HOT FUZZ
UK, 2007, 120 minutes, Colour.
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Paddy Considine, Timothy Dalton, Bill Nighy, Billie Whitelaw, Edward Woodward, David Bradley, Olivia Colman, Ron Cook, Kenneth Cranham, Martin Freeman, Paul Freeman, Karl Johnson, Lucy Punch, Anne Reid, Rafe Spall, David Threlfall, Stuart Wilson.
Directed by Edgar Wright.
The Americans have regularly tried to spoof popular movie genres. They come up with Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie. They are parodies, usually fairly crass and obvious, of recent popular films. In the past, Leslie Nielsen used to appear is send-ups of particular genres: Naked Gun (TV police shows) Repossessed (exorcisms!), Wrongfully Accused (court murder mysteries), Spy Hard (James Bond and co). They were corny but amusing with Nielsen being the main drawcard. Mel Brooks began well with Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie and High Anxiety but his Robin Hood and Dracula spoofs were sometimes quite lame.
A few years ago, British actor Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright came up with a spoof of the living dead genre, Shawn of the Dead. They played it for all it was worth – and more. They took the genre seriously but enjoyed doing the spoof, taking many of the conventions to their logical illogical conclusions. Shawn of the Dead was grotesque in a very funny way.
The police thrillers, the buddy cops and the serial killer might seem obvious targets for spoof. And so they are. But here are Pegg and Wright again. And they are successful again. This is a very enjoyable (continual smiles more than lots of belly laughs) and comically exaggerated take on American cops, British bobbies and the dark side of a Miss Marple village. (And they probably had more than one eye on The Wicker Man for their basic plot.)
Simon Pegg has been very wise to play his role straight even when he is in the most ludicrous of situations. He is the perfectionist, the humourless perfectionist, who has shown up the London forces because he is so successful at apprehending criminals and making the rest look lackadaisical. (Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Steve Coogan have a good cameo condemning him and exiling him to a country town.) Pegg sustains his character well throughout and when he has to become that bit more heroic and that big bit more human.
What a village. Everything seems so nice, except the young thugs around the place. The local committee keep things in order. And a lot of character actors from the British screen appear here. You need to look closely and you will find Edward Woodward, Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman and others. Jim Broadbent, with hearty tones, is the local police chief. Nick Frost is his large and ineffectual policeman son. He has to partner Pegg and they form a kind of Laurel and Hardy (maybe more Abbott and Costello) team. And Timothy Dalton is there as the smarmy, smiling owner of the supermarket.
When the serial killer starts striking, Pegg goes into action. Once again, the writers seem to have been looking at Agatha Christie novels and Murder on the Orient Express for plotlines which work quite nicely and give the opportunity for stunt work, comic mayhem, some gore and heroics.
Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz make a good track record for what Pegg and Wright do next.
1.An entertaining spoof? Police thriller? Comedy? Sinister? The murder mystery?
2.British production, witty, dialogue, humorous situations?
3.The visual style, the editing and pace, the collages? The musical score? The songs? The movie references to Bad Boys 2 and Point Blank?
4.The prologue, Nicholas and his career, exemplary, his work? The shooting of the suspect? His being stabbed? The police authorities and their reactions? Statistics and success? His being interviewed by the authorities? The comedy of Steve Coogan, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman? Talk with his girlfriend?
5.The transfer, the trip, the flowerpot, the hotel and Joyce welcoming him, the crossword clues? The bar and the friendliness?
6.Sanford, the village, ordinary, buildings and streets, supermarkets? The chant of ‘The greater good’? Nick and his jogging, the greetings?
7.Nick as severe, looking around the bar, the groups, the under-age kids, his strict letter of the law, ousting them? Drinking only cranberry juice?
8.Danny, his drinking, the drink-driving? Putting him in jail? The kids? Danny and his turning out to be the police? Liking guns? The partnership with Nick? Aping him? The DVD selection? The shooting? His birthday?
9.Frank, as inspector, his pride in his son? Personality, work, genial? Sanford as the safest place in the United Kingdom? The swear box, the team at the station? Doris, the dog, the nonchalant desk man? The detectives, the police?
10.Tom Weaver, Edward Woodward’s style? His surveillance room? His antagonism towards the clown? His role with the Neighbourhood Watch?
11.The squad, the beer lunches, their resentment of Nick, lax, poking fun at him, the country not the city?
12.Simon, smooth, the supermarkets, his continual appearances, the Timothy Dalton style? The discounts, no charges against the thief? The chase round the supermarket for the biscuit thief? His assistant and her manner?
13.The reverend, his homily, the invitation to church?
14.The Neighbourhood Watch, the meetings, nice people, talking about births, Joyce as the secretary, against the living statue …? The later meeting and their sinister cloaks, wanting to kill Nick?
15.Nick and his coping, trying to teach the children, Danny and his question about guns and explosions? The escape of the swan, its causing accidents? Its later crucial point for the resolution of the film? Chasing the biscuit thief?
16.Car pursuits, the theatre director, his girlfriend, Romeo and Juliet, the smooth-talking to the police? Nick and his method of writing in the book? The tickets, the play itself, the affair, Eve and the director, the killer appearing, the car accident, the heads?
17.Arthur Webley, incomprehensible, the hedge-cutting, the discovery of his arsenal, the rounding up of the guns and classifying them, the bomb – and its later use in the resolution?
18.The killer, the director and the girl, the developer, his drinking, going to his house, his being killed, the explosion? Tim Messenger and his work with the newspaper, misspellings, getting information, standing under the church tower, being crushed? Leslie Tiller, her shop, giving all the information to Nick about the development? Her sudden death? The attack on Nick? Skinner’s assistant? The toy, the radio?
19.The confrontation, the Neighbourhood Watch group, the review, the murders? Anti-gypsies and joggers? Frank and his place? The desire to win the Best Village award, the pursuit of Nick, his falling down the well, the corpses, the range of people killed? Danny and his being stabbed? The ketchup? The Point Blank and Bad Boys 2 techniques? Nick’s decision? His decision to return?
20.Danny, his story about his childhood, and Nick telling his story? The drinking? The DVDs? The birthday gift? The attempt to arrest Skinner?
21.The return, the arrests? The information? The arsenal, the weapons? Riding the horse and the score – the setting up of a western, High Noon in the middle of a British town? Enlisting the help of the children? The graffiti on the screens for the Neighbourhood Watch? The shootout – heightened, exaggerated, enjoyable? The kids and the doors? The reverend and his confrontation? The shootout in the bar? The confrontation with Frank? The officers, Nick’s speech? Their change, being on-side?
22.The smash, going into the supermarket? The mayhem in the supermarket, the trolleys? The inspectors watching for the town award?
23.The finale, the swan, Frank crashing the car?
24.A year later, at Danny’s mother’s grave? The change, the plea by London police for Nick to come back? His staying?
25.How well did the film combine its serious moments, its spoof, its very traditional Britishness with the DVD violence?
