Point Break or Bad Boys 2? That is the question, at least it is in Edgar Wright's 2007 action comedy Hot Fuzz. Edgar Wright is without a doubt one of the most creative filmmakers working in the business today. Every single one of his films has a special feel to them from the directing, to the writing, even to the most minute, unnoticed details in the background. His movies are fantastic, without them I would have never been inspired to pursue the film business as a career myself. While I love all of his movies, My favorite of his (and one of my favorite movies of all time) has to be this film.
As stated before, Hot Fuzz was released in 2007 and stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, and Timothy Dalton and is part 2 of Edgar Wright's three part series: The Cornetto Trilogy, A series movies with differing styles and genres but are all connected by having the same actors and Cornetto Ice Cream at some point in the movie. I consider this movie to not only be the best in the Trilogy but also one of Edgar Wright's best movies in general as this is one of the smartest action comedies I've ever seen. Hot Fuzz follows Sgt. Nicolas Angel (Played by Simon Pegg), A serious no-nonsense police officer for the London Metropolitan Police Force. He is so good at his job that he makes every other police officer on the force look bad, so the chief inspector has him transferred to the small rural village of Sandford, where the crime rate is extremely low but the accident rate is incredibly high. There he meets his new coworkers, a bunch of lazy, moronic and dorky Officers who have never seen action ever. More specifically he begins to bond with Danny Butterman (Played by Nick Frost), a young officer who loves action movies. The Two solve small crimes around the village, however when two actors are in an "accident" Nicolas Angel begins to investigate, however this accident may be more than what it seems. Going into more details would spoil integral plot points and the more blind you go into this movie, the better.
The story is told in a way where you can guess what the characters are about to do, but your not entirely sure how the events will actually play out. And there are plot points that are so well done that every time you think that you've figured out what its planning to do, it throws a curve ball that seems odd at first but is cleverly connected to everything else. Credit also needs to be given to the stellar performances from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Both of them have great chemistry as partners( This is also due to them being such good friends in real life). All of the other actors portray their characters very well too, especially the police chief played by Jim Broadbent and the shady supermarket owner, Simon Skinner (Played by Timothy Dalton)
The shots are composed in a way where every scene is unique and memorable, the dialogue is incredibly well written with many quotable lines and jokes, even the simple visual gags in the scenes are laugh out loud hilarious. While this film is at heart a comedy and satire of American blockbuster action films, the tone in the movie can become surprisingly dark, especially near the end. The highlight of the movie though is the last 30 or so minutes when everything goes absolutely insane. One thing i must say though is that this is NOT a family friendly movie, swearing is very frequent and the gore is heavy, however it adds to the overall charm of the film.
I can't stress enough how much I enjoy this movie, It's one of the few movies that I consider to be flawless and great. It can be enjoyed as a dumb action movie and as a smart satire of said genre. As I stated before this is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time, As time goes on the film has grown a bit in popularity but it is not as recognized as it should be, This is one comedy that should not be missed.
4/4 Stars, I highly recommend it.
4/4 Stars, I highly recommend it.
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