Hot Fuzz (2007)

I absolutely LOVED “Hot Fuzz”, it reminded me of the quaint ITV3 dramas that OAPs watch (such as “Heartbeat”, “Midsomer Murders” and “Inspector Morse”) but with insane action, comically over-the-top violence and curse words a-plenty thrown into the mix. The film is chock-full of fantastic British actors who all give hysterically funny performances, the script is surprisingly intelligent for a film that’s this hilarious and the action sequences are both bonkers and thrilling. “Hot Fuzz” is more than a silly buddy comedy, it’s one of the best parodies I’ve ever seen!

“Hot Fuzz” is the first film directed by Edgar Wright that I’ve seen and considering how much I enjoyed this one, I can’t wait to watch his other movies! Wright’s direction here is excellent, the film moves at a break-neck pace, meaning that there is never a dull or unentertaining moment. It explodes off the screen with an energetic personality that perfectly blends the setting of a relaxing evening drama with uproariously gory action set-pieces.

Calling the cast in “Hot Fuzz” star-studded is a massive understatement. Simon Pegg (who’s one of my favourite actors) is as phenomenal as ever in the role of determined police officer, Nicolas Angle, I’m sorry ANGEL. Nick Frost is equally likeable as Angel’s partner on the Sandford police service, Danny Butterman, who provides many of the movie’s best references and one-liners.

It’s staggering how many great actors are in the supporting cast in “Hot Fuzz”, I would like to praise them all individually, but if I did, this review would be 7,000 words long, so I’ll just list some of them. Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, Timothy Dalton, Olivia Colman, Steve Coogan, Paul Freeman, Stephen Merchant and David Bradley all appear in this film (wow, the casting director deserves a round of applause!) But that’s not all, Cate Blanchett and Peter Jackson even make cameo appearances here!

From deadpan deliveries to riotous mockeries of action movie tropes, “Hot Fuzz” excels in every area of comedy. Not a single joke fell flat and even if you find one gag annoying, the movie barrels along so quickly that you’ll probably being laughing at the next joke almost immediately. “Hot Fuzz” is probably the smartest comedy I’ve seen in a long time, almost every line of dialogue has an amusing and satisfying pay-off later on in the film (meaning that I’ll need to re-watch it quite a lot to pick up on all of the clever gags.)

Some action-comedies pride themselves on their comedic moments but lack noteworthy action sequences, thankfully “Hot Fuzz” isn’t one of those films. Despite some presumably intentional shaky-cam, the action in “Hot Fuzz” is a joy to behold, it’s stylised, captivating and very, very bloody! What makes the action here even more incredible is that most of the first two-thirds of this movie is very light on traditional action, but then the film goes completely bonkers in the third act and becomes a non-stop adrenaline ride in which the two leads are thrown into an all-out battle with the villains. I don’t want to spoil who the antagonists are, but let me just say, the hilarity increases exponentially when they appear on screen!

An aspect of “Hot Fuzz” that I very much appreciated was that this a British film that actually feels like it was made by people that understand the British sense of humour and culture. Many movies set in Britain (mostly soppy rom-coms like the haphazard “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and the ghastly “The Holiday”) depict every English character as either really posh or really charming, and the only locations seen are usually either London or a village that looks like it’s been torn off of a tacky postcard. However, the characters in “Hot Fuzz” act like real people that you could meet on the street (until the third act when any sense of realism is hurled out the window) and the town of Sandford feels like a living and breathing location.

In conclusion, “Hot Fuzz” is simply amazing! It’s an ingenious lampoon of blow-out action spectaculars and murder mysteries told in a side-splitting and immensely enjoyable way. I loved every single second of it and cannot wait to buy it on Blu Ray and watch it over and over and over again!

DISCLAIMER:The author of this review does not condone or endorse violent acts committed against senior citizens.