Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward
Rating: R
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Hot Fuzz. (Courtesy photo)
If you’re not yet familiar with the names Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright, chances are it’s only a matter of time. Pegg and Frost might be the best comedy duo going right now. Wright is the director behind the beloved, whacko British television series Spaced and 2004’s gruesome slice of heaven, Shaun of the Dead. For those who are really keeping track, Wright also directed the best of the Grindhouse trailers, Don’t. Now they crash into theaters with Hot Fuzz, their take on American cop movies. In actuality, it’s more of a crazy murder mystery with a couple of major nods toward action clichés. Regardless of how you’d describe it, Hot Fuzz is great fun. Anglophiles will marvel at the outstanding supporting cast, while staid moviegoers will be shocked at how much they laugh at the mix of obscene violence and good-natured humor. A couple of things set the work of Wright, Pegg, and Frost apart from most others. One is that they make real movies. Shaun and Hot Fuzz are both solidly executed films under any kind of scrutiny. Another is their commitment to the material. These guys play it straight, which allows for real emotion, real stakes, and therefore even more effective comedy.
Pegg, who co-writes these projects with Wright, plays police Sergeant Nicholas Angel. Angel is by far the best, most dedicated officer in London. He’s so good, in fact, that he drives away his girlfriend (try to guess what major star is under that forensics mask) and makes the rest of the force look bad. They transfer him to a model village, one which has been named “Best Village in England” for many years running. It has the lowest crime rate in the country, in spite of an absolutely inept police force headed by Inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent). When Angel applies his by-the-book approach to the friendly little town, he quickly alienates himself from the other members of the force—especially the two detectives named Andy (Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall). The only one who warms to the impossibly cold Angel is PC Danny Butterman (Frost), the inspector’s sweet, incompetent son. Danny dreams of being a cop like those in American action movies, like Point Break and Bad Boys 2. When the quiet town is suddenly struck by a series of gruesome “accidents,” Angel suspects murder. Yet no matter how hard he tries to prove it to the rest of the town, he’s met with baffled indifference. It doesn’t help that nearly everyone seems like a viable suspect—whether it’s Dr. Hatcher (Stuart Wilson, who played such a good villain in Mask of Zorro), Reverend Shooter (Paul Freeman, who played one the great villains, Belloq, in Raiders of the Lost Ark) or Simon Skinner (a beefy, imposing, and not at all Bond-like Timothy Dalton).
At 121 minutes, Hot Fuzz runs a little too long to maintain its desired rhythm. The accruing murders are fun, but get a bit repetitive before a joyous final shootout that isn’t quite as inventive as it wants to be. But any disappointment is easily offset by the director’s energy and the formidable charm of the cast. Wright may be working in the parody vein, broadly speaking, but he is far too creative to settle for standard approaches. He is constantly trying out new technique, usually involving transitions, and usually at something near warp speed.
Simon Pegg is as focused onscreen as Wright is behind the camera—the definition of a comedian who takes his craft seriously. In fact, one of the few letdowns of Hot Fuzz is how straight Pegg plays it. Pegg gets into the coolness of the character he’s supposed to be lampooning, and it plays like a vanity piece at times. But then he sits down in front of his superior officer, who is played by Martin Freeman (the British Office, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). In a police force like that, maybe he is the toughest one. Nick Frost became one of the top comic stars in England simply by being Pegg’s very funny best friend. But it would be unfair to suggest Frost is not a terrific presence. He is, for my money, the best screen slob going. The key is Frost’s unconquerable sweetness. The rest of the cast is too good to be true. The standouts include Considine, usually stuck playing intense, humorless men like those in Dead Man’s Shoes, Stoned, and Cinderella Man. Considine gets to make fun of himself as the inanely wisecracking police detective. David Threlfall (Master and Commander) is delightful as a terrible—and doomed—Shakespearean actor. And it’s a thrill to watch Timothy Dalton as the crinkly eyed Skinner. Dalton has always been miscast as a leading man—look no further than his two uncomfortable turns as James Bond. But he is memorable, and often quite funny in good character parts (see his villain in The Rocketeer). Nearly everyone else in the cast has a list of British television credits a mile long.
Hot Fuzz is a huge hit in England, and doing quite well on a lesser scale in the United States. There certainly is no denying that it has a British sensibility, but since when do American audiences not enjoy British humor? As the most bombastic of all summers charges toward us (Spiderman 3 opens the floodgates this weekend), Hot Fuzz may diminish in the shadows of its much more expensive cousins. Or maybe, when another summer of action clichés works its way through Live Free or Die Hard, Rush Hour 3, et al., we can pick up Hot Fuzz on DVD and see just how much more innovative, thoughtful, and downright entertaining it was.
