"I may not be a man of God, Reverend, but I know right, and I know wrong, and I have the good grace to know which is which."
Today I review the second movie made by the knock out team of Edgar Wright (director\writer), Simon Pegg (writer\actor), Nick Frost (actor), and Nira Park (producer): Hot Fuzz.
Hot Fuzz is a brilliant film—just look at the trailer. Hot Fuzz follows the character of police officer Nicholas Angel. Angel is play of those action flicks that have the ‘ultimate character’ the quintessential ‘infallible character’. This character is a staple in the old westerns but also seen in action films, the perfect soldier, the greatest sheriff, etc. These characters excel in every area of their field. Angel is the perfect cop. However, the movie’s plot is centered on the theme of what if you throw a character like this into a more real-life world. The answer is no one wants to deal with him. Essentially, he is go great he is like Batman if he patrolled the city with the lowest crime rate. Angel is making all the other cobs look bad so the chief inspector (played by Bill Nighy who played Shaun’s stepdad) has him promoted to Sergeant of a small-town with a record for having the lowest crime rate in all of England.
It looks like Angel is going to be pretty bored and the film plays with the old theme of “country-mouse-city-mouse”—having a character totally out of his\her element. However, strange accidents start occurring and the film enters the territory of mystery\thriller. The film over all is an Action-crime drama-mystery-suspense-gore film, which is fecking amazing.
Angel eventually seems to figure out what is going on and fits all the pieces together to form a very diabolical plan that boils down to money which is the typical goal of most antagonists in actions and crime dramas. However, it turns out that the truth is far more sinister and psychotic pulling the film deeper into the thriller and ‘actionsploitation’ genre (the few scenes of heavy gore help with this also.
Hot Fuzz brings in elements from all sorts of action films. There are guns, guts, explosions, chases, and even a scene that is a parody of a ‘giant-monster battle’—I’m not joking. Also, let’s not forget that Hot Fuzz also adds in that age-old joke of action films of taking the supposed peaceful character and turning him\her into a violent person, like the derringer-totting priest (this is also seen in Machete).
The film also draws on elements from Shaun of the Dead and shows us the emerging style of Wright and Pegg. Like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz uses the clever blend of foreshadowing, puns, and irony as the vehicle for most of the humor. Hot Fuzz even references back to the ‘short-cut’ scene from S.o.t.D. In addition, if you notice, the same arcade machine is in the village tavern that was in the Winchester.
Though the film is playing on the action-crime genre, it also tries to go for an element of realism, which just adds to the laughs. There is a fast-paced-adrenaline fueled montage about paper work! Paper work! Hot Fuzz relies more on these montage scenes that Shaun of the Dead did as it pertains more to the style of action than horror.
Hot Fuzz also has a kick-arse soundtrack! It is flipping fantastic and each song works cleverly with what is going on in the film. It is mostly a rock-based soundtrack but has a few exceptions. Also, the movie has its own theme song! This was seen with detective movies of the 70’s and 80’s and with monster movies of the 60’s, most notably The Blob.
There is also a great use of images for metaphors. When Angel loads up with all the guns and has the shotguns sticking out of his backpack, they look a bit like wings, which plays on the character name, Angel.
The cinematography is also quiet effective.
The relationship between Danny (Nick Frost) and Angel has some sexual\romantic subtext that like with Shaun and Ed and even with Tim and Mike, seems like a joke. Pegg, talks about this in his book, Nerd Do Well. With Shaun and Ed, it is more of a joke and both Shaun and Ed are to be considered straight. However, in regards to Angel and Danny, it is more hinting at sexual tension and less like a joke. If any time Pegg and Frost’s characters had potential for a relationship between each other, it is in Hot Fuzz.
Another character from Spaced has a role in this film, Bilbo (Bill Bailey), Tim’s boss at the comic shop, is one of the cops at the front desk in the small town. It is also worth mentioning that both him and Timothy Dalton (Mr. Skinner), most known for his brief carnation as James Bond, have appeared in Doctor Who, like almost everyone who works with Pegg.
And if you want to talk about six degrees of separation, Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy were both in Shaun of the Dead together and are also both in Hot Fuzz as Angels superiors inn London. What is funny about this is between Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, both Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy both starred in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Even more amusing is that the whale in THG2TG is voiced by none other than Bill Bailey, who we know was in both Spaced and Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg! Furthermore, all of them have appeared in Doctor Who except for Martin Freeman.
Hot Fuzz is another flawless production by Simon Pegg and co. Again, I have to give it 5 out of 5 stars. These guys really know what they are doing.
Also check out the disc art on the DVD, it is done exactly like the art of the Point Break DVD seen in the film or at least my copy looks that way.
This is last film made with Wright, Pegg, Frost, and Park all working together. They did make a fake movie trailer for when Grindhouse came out for a movie called “Don’t” which is a play on the whole ‘don’t’ horror-movie-sub-genre. I would love it if this film got made. Everyone keep their fingers crossed and write in or tweet to Pegg and\or Wright requesting it get made. You can see the trailer here:
No comments:
Post a Comment