Review: Hot Fuzz (2007)

There’s a small change of pace this week in the Librarian’s Tome section. Instead of a book review, I’ve wandered into the film section of the library (not completely of my own free will, as I still prefer books, but spouses can be persuasive) and present to you Librarian’s Tome: Film Edition.

Title: Hot Fuzz
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright
Release date: 20 April 2007 (Canada), 14 March 2007 (US)
Genre: Comedy/Action
Rating: 5/5, go watch it now if it’s playing at your local theatre

Simon Pegg is well-known for his part in for 2004’s zombie movie parody Shaun of the Dead (in which he both co-wrote and starred). In Hot Fuzz, he’s acting with Shaun of the Dead co-star and comedian Nick Frost, who plays a police officer, Danny Butterman, in the peaceful village of Sandford. Pegg’s character, Nicholas Angel, also a police officer and one of London’s finest, is basically shipped out of his home city due to his hard work and excellent record; he’s made the rest of the London team look bad. He’s in great contrast to Butterman, who is more like a child that wants to be the sort of risk-taking police officer that he sees in the movies, but isn’t quite up to par.

Although the village of Sandford has an unbelievable record of low crime and no recorded murders in twenty years, Angel is suspicious. Things aren’t as clean as they seem, and he grows even more paranoid as he sees more and more crime scenes being labeled as accidents, and a lack of interest on the part of his fellow police officers in digging deeper into weird incidents. The village itself is a typical small town; everyone knows everyone else, there are charity events that can easily attract the entire population, and police officers are expected to be slack in their duties. The whole police crew sees their jobs as a joke, and if there were a few trolls, dwarves and zombies thrown in, it would feel just like Prachett’s Discworld (they are, after all, making fun of the same people).

Since Angel is a work-a-holic, people start to doubt him when he finds too much wrong. They think he’s looking for things to be wrong, or trying too hard and not turning himself “off”. Since Butterman is the opposite, wanting to just do fun car chases and waste time getting food at the store, the movie has the typical pair-opposites-together-and-have-them grow plotline. It works well for Hot Fuzz, though, since Pegg and Frost would make a great team no matter who they were playing.

About 3/4 of the way through the movie, the genre takes a quick right turn from comedy as the over-the-top action scene of Butterman’s dreams begins to play out. Every time it seems to be at an end, there’s another twist, at one point taking Angel and one of the villains to a small playground that is a recreation of the village itself. They fight like Godzilla and Mothra, tearing apart the village and tripping over miniature versions of vehicles, ending in a gruesome fall onto the mini church’s spire.

Recommended to anyone who loves British comedies, or even if you don’t, maybe you do and just don’t know it yet. Also recommended to those who like action movies, and/or Shaun of the Dead.