Hot Fuzz

(2007)
Director: Edgar Wright

Starring: Those two guys from Shaun of the Dead, and, notably James Bond from Licence to Kill.

Cale:
Omigod! Funniest movie of the year! And that’s saying a lot with Knocked Up, Superbad and two male figure skaters out this year. Okay, I haven’t seen Superbad or Blades of Glory yet, but I’m sure Hot Fuzz is funnier. Well…40 year old Virgin was pretty hilarious, and those ARE the same guys who did Knocked Up (and THAT was freakin hilarious!), AND Superbad, so Superbad might be a close contender after all. Anyway!…Hot Fuzz! Rule of thumb for this one is; if you liked Shaun of the Dead, you’ll love Hot Fuzz. These guys have a way of doing genre parodies that are even funnier because of how WELL they are made! It’s like two normal guys, that even George Bush could empathize with (Kay, maybe not Bush), are thrust into a formulaic plotline, and a bug budget to boot. So what makes this better than other BuddyCop/Comedy/Thriller/Action movies? Everything! State of the art filming, editing, music, special effects, AND…The two funniest friends who will probably never stop finding ways to be buddies in a movie together! Like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, without the music careers, alcohol, and gay sex (WAS Jerry Lewis gay?). It’s not something I can explain, these guys are incredibly funny! The star Simon Pegg, also co-wrote with the Director (as on Shaun), so I think these guys are going to continue to make some of the funniest (and strangely touching) movies in the years to come. Thank God! SOMEBODY needs to cut through the monotony of disappointment, walking out of the theatre thinking, “What was that?! Hey, I got leftover popcorn!!!” You know?

Emily:

I just about stopped breathing at one point. Yes. I was laughing that hard.

I’m a big fan of this strange breed of humor that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright have hit on the head.

The quick paced opening features Simon Pegg, super efficient cop, showing off various tough cop skills. His dedication to the force put him in a bad situation, his CSI girlfriend leaves him, and his excellence on the job makes everyone else look bad. So, he is shipped off to small town England to join the locals in their humdrum existence.

This film is a wonderful romp, English humor steeped in All-American action movie madness.

The special effects don’t suffer, there are some real ‘shockers’ here. Great explosions, lovely stabbings… ever seen a church steeple decapitate the star reporter of a small country newspaper? (I guess decapitate isn’t the right word… perhaps squishify… yes.) There’s also something satisfying about seeing the local parish priest whip automatic handguns out of his robes. Warms the cockles of my little heart.

And then there’s the ever timeless action movie cliché: the good cop resolves to go loco on evil’s ass. At that moment in time, your leading man’s voice MUST go down in pitch by at least a fifth. If not, well…. it’s just not a real action movie then, is it?