Hot Fuzz (2007) * Top Pick *

If dramatic poses were law enforcement!

Genre: Action Comedy Crime Mystery (UK)

Starring: Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible III), Nick Frost (Kinky Boots)

Directed By: Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead)

Overview: The ever-overachieving star of London's Police Force Service gets reassigned to the country. There he finds that fatal accidents are all too plentiful to be normal.

Performance:

Starring, written and directed by the guys who made Shaun Of The Dead awesome, this is equally awesome. And the actors you find in this, it's like shaking Britain's bucket of good times and seeing what floats to the top. You might not recognize the names of the other actors, but the numerous films and shows they were in range from recents like Babel and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy to the original Omen, and even includes Edward Woodward, whom as you all know was "The Equalizer". Oh yeah.
Rating: 9

Cinematography:

I don't care who Jerry Bruckheimer is, and for as much as I enjoy helicopters blowing up in and plummeting to the ground in slow motion in Die Hard, I know it's all miniatures. Sweeping and dramatic crane pans or rapid-fire editing can only get you so far... unless you're Hot Fuzz.

A cynical and mocking criticism of the Action Film Formula however, when used as subtext, becomes comic and editing genius. In one scene we have the bumbling Danny Butterman and his perfect cop partner sitting in a speed trap as a sports car races by. They begin their 'hot pursuit'. The edit has rapid half-second shots of lights and sirens, the cop car chasing the sports car, the sports car pulling over twenty feet ahead, the cop closing his door as he gets out of his car, the cop standing next to the sports car, flipping open a ticket book - all 10 seconds worth of 'action'. This injection of the hyper-dramatic into the everyday is the perfect Generation X way of looking at this post-modern world, pointing at it and laughing. These guys just get it.

Then suddenly, when we least expect it, we're graced with gore, buckets of it, and the moment doesn't end... it lingers and makes you cringe, then when you think that's it, we're made to keep watching right until the point we submit and laugh at the relentless gore for gratuity's sake. Subtext, it's all about the subtext.
Rating: 10

Script:

Nicholas Angel: All right, what about this guy? Ask yourself, why has he got his hat pulled down like that?
Danny Butterman: He's fuck-ugly.
Nicholas Angel: Or, he doesn't want you to see his face.
Danny Butterman: Yeah, it's 'cause he's fuck-ugly.

Hilarious. A nice mystery too, and hilarious, and yet ever so poignant when it wants to be... and hilarious...

Nicholas Angel: We have to do something, Frank's appointed himself as Judge, Jury and Executioner.
Danny Butterman: He is not Judge Judy and Executioner!

Rating: 9

Plot:

A quick comic leap from 'London's best ever cop is giving everyone a bad name, get him out of town' to the quiet village in the country where everyone's breaking all the rules. Obsessive cop decides to clean up town and realizes seomthing is amiss: too many fatal accidents keep happening. Meanwhile, an inuendo-laden female officer cracks gaffs while the detectives keep poking homoerotic cracks at the new guy. When it's time for the showdown, the whole thing falls into place and draws it out long and awesome... and every cliché in the book is thrown in... almost like there was a contest to see how many they could get in the allotted time.
Rating: 8

Mood:

Nothing says awesome like your best friend making the high-budget movie you want to see. This is what I felt like leaving the theater. It's like Adult Swim went to England ans asked, "How apathetic and ridiculous can we get but really make something genuine?" This is genuine. It embraces the fromage.
Rating: 9

gunsgunsguns

Overall Rating: 90% (...As Hell)

Aftertaste:

To quote the film... "Well, I wouldn't argue that it wasn't a no holds barred, adrenaline fuelled thrill ride. But, there is no way you can perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork."

To these guys, paperwork means cash money. Go get em. I want more.