Accident suggests there is no one to blame.... (Hot Fuzz (Special Edition, 2 DVDs))

Member Name: omarl

Product:	Hot Fuzz (Special Edition, 2 DVDs)
Date:	04/11/09 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny and thrilling

Disadvantages: Some of the action scenes feel a bit forced

Hot Fuzz is a 2007 action/comedy, written by Simon Pegg (who also stars) and Edgar Wright (who directs).

Sgt Nicolas Angel (Pegg) is an officious police officer with the Metropolitan Police Service who, thanks to his dedication to the job, has record numbers of arrests. Rather than being pleased with this, his superiors feel that Angel's good work is making the rest of them look bad and see that his transferred to the crime free Sandford, Gloucestershire. With a new partner in the shape of his Inspector's well meaning but incompetent son Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), Nicolas struggles to adjust to an action free life. But when Nicolas becomes suspicious about some accidents that have occurred in the village his life becomes a whole lot more exciting again.....

Having successfully produced a great horror comedy with their first feature length effort in Shaun Of The Dead, the writing/directing/acting team of Pegg and Wright have here set their sights on the Hollywood actioner, with direct reference to Point Blank and Bad Boys 2. They play with the genre by introducing the quaintness of English village life into proceeding with funny results - witness a car chase which comes to an abrupt end! Although with Shaun the funny and the scare worked seemlessly together, here it does feel at times like the action is crowbarred in so isn't always satisfactory.

This is very much a buddy film, in keeping with the ideals of the Hollywood action films they are lovingly poking fun at. Here, Pegg plays the straight man which means he has to play against his usual loveable layable persona so we're waiting for laughs from him which are rarely forthcoming. However, it does allow more screentime for the brilliant Nick Frost as the excitable Danny, who longs for the action of the big city. It shows he is very much a comedic star, and I don't tired of watching his performances. Timothy Dalton also gives a reminder of his talents here, he should be given more roles.

I've read some criticisms of Wright's fast editing style sometimes making the action messy, but I again think it's in keeping with the style of film he was trying to make.

Although not as consistently funny as Shaun, the laughs when they do come are very funny and it has a thrilling finale. Still a great British comedy

Summary: Very funny.