Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
4/21/07
There's something about action
movies... the relentless gunfire and explosions, carnage, snappy one-liners:
all in the name of seeing justice done, no matter how many bodies or how
much property damage it takes. When it's done right, the whole thing
is cool on some totally primal level. Just ask Writer/Director Edgar
Wright and Writer/Star Simon Pegg (of Shaun of the Dead fame):
their new movie Hot Fuzz doesn't just love movies like Point
Break and Bad Boys II to death, it's also a really smart commentary
on why the world we live in makes the fantasy of a righteous man with a
whole lotta firepower so appealing.
Police Sergeant Nicholas
Angel (Simon Pegg) is a one-man wrecking crew who's fought, shot, and raced
his way through half of London's crime. He's even bounced back from
that unfortunate incident where the evil department store Santa stabbed
him in the hand. But there's a problem: he's making his fellow
cops look bad, and they exile him to the small town of Sanford. There,
he finds a soft police force led by Inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent).
He's partnered with Frank's son Danny (Nick Frost) for big investigations
like underage drinkers and a missing swan. Then the “accidents” start:
two dead in a car crash with no skid marks, the town's biggest mansion
explodes in a cooking accident, and don't even ask me to explain what happens
to a local reporter's head. It's obvious to Sgt. Angel that these
crimes are part of a massive criminal conspiracy that leads to local supermarket
magnate Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton). But there's something even
more sinister going on in Sanford... and it's gonna take a lot of bullets
to stop it.
Without getting too much
into the details of Sanford's evil secret, suffice it to say that class
struggle is pretty much hard-wired into every British movie, be it a high-minded
drama or a crowd-pleasing action comedy like this one. What Hot
Fuzz contributes to that national theme is to demonstrate in very literal
terms how society's deck seems so stacked with corruption that only brute
force could possibly bring its' leaders to justice. And boy, does
the film's third act ever contain some brute force!
High-mindedness aside, Hot
Fuzz is truly hilarious on several different levels. The contrast
between the grizzled big-city tough guy and his small-town coworkers, so
unaccustomed to real action that their squad room contains a swear jar,
is a hoot. Pegg is tremendous not only at capturing the tempo of
the modern action hero, but also in doing the slow burn of frustration
at his circumstances and even allowing that hard exterior to melt when
necessary. Sanford's peculiar townspeople are also a delightful lot,
particularly Skinner, played by Dalton with an ever-present evil glee (the
former James Bond excels at both comedy and villainy, but rarely gets to
flex those muscles). Also look for former TV Equalizer Edward
Woodward as the delusional leader of the Neighborhood Watch. Best
of all is the movie's skillful sense of action heroism, both in the way
Wright apes camera setups and editing tactics from familiar movies and
even Angel himself learns a trick or two from his partner's massive collection
of action DVDs. If only he didn't need to do all that paperwork once
he was done shooting up the town...
I've never seen Shaun
of the Dead (although this movie made me want to), but it's interesting
to watch the way Wright and Pegg position the movie's comic strategy squarely
between the realistic and the absurd. When hearing the pitch, it's
easy to imagine any number of comedy stars (Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller,
Rowan Atkinson) playing Angel as though it's just as funny that anyone
would consider him a tough guy as anything that happens in the story.
But the character, as well as the crimes he fights, actually has some teeth,
and the movie works better as a result. His relationship with his
fellow officers also finds a second level behind the obvious. Paddy
Considine and Rafe Spall are a hoot as rival officers as broad as can be,
but when Danny finally gets Angel to crack a smile, it's surprisingly sincere.
And the bad guys are as menacing in their omnipotent insanity as they are
hilarious.
Hot Fuzz is one of
2007's first great movies, funny, exciting, and with an anarchic craziness
that you just don't see every day. It's as thoughtful as it is silly,
and the ironic part is that the dumber your favorite movies are, the more
you'll see just how smart this one is. Sometimes you just need to
watch stuff blow up good, and Hot Fuzz lets you do it without even
the slightest bit of embarrassment. |
