Hot Fuzz

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

Call it a cross between Lethal Weapon and The Full Monty. This entertaining British spoof on buddy cop movies gets most of its laughs taking the shoot 'em up action to one of those small, quiet picture-perfect English towns where nothing much ever happens, and most of the residents are older, doddering types who worry more about the swans than the crime rate. Written by the brilliant team behind the modern comic classic Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, this outing doesn't match those heights, but it gets a lot of mileage out of its clever premise anyway. Pegg plays London's top cop who is reluctantly transferred to the small town and teamed with a bumbling partner, (Nick Frost) who just loves action movies and sees this as his big chance for some real fireworks. Although on the surface everything seems peaceful, it isn't long before a diabolical plot is uncovered and the newly joined partnership is called into service as everything (literally) explodes wide open. What makes this work is the juxtaposition of the usual high testosterone associated with hard-core cop flicks and the eccentric all-too-human characters that always populate those small English comedies set in the countryside. Pegg is perfect as the frustrated Dirty Harry who winds up getting more than he ever bargained for. Frost is a riot, and the film is loaded with top supporting players, whose faces you probably know better than their names. It ain't Shakespeare, but it's hot fun. Nothing more, nothing less.

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