of Danny Butterman (played by Nick Frost), a bumbling super-cop wannabe who dreams of firing off guns like they were high-powered fireworks and is a huge action movie fan. Soon Sandford becomes host to a string of grisly "actidents" that may or may not share a connection. It's up to Nick and Danny to solve the case before time runs out for Sandford to win a prestigious award.
Hot Fuzz starts off faily slow (but funny) and takes its time building up its leads and the setting of Sandford before the film takes off, right around when Danny and Nick host an action movie marathon. Hot Fuzz takes some unneeded time to pay homage to its predecessor that forever changed the face of the zombie genre as we know it today, Shaun of the Dead. The 2 main leads partake in the ice cream that Frost's character preferred in the previous flick and there are some lines and scenes that resemble some from Shaun as well. The effort only serves to distract the viewer from the story at hand, but not to fear, once Hot Fuzz finally comes into its own its a thing of beauty.
Hot Fuzz makes no attempt to mask the fact that it is a full-fledged erotic love letter to the action/super-cop genre (a thing most of Wrights films does beautifully), but this does not take away much from the film seeing that it has a superbly well constructed plot to it that has some nice twists and turns thrown in for good measure, the grand reveal sure to leave most's head spinning in the grandeur of it all. The last 30 or so minutes of the film is where Hot Fuzz cranks it up to 11 and becomes a hair-raising action packed thrill ride that is sure to leave any fanboys pants wet (with what, I'll leave it to you to decide).
It's refreshing to see a film that so deftly mixes comedy with real action and reverence for the films that came before it, and Hot Fuzz does this in abundance and in such a well-crafted way that my head is still trying to comprehend how they could have succeeded so wonderfully in this effort. Hot Fuzz is one of the few "perfect" films out there. Great plot, memorable characters, awesome lines, thrilling action, and a biting wit...Hot Fuzz has got just about everything a moviegoer could want making it hard to pick out anything you may truly dislike about the film. Hot Fuzz is one thrill ride that you'll want to revisit again and again and again.
5/5 BETTER THAN SEX
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment