Ryan ChartrandIf you want some tips on how to do your homework, go talk to the makers of “Hot Fuzz.” According to the trailer, the makers of this police comedy watched every single cop movie ever made. It shows.
Written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, best known for zombie comedy “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz” is meant to satirize every cop movie ever made. But Pegg, who plays Sergeant Nick Angel, London’s top cop, keeps it funny and not cheesy and semi-lame like most cop movies that try for serious-ness. (“The Departed” doesn’t really count.)
“Hot Fuzz,” like other cop movies, gets a little more creative license to get to the stereotypical all-out shootout finale, it’s up to the writers and stars to pull it off. For Angel it involves being transferred to Sanford, England’s “Village of the Year,” because he’s making the numbers look bad for rest of the London Metropolitan Police. Oops.
Although Sanford seems crime-free, numerous fatal “accidents” occur soon after Angel arrives. (Of course, the hooded murderer in a black is in plain sight most of the time, but no one sees him to keep the plot going.) Angel’s super-cop senses tingle, but he is pressured into thinking the deaths are semi-normal and sent into nervous complacency over and over again throughout the movie.
But since all movies must come to an end, Angel sees one of the “accidents” happen. Soon afterward, the killer attacks Angel, Angel bests the killer, exposes the conspiracy while almost getting himself killed and then returns for that big, gory shootout that settles everything and allows village life to return to normal. Hope that didn’t spoil the ending for you.
What makes “Hot Fuzz” great is that while it’s a stereotypical cop movie, it isn’t so much so that the viewer thinks to him/herself, “hmm, I’ve seen this before.” Except that one scene that they blatantly rip off on purpose from “Bad Boys.”
The thing about zombie movies is that after awhile they get predictable and “Shaun of the Dead” follows the formula religiously. The last non-zombie people are holed up somewhere fighting off the undead, eventually a zombie breaks in and is either: a) killed by someone with an axe, b) killed by someone with an axe and/or c) someone the characters recognized who is then killed with an axe because they’re a zombie.
Another nice thing about “Hot Fuzz” is that the gore is limited to the accidental deaths (ok those are pretty gory) and the shootout. Either way, the focus wasn’t on the gore, but the conspiracy, which is predictable but still fun to see. Pegg and Wright really got creative with the details and the continuing in-jokes of the movie like the renegade swan missing from a local manor.
You could wait in line to see “Spider-Man 3” and feel disappointed that you have to wait for number four or you could definitely get tickets for “Hot Fuzz” and laugh hard all night long. Its your choice.