MasterChugs Theater: 'Hot Fuzz'
The twisted minds behind the 2004 zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead take on the world of Hollywood action movies with Hot Fuzz, an outrageously funny film directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Loaded with laughs, Hot Fuzz is so good you’ll need to see it twice just to catch what you missed the first time around. I recommend more than twice though.
Pegg is Sergeant Nicholas Angel, the Met's top cop. He's so good, in fact, that to prevent him from out-performing his fellow officers he's reassigned to Sandford, the sort of area that makes that town in "Newhart" look like Los Angeles. But if Sandford is a sleepy market town, it's home to some very real nightmares. Not that local coppers like loveable oaf Danny Butterman (Frost) see anything suspicious about Sandford's absurd number of "accidents." Angel is no ordinary constable and launches an investigation, much to the amusement of his bumbling boss and his colleagues.
The supporting cast features just about everyone who's appeared in a British movie. Edward Woodward, Billie Whitelaw, Timothy Dalton, Anne Reid, Adam Buxton, Kevin Eldon, Paul Freeman, Bill Bailey--it's hard to know what's more remarkable, the fact they got so many stars involved or the fact that they're all given great things to do. While it's wrong to single anyone out, special mention must go to Dalton who plays his mustache-twirling villain with such relish his performance ought to come with cheddar and a floury bap.
Wright and Pegg both say they’re not making fun of over-the-top action movies with Hot Fuzz and never intended their film to be a spoof or parody of the genre. But Hot Fuzz does indeed poke a sharp stick at a few of the staples of the action genre including those classic rapid-fire shoot 'em up sequences in which not a single bullet connects with its target. Frost’s character is obsessed with Michael Bay’s Bad Boys II and the 1991 Patrick Swayze/Keanu Reeves movie Point Break, and the action in Hot Fuzz is in large part inspired by those two cop dramas. There’s even a hysterical scene with Frost and Pegg flying through the air shooting at the bad guys. Priceless.
Our writers have studied the genre and manage to include in Hot Fuzz scenes that replicate or riff on the most commonly used action sequences from action movies, while also adding their own decidedly British take on the typical set-ups. The result is something both fresh and familiar. An impressive and at times ridiculously goofy film, Hot Fuzz proves the Shaun of the Dead team is equally as adept at finding the funny in living characters as they were with the undead.
Pegg is Sergeant Nicholas Angel, the Met's top cop. He's so good, in fact, that to prevent him from out-performing his fellow officers he's reassigned to Sandford, the sort of area that makes that town in "Newhart" look like Los Angeles. But if Sandford is a sleepy market town, it's home to some very real nightmares. Not that local coppers like loveable oaf Danny Butterman (Frost) see anything suspicious about Sandford's absurd number of "accidents." Angel is no ordinary constable and launches an investigation, much to the amusement of his bumbling boss and his colleagues.
The supporting cast features just about everyone who's appeared in a British movie. Edward Woodward, Billie Whitelaw, Timothy Dalton, Anne Reid, Adam Buxton, Kevin Eldon, Paul Freeman, Bill Bailey--it's hard to know what's more remarkable, the fact they got so many stars involved or the fact that they're all given great things to do. While it's wrong to single anyone out, special mention must go to Dalton who plays his mustache-twirling villain with such relish his performance ought to come with cheddar and a floury bap.
Wright and Pegg both say they’re not making fun of over-the-top action movies with Hot Fuzz and never intended their film to be a spoof or parody of the genre. But Hot Fuzz does indeed poke a sharp stick at a few of the staples of the action genre including those classic rapid-fire shoot 'em up sequences in which not a single bullet connects with its target. Frost’s character is obsessed with Michael Bay’s Bad Boys II and the 1991 Patrick Swayze/Keanu Reeves movie Point Break, and the action in Hot Fuzz is in large part inspired by those two cop dramas. There’s even a hysterical scene with Frost and Pegg flying through the air shooting at the bad guys. Priceless.
Our writers have studied the genre and manage to include in Hot Fuzz scenes that replicate or riff on the most commonly used action sequences from action movies, while also adding their own decidedly British take on the typical set-ups. The result is something both fresh and familiar. An impressive and at times ridiculously goofy film, Hot Fuzz proves the Shaun of the Dead team is equally as adept at finding the funny in living characters as they were with the undead.
Labels: MasterChugs Theater
posted by Chris 'Chugs' Taylor at
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