Fellman's Movie Reviews

 Hot Fuzz is a 2007 comedy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and directed by Edgar Wright, the same team that produced Shaun of the Dead. It is the second film in what they call “The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy” because the Cornetto ice cream is mentioned in each movie. The movie centers around Nicholas Angel (Pegg), an overachieving officer from London, who gets reassigned to a small village in the country because his record makes the other officers look bad. When a string of deaths begin to happen in the village, Angel starts to unravel the mystery of how they are all connected.  

Shaun of the Dead is literally my second favorite movie of all time. So, to say that I like it better than this one is a moot point. But this movie was more commercially successful than Shaun of the Dead was. And I’ll tell you why. When Shaun of the Dead came out, people didn’t really know who these people were. No one had heard the name Simon Pegg. No one had heard of Nick Frost. No American had heard of the tv show Spaced. It’s a British show. Why would they? But Shaun of the Dead was so successful, and such a big hit, that when this movie came out, everybody knew their names, and they could use the line “From the people who brought you Shaun of the Dead” on the promo poster. That makes a difference. It’s like the difference between the first Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. When Episode Four came out, nobody knew what Star Wars was. But then it became this huge sensation, and by the time Empire was released, Star Wars was the biggest thing in movies. That matters when it comes to commercial success.  

Not that I don’t like this movie. This is still a funny movie. It’s almost as funny as Shaun of the Dead. Not quite. But almost. There’s a lot of good dialogue between Pegg and Frost. I’m not as big a fan of the whole buddy cop genre, I suppose. So, maybe I was a little underexcited from the very beginning. But I am a huge fan of comedy, which this movie does very well. So, it kind of evens out. There’s some jokes that I think are hilarious and only work if you’re British. I mean, I’m not British, but I got the jokes. They only work if the movie is British… You know what I mean… 

But, British or not, it’s still funny all the way through. With some gags that make references to Shaun of the Dead. There’s some camera sequences that literally have the exact same sequences as some of the camera shots from Shaun of the Dead. There’s a bit where Nick Angel is jumping over garden fences which is a nod to a scene in Shaun of the Dead where Shaun tries to jump over a fence to take a shortcut and makes a fool of himself. And of course, Cornetto is mentioned several times.  

So, yeah. Go and see Hot Fuzz. If you like laughing, this will make you laugh. If you like buddy cop movies, this is the perfect movie for you. If you like movies about murder and swans, this also fills those check boxes. See? Took a left turn there, didn’t it? Nonetheless, it’s a good time. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…