Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

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  • Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

    A review I wrote for the paper that I contribute to.


    Hot Fuzz gives us big city hot shot Nicholas Angel, who is the thorn in his bosses side. His flawless profile and insanely high arrest record makes the rest of the force look bad in comparison. To get rid of him they ship him off the Sandford, dubbed the safest village in the country. Here they roll out every archetypal village yokel and country bumpkin that you can imagine. Caricatures they may be, but riotously funny. More so that Angel, who is something of the anti-Shawn, which is a shame. As the reluctant hero of their cult smash Shawn Of The Dead, Pegg was the frustrated everyman that was all of us. In contrast Angel is so straight laced and bland that it is hard to live and breathe him.

    That is until Nick Frost saunters in. Frost and Pegg have been working together for so long that the chemistry they enjoy together on screen is not a lesson in acting, its 100% genuine and gives the comedy a sense of effortlessness. Angel shows that the straight man is certainly not Pegg's strength, but when him and Frost are together it works brilliantly. As Angel struggles to settle into his new environment he discovers something sinister about this sleepy little town.

    What they essentially deliver is three distinctly different ideas that follow the traditional three act structure in sequence; a fish out of water comedy, a dark mystery in the vein of ham horror, and an unashamedly over the top action film. While these come together to tell a single cohesive story, they never quite gel together which can lead to a slightly jarring effect as the mood jumps around in style and tone.

    Chiefly the culprit is act number two, the mystery portion, which is mostly gag free, flabby and combined with a trim here and there elsewhere, is 25 minutes that the film certainly could do without and be better for it. Without this sagging interlude, the film is a dazzlingly stylized first third, with Wright dancing the camera around, highlighting the hilarious banality and ensuring that what is on paper mostly set up is never dull for a moment. After that it sags horribly until the action sets in and its a race to the finish with some blistering set pieces and dizzyingly glorious editing.

    The pressure to deliver in the wake of Shawn has clearly played on their minds. Trying to balance the gags with the correct amount of clever writing, combined with some action sequences that would make the likes of Michael Bay sit up and take notice, they are showing us they can do a little bit of everything. That will undoubtedly be great for their future, but in the short term it hurts this particular film. Not to say that the film is not very enjoyable, because it is, but it is far from the triumph that it could have, and perhaps should have been.
    Frosties are just Cornflakes for people who can't face reality.

  • #2
    Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

    They wanted to make a 2hr film from the get go. I somewhat disagree that the mystery plot sags from my recollections, there's a lot of subtle humour with the other characters -- The two Andys stole the show.

    I thought the script was very good, everything was set-up, with very little wastage -- it's obvious how much care went into the writing.
    "What's worse than being talked about? Not being talked about."

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    • #3
      Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

      I enjoyed it, but was still disappointed...and for some of the reasons that I loved Shaun of the Dead. For me, it seemed too self-referential and even when it wasn't, it was too busy referencing other films...to the point that all it existed for was the spoofery. In some ways, it came across as a middle-brow Epic Movie.

      While Shaun utilized the same approach, the movie was still driven by the narrative, and the pop culture references were ornaments. With Hot Fuzz, the references were the whole damned tree.
      "Forget it, Jake. It's Hollywood."

      My YouTube channel.

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      • #4
        Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

        I liked the Chinatown reference...

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

          SPOILERS

          "Dont worry, it's only Sanford" or the one about Lurch's sis and mom being the same person?

          I loved it, even though it was too long. Some of the gags were set up in ways that I didn't see them coming (they had already paid off earlier).

          Any film that can be described as BAD BOYS meets LOCAL HERO can't be all bad.

          - Bill
          Last edited by wcmartell; 04-28-2007, 04:48 PM.
          Free Script Tips:
          http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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          • #6
            Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

            Saw it today. Great flick. Thought the length was great.

            Didn't even know Peter Jackson was the Santa and Cate Blanchett was his ex.
            R.K. Bentley
            My Blog, My Design Studio
            "Little hand says it's time to rock an' roll." - Hot Fuzz.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

              Originally posted by wcmartell View Post
              SPOILERS

              "Dont worry, it's only Sanford" or the one about Lurch's sis and mom being the same person?

              I loved it, even though it was too long. Some of the gags were set up in ways that I didn't see them coming (they had already paid off earlier).

              Any film that can be described as BAD BOYS meets LOCAL HERO can't be all bad.

              - Bill
              I only picked up on the "Forget it Nick, It's sandford" line.

              I found it disturbing that I was the only frickin person in a full theatre that actually got that reference though - I was the only one who laughed at that point at any rate.

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              • #8
                Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

                Yeh, I got the Chinatown line, too. I dunno if anyone else did too...
                R.K. Bentley
                My Blog, My Design Studio
                "Little hand says it's time to rock an' roll." - Hot Fuzz.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

                  I think I was the only one who laughed at that line, too - but that's okay with me. The comedy had *depth* - there may have been some joke I didn't get because I'm too frigging old. I think it's okay for a film to have jokes that not everyone will get - in fact, the biggest problem with many movies is that they only have the jokes that everyone gets and don't have the jokes that may only appeal to some small segment of the audience.

                  This film had enough jokes to go around... and I really liked the way a joke would pay off more than once - the POINT BREAK gun shooting gag seems like it's there for the homoerotic gag about buddy cops (this film could easily be a love story about the two protags) but it also pays off later in a scene that is funny *and* kind of touching.

                  And the Human Statue guy got a zillion laughs - they kept finding new ways to make him funny.

                  I also didn't spot those cameos - and I think that was the point. The most famous people in the movie are impossible to spot. But it was kind of weird that Belloq from RAIDERS was the gun-toting Priest. It took me a couple of seconds to recognize him.

                  - Bill
                  Free Script Tips:
                  http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                  • #10
                    Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

                    I didn't recognise Belloq at all - I don't know why. I don't think one has to get everything in one go -- that's what repeated viewings are for
                    "What's worse than being talked about? Not being talked about."

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                    • #11
                      Re: Hot Fuzz Review - No Spoilers

                      Originally posted by wcmartell View Post
                      I think I was the only one who laughed at that line, too - but that's okay with me. The comedy had *depth* - there may have been some joke I didn't get because I'm too frigging old. I think it's okay for a film to have jokes that not everyone will get - in fact, the biggest problem with many movies is that they only have the jokes that everyone gets and don't have the jokes that may only appeal to some small segment of the audience.

                      This film had enough jokes to go around... and I really liked the way a joke would pay off more than once - the POINT BREAK gun shooting gag seems like it's there for the homoerotic gag about buddy cops (this film could easily be a love story about the two protags) but it also pays off later in a scene that is funny *and* kind of touching.

                      And the Human Statue guy got a zillion laughs - they kept finding new ways to make him funny.

                      I also didn't spot those cameos - and I think that was the point. The most famous people in the movie are impossible to spot. But it was kind of weird that Belloq from RAIDERS was the gun-toting Priest. It took me a couple of seconds to recognize him.

                      - Bill
                      I was just kinda sad nobody remembered the most famous line in chinatown (and there were lots of 40's + people in this screening since it was a public holiday).

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