Hot Fuzz

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The truth of the matter is, when it comes to the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, I'm not entirely sure which would be the one I'd deem to be my favourite of the bunch. However, I would probably argue that 'Hot Fuzz' is the overall best-done. 'Shaun of the Dead' does still play on fairly typical zombie horror elements, 'The World's End' takes a particular appreciation for Wright's imagination, but this - this is just all sorts of brilliance in its execution.

What I love about it is that it seems to cover all grounds of action movies, while on the surface basically being a farce on police action movies. But really, you get the buddy cop movie, you get the creepy murder mystery, you get the Brit-com ensemble of colourful characters at the precinct, and you get the over-the top Michael Bay-like action flick.

​The film centers on Police Constable Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg); a highly skilled, high-ranking officer in the London PD. He is promoted to Sergeant, but due to him making everyone else look bad, he is reassigned to the small village of Sandford, Gloucestershire. Here, he meets his team of laugh-inducing fellow "policeman officers"; his new supervisor, Inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent), his new partner and Frank's son, PC Danny (Nick Frost), the "Andy's" (Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall), Sergeant Tony Fisher (Kevin Eldon), PC Doris Thatcher (Olivia Colman) PC Bob Walker (Karl Johnson), Sergeant Turner (​Bill Bailey) and their K9 Dog, Saxon (Sampson).

Sanford is largely considered "perfect", winning "Village of the Year" several years in a row. On the surface, things seem entirely peaceful, but there's definitely something off about some of the other villagers. While Angel can't seem to "switch off", and slowly starts noticing sinister things unfold, the rest of the police force is relatively ignorant, suggesting accidents happen. While the rest of the precinct are a little less apt to do their job, Angel tries his best to convince Frank that crimes are happening right under their noses.

The film's three acts are relatively separate from each other in more ways than one. The first act probably has the most laughs, and acts very much as a buddy cop comedy with Angel playing the "fish out of water". The second act darkens the humour, and things take a more mysterious turn once Angel starts to really click in on something going wrong in town. The third, and probably best act, is the result of Danny showing Angel a couple of balls-to-the-wall action flicks; specifically 'Point Break' and 'Bad Boys II', so the film takes the humour to more of a farce on those hardcore action movies we love so much.

It could be argued that this is a film that basically has everything. It even features a scattering of well-known British faces, such as Timothy Dalton as Simon Skinner, owner of the local supermarket, and Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy as Angel's superiors in London. I would have to say that as far as all of Edgar Wright's movies go, this is probably the one I'd recommend to anyone who wants to see what Edgar Wright's style is all about. He does a tremendous job as set-ups and call-backs through his movies, and this may be the best example of it. On top of that though, just take everything I mentioned about this movie before into consideration. It's arguably one of the most fun movies out there (at least in my humble opinion).

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