“Hot Fuzz”
Director Edgar Wright
Rogue Pictures
(Out Of 5)
The practice of screenwriting is filled with as many metaphors as the stories screenwriters tell on the page. One metaphor is that a story is a buffalo and that all parts of it must be used throughout the screenplay, much like Native Americans used every part of a buffalo upon killing one in a hunt.
“Hot Fuzz,” the magnificent new buddy-cop movie homage from director Edgar Wright starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, is a stunning example of this metaphor in practice.
The film follows officer Nicholas Angel (Pegg), London’s best cop. Yet with an arrest record 400 percent better than anyone else, Angel is so good that he’s making everyone else look bad. As a result, his superiors exile him to the sleepy town of Sandford. There, Angel takes on cases such as finding a missing swan and interacts with various locals, played by the likes of Jim Broadbent, former James Bond Timothy Dalton and a plethora of others. Partnered with action-movie fan Danny Butterman (Frost), Angel soon realizes that something bizarre is afoot in the town, and perhaps the many accidental deaths that occur aren’t so accidental after all.
Like “Shaun of the Dead,” the trio’s previous film together, “Hot Fuzz” pays homage to its source material instead of spoofing it. Constantly referencing action films like “Bad Boys II” and “Point Break,” numerous moments in the film recall these with a wink.
For instance, during one action scene, Pegg dispatches a foe and tosses him in a freezer. Frost then asks Pegg if, when throwing him in the freezer, Pegg uttered a line like “chill out.” When Pegg replies that he didn’t, Frost shakes his head and says, “Shame.” If you’ve ever seen an action movie, “Hot Fuzz” will delight you to no end.
The film’s climactic sequence is just as over-the-top as a Michael Bay shoot-out, but is lent such enthusiasm by Pegg, Frost and Wright that it gives you a far greater bang for your buck than a typical action movie that would cost millions more.
Aside from its impeccable script and solid acting, “Hot Fuzz” is simply fun. It’s the sort of film you’ll find yourself wanting to see again the second it ends, if only because you were laughing so hard that you missed 80 percent of the one-liners. And truly, there is not a single one-liner that doesn’t somehow come back in a satisfying way, nor any missed opportunities waiting to be tied up. Every piece of the buffalo is used in “Hot Fuzz.” The film is a thrilling, hilarious joyride that’s never anything but a pleasure to watch. It’s flawless.