Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. Y’know, people have accused us of beating the HOT FUZZ drum too loudly. I don’t buy it. For one thing, this is a film that’s on 825 screens this weekend, and there are approximately 48477699736 other movies opening today, all of which Capone also reviewed for us. But I personally love this film. I want to see it do well so we see more films from these guys sooner rather than later. That’s the benefit of having a bully pulpit... I can shout loudly when I’m trying to get your attention, and in this case, I think it’s worthwhile. We really haven’t run a ton of coverage, though. There was Capone’s interview with Nick, Simon, and Edgar. There was Massawyrm’s glowing review. There was Quint’s set report/interview. And, to clarify for the talkbacker who asked me where the hell my review was this morning, I wrote about the film after my trip to England earlier this year. All of this, of course, is preamble for you guys getting to see the film yourselves. Please... use this talkback to weigh in this weekend and tell us what you thought. I’ve got a very casual, relaxed interview I did with Edgar Wright earlier this week that I’ll be transcribing all weekend. For now, though, check out what Capone thought of it, and then get out there and find a theater playing it so you can tell us what you thought!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. One of the great joys of my life recently was spending a ridiculous amount of time with the HOT FUZZ guys over the course of a couple days here in the Windy City. It's also been fun watching them pop up on various talk shows, infecting America to their own unique brand of humor and love of all this hot and fuzzy. I don't pay particular attention to box office receipts these days, but I would love to see HOT FUZZ make fistfuls of cash, if only to allow these talented filmmakers the freedom to make whatever the hell they want to in the years to come. Whereas with their first feature film collaboration, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, there was really only one director's work being paid tribute to (the zombie films of George Romero), the latest work by director/co-writer Edgar Wright, star/co-writer Simon Pegg, and co-star Nick Frost is an homage to all cop action films of the United States and Asia, dating back to Clint Eastwood's DIRTY HARRY series to more recent fare like BAD BOYS 2 and POINT BREAK (both of which are specifically cited). HOT FUZZ is not mocking or parodying these archetypes of mindless violence and over-spilling testosterone, but adding itself to their numbers and having more laughs than you can count in the process. HOT FUZZ has a more complete plot than its predecessor, and while the jokes come at a furious pace, they aren't the main point of the film. There's a solid murder mystery afoot here as well. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, the finest cop in London, whose arrest record puts all other cops to shame, and that's part of the reason the top cop brass (fun cameos by Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Bill Nighy) find themselves compelled to transfer Angel outside the city to the remote, crime-free village of Sandford in the British countryside. To make matters worse, Angel's long-time girlfriend (a crime-scene investigator whose face is always masked, but I'll give you extra points if you can identify the actress playing her) breaks up with him, giving him no real reason to fight the decision. Before he even officially starts his job, Angel spends an evening arresting several of the townspeople for petty offenses, including one Frank Butterman (Frost), who is not only a police officer himself, but also the son of the local chief (played with easy-going charm by Jim Broadbent). Also among the laid-back group of country police are two detectives played by Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall, as well as a handful of top British comic actors as beat patrol officers. As Angel gets more familiar with his surroundings, one thing becomes alarmingly clear: although the city has never had a murder within its borders, it has had a shockingly high "accident" rate, many of them quite nasty. The film HOT FUZZ most reminded me of was the original WICKER MAN, in that Angel is the outsider trying to enforce his big city laws in a town that feels it has been handling its business without his help for many years now, thank you very much. In between investigating a series of gory accidents, Angel also gets to know his partner a bit better as the pair set off to see if Nicholas can find a way to turn off his police mannerisms long enough to enjoy a pint or seven, and kick back to watch a few mindless cop action movies (such as the previously mentioned titles). The influence of these films clearly has an impact on Angel, which leads him to solve the killings and bring to justice those responsible. But who in the town is the culprit? My favorite suspect is a local grocery store owner played by former James Bond Timothy Dalton, who eats the scenery like it's made of popcorn. When Nicholas and Frank finally get armed and start kicking ass, HOT FUZZ goes from simply being funny as hell to being the finest cop action film the UK has ever produced (not that there's been a whole lot of competition, and no, Bond movies don't count). I have to give credit to Pegg, Frost and Wright for creating actual characters this time around. As much as I adored SHAUN OF THE DEAD, Pegg and Frost were essentially playing version of themselves (as well as the characters they played on their TV show "Spaced"). But here, these are very different characters. Pegg plays Angel without a joke to his name, which doesn't mean he's not funny. And while Frank is still a lovable fat bastard, he's not a full-bore slacker as Frost has played before. And don't for a second think that the filmmakers have ignored the action genre's proclivity to have a veiled (and sometimes not so veiled) homoerotic undercurrent to the relationship between the male leads. There are at least two moments in the film where I though the two men were going to start making out...not that there's anything wrong with that. HOT FUZZ is two hours of absolute joy, laughs, gun play and explosions that will have you giggling like a school girl all the way home. And while I would rarely say this under any other circumstances, tackling this genre almost demands that the filmmakers search for an idea for a sequel. Could it really be a proper cop action movie without at least one more in the series? Capone
