Issue 153

Hot Fuzz

26th February 2007

Expectation can be a tricky thing for filmmakers and audiences alike. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg have set themselves some difficult acts to follow with hit zombie flick Shaun of the Dead and cult TV series Spaced. Equally, fans of the duo's work have been building up to a fevered crescendo of anticipation since production of Hot Fuzz was announced in early 2006. Fortunately for you Front is on hand to put a slight dampener on that expectation.

Hot Fuzz sees Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), an over performing London cop, get "promoted" to rural Somerset to stop him showing up everyone else in the Met. On arrival in the West Country village of Sandford, Angel is frustrated to be teamed up with Danny (Nick Frost) the bumbling police chief's son, and sent out on lame duck missions to rescue swans. But when a series of grisly "accidents" rock the village Angel suspects something is sinister is afoot and investigates further...

This premise allows the team to follow Shaun of the Dead in once again taking a staple American genre, this time the buddy cop movie, and transposing it to a very English setting. It is also the perfect vehicle for the Pegg/Frost partnership, a central relationship that once again acts as the heart of the film, and provides the majority of the laughs. Pegg plays the polar opposite of his usual "everyman slacker" role, with Angel driven, focused and not particularly likeable; luckily Frost's Danny Butterman is on hand to provide the perfect foil. As the overeager, action film obsessive, Danny manages to annoy and amuse Angel in equal measure. Frost brings a relaxed acting style and a wonderful turn of phrase to the part, delivering lines such as "I'm not made of eyes" with complete sincerity.

There are also a plethora of cameo appearances from TV comedians (Bill Bailey, Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, Adam Buxton) and cinema legends (Jim Broadbent, Edward Woodward, Billie Whitelaw), most impressively Timothy Dalton as the devious, sinister and deliciously smarmy supermarket manager.

Unortunately the well worked set pieces and flashes of comedy genius don't quite add up to a great film. The team seem to have lost some of their freshness, with Wright's wham bam editing and direction in particular not having moved on since Spaced. Twenty minutes could easily have been shaved off the running time and the multi climax ending is a little too much. Ultimately the over complex plot gets in the way of it being consistently funny, and in trying to be a blockbuster-esq action film (at which it fails) Hot Fuzz loses sight of the comedy and drops the gag rate.

That said, watching an 80 year old shotgun-wielding granny get fly kicked square in the face may just be one of the most memorable moments of 2007.

Jack Yuille