What makes “Hot Fuzz” work so well lies in the same approach that made “Shaun of the Dead” entertaining. Only this time Wright and Pegg seem to go beyond what the zombie-flick spoof accomplished to deliver something more satirically sophisticated. This time, it’s the buddy-cop action movie genre that gets tweaked. London’s top police officer (Pegg) gets sent to the small country village of Sandford, winner of the “Best Village” award several years in a row, and reluctantly starts befriending the police chief’s son (Frost). Soon, he discovers that what seems to be an idyllic little place is, well, you’ll have to find out for yourself. In a story that blends everything from fish-out-of-the-water to the classic clash of opposite personality, “Hot Fuzz” skewers everything from storytelling conventions to the ludicrous implausibility of massive amounts of violence. Even the gore (yes, R-rated gore), which in a different context would seem gratuitous, is too outrageously parodied to be offensive.
But underlying the humor is a genuine mystery with genuine surprises that, in themselves, parody murder-mysteries yet don’t feel like gags for the sake of gags. (In other words, this isn’t one of those insta-spoofs-in-a-can like the “Scary Movie” franchise and its ilk.) The characters have a straight edge to them, making them something other than mere cartoons: characters we can care about. So we have a satirical style that treats its subject matter with some seriousness while lampooning how that subject matter is typically presented in genre films. Result: there’s actually a movie to love, with witty jabs that linger long after the movie ends. Frankly, I’m still chuckling…
Technical Quality: ** (out of two)Gold Star Awarded!
Hot Fuzz. Written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Directed by Edgar Wright. Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward, and Steve Coogan. 121 minutes. Rated R for language and violence.