Sometimes hard to see what all the fuzz is about (Hot Fuzz (Special Edition, 2 DVDs))

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Hot Fuzz (Special Edition, 2 DVDs)
Date:	09/03/07 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pegg & Frost are as good as ever, some brilliant moments, lots of film references

Disadvantages: Wasted support cast, can be overly silly, annoying direction, not consistently funny

What’s it about?
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Top London cop Nick Angel is sent to a sleepy village by jealous colleagues. Once there, he discovers a trail of murders – can he convince his new friends of the truth?

Who’s in it?
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The cast is led by Simon Pegg as Nick Angel and Nick Frost as his bumbling sidekick PC Danny Butterman. Both are very good, displaying an excellent deft comic touch (but then, we already knew they had that!) and an endearing silliness. More surprisingly, they are reasonably convincing as action heroes too (particularly Pegg), whilst still remaining likeable characters in their own right. OK, so they’re not really doing anything new – Frost, in particular, is doing his usual “amiable, slightly dim, but ultimately nice guy routine”. But hey, it’s worked for them so far, and if it ain’t broke…

Less successful is the support cast ; not because it is full of poor actors – in fact quite the opposite. It’s packed with great names from the film and TV world and British comedy, including the likes of Bill Bailey, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward, Jim Broadbent and Paddy Considine. The trouble is, the film focuses so tightly on Pegg and Frost, that no-one else is really able to make any kind of impact – comic or otherwise. A couple make a good stab at it – Edward Woodward enjoys spoofing some of his former roles; Timothy Dalton is clearly having fun playing the slimy manager of the local Somerfield store, whilst the ever-reliable Considine is good value as lazy sarcastic DS Andy Wainwright. However, even these characters struggle to get much screen time, whilst the rest of the support cast just merge into one and become lost in the general mayhem.

Is it any good?
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I couldn’t help feeling slightly let down by Hot Fuzz, and we might as well get it over with straight away by saying it is nowhere near as good as Shaun of the Dead. In truth, I didn’t expect it to be - the guys had set the bar so high, that this was always going to the case. What I did expect was a funnier, sharper film.

Fuzz’s basic problem is that it is not consistently funny. There are some parts of it which are very funny indeed and the film will have you either laughing or smirking quite a lot throughout its running time. However, there are other parts where either the attempts at humour are a little lame or the plot gets in the way and it forgets to be funny. Worse still, (as is the way with many comedies) most of the best bits are in the trailer, so if you’ve seen that you’ve already had the real high spots.

The plot itself is a very silly one and not always in a good way. Again, comparisons with Shaun are inevitable. There, the plot was almost an irrelevance - simply something to hang jokes on (as well as giving the opportunities for affectionate spoofs of the whole zombie genre). Here, however, it’s more central to the film. Now normally, being one for coherent narrative and some kind of basic plot, I’d applaud this. Here, though, the plot and the humour somehow don’t quite marry together as they should. It’s difficult to know exactly why this is, but they do seem to end up being separate entities; each diverting attention from the other.

Equally, the strength of Shaun was that it was an affectionate tribute to the whole zombie genre, which happened to be funny – it was a new and entertaining twist. Hot Fuzz is more like a straightforward parody of 80s action/cop-buddy movies – the central joke being that it’s set in a sleepy British village, rather than New York. However (British element aside), there have been plenty of action spoofs over the years, so that element of "freshness” has gone.

There are plenty of film references to keep you occupied . Some – most obviously nods to Scream, The Wicker Man and The Omen – are easily spotted, others are a little more obscure. True, they’re not quite as seamlessly worked into the plot as they were in Shaun, but for a film geek like me, they’re still great fun to watch out for.

The film also has some surprisingly good special effects – particularly the death sequences, which are, at times, surprisingly gory. The death of one character is particularly good. It combines references to The Omen and Scream with a violent and gory death which wouldn’t have looked out of place in Final Destination AND manages to be amusing! You’ve got to warm to a film that can offer you that. The trouble is, there aren’t enough of such moments.

At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy (I’m not, honest!), Fuzz is also VERY loud. In fact, it’s one of the loudest films I’ve seen for a long time. At times, it even seems louder than some of the 80s action films it’s referencing. Particularly during the final sequences, it’s ear-splittingly loud, as guns and explosions go off all around. Interestingly a friend of mine (another film buff) went along to see this independently and made exactly the same comment, so it’s clearly not just me!

As well as being too loud, it also suffers from what I call the “Tony Scott syndrome” – overly flashy visuals and elaborate direction. Whilst there was some of this in Shaun (fast camera zooms etc.) it is far more intrusive in Fuzz. OK, this is partly because it’s copying/parodying the style of action films, but you also get the impression that it’s actually Director Edgar Wright’s preferred style. However, like the loud sound effects, it can spoil some parts of the film.

Finally, at 121 minutes, the film is simply too long for its somewhat flimsy premise. It could easily have lost 30 minutes from the running time and actually been a better film. Towards the end, it feels as though several scenes were inserted simply to pad out the running time and ensure value for money. Sometimes, less is more and had the film come in at about 90-100 minutes, it would have been a much better paced and more enjoyable experience.

Conclusion
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Hot Fuzz is a brave attempt to transplant the standard Hollywood cop/action thriller into a British setting. It’s partially successful and has some very funny parts, as well as some action sequences which are quite good fun (in a curiously British way!). However, you can’t help feeling that the team that brought us Spaced and Shaun of the Dead could have done so much better.

Basic Information
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Hot Fuzz
2007
Director: Edgar Wright
Running time: approx. 121 minutes
Certificate: 15

Trivia
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Pegg lost 2 stone before filming began to appear leaner and fitter and be more convincing as an action hero.

© Copyright SWSt 2007

Summary: A bit hit and miss, although more high points than lows