#1,039. Hot Fuzz (2007) - The Films of Edgar Wright

Directed By: Edgar Wright

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton




Tag line: "Big Cops. Small Town. Moderate Violence"

Trivia: Simon Pegg had weapons training in preparation for his role as Nick Angel, and also learned how to skid a bicycle properly along the way








Edgar Wright, who scored a hit with 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, continues his celebration of genre cinema with the hilarious Hot Fuzz, a 2007 movie that’s as much a high-octane action flick as it is a side-splitting comedy.

Sgt. Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the finest policeman in all of London. In fact, he’s a little too good at his job, and his peers on the force are tired of him showing them up. So, in spite of his exemplary record, Angel is "re-assigned" to the small town of Sandford, a quiet community where nothing much happens... ever! 

Partnered with Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), the son of the chief Inspector (Jim Broadbent), Angel now spends his days searching for escaped geese and chasing down the occasional shoplifter. But when a series of tragic “accidents” results in the violent deaths of some of Sandford’s least popular citizens, Angel suspects foul play. 

He is convinced the shifty Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton), owner of the local supermarket, is somehow behind these tragedies. But is Skinner acting alone?

Pegg and Frost, who were excellent as the best pals in Shaun of the Dead, are pitch-perfect as Hot Fuzz's “buddy” cops, two polar opposites who, despite their differences, work together to protect an entire village. Many of the film’s funnier moments stem from their unlikely partnership, with Frost’s Danny, who is a big fan of action flicks, constantly pressing Pegg’s Angel to talk about his days as a London police officer. When Angel reveals he was once stabbed, Danny asks what it felt like. “It was the single most painful experience of my life”, Angel replies, matter-of-factly. After a slight pause, Danny counters with, “What was the second most painful?” 

Over time, Angel and Danny begin to influence each other, with Danny taking his work more seriously and the normally tight-assed Angel cutting loose from time to time (he even spends a night watching Point Break and other action flicks). The two actors, who, aside from Shaun of the Dead, have teamed up several times throughout the years (including the sci-fi / comedy Paul in 2011), make for a likeable pair, and give the audience someone to root for when things get serious.

As funny as the film is, Hot Fuzz is also a fine action movie, with tons of excitement and some truly grisly violence (one character gets their head crushed by a stone gargoyle). To keep things moving along at a brisk pace, director Wright relies on quick cuts and sharp camera angles to accentuate the more intense scenes, culminating in a final act that is out of this world. 

By styling the action so convincingly, Hot Fuzz proves, in the end, that it's much more than a parody, or an homage to movies like Dirty Harry and Mad Max. It is a thrilling film in its own right, one that just happens to make us laugh, over and over again.

#572. Shaun of the Dead (2004) - The Films of Edgar Wright

Directed By: Edgar Wright

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield




Tag line: "This September, aim for the head"

Trivia:  Because of the similarity of their titles, distributors were forced to hold this film back until two weeks after the Dawn of the Dead remake was released in the UK

In most zombie films, the news media is usually right on top of the situation, transmitting images of the walking dead to a shocked and horrified public almost as quickly as they happen. With Shaun of the Dead, writer / director Edgar Wright answers a question I always asked myself as I watched those other movies: what about those poor devils who never catch the evening news? 

Shaun (Simon Pegg) is having a really bad day. For starters, his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), just dumped him, saying she's fed up spending night after night at the Winchester - Shaun's favorite pub - where they're usually joined by his obnoxious best friend, Ed (Nick Frost). 

Then, Shaun remembers he promised to pay his mother (Penelope Wilton) a visit, despite the fact he can't stand being in the same room as her second husband, Philip (Bill Nighy). 

As if all this weren't bad enough, the dead have risen from their graves, and are feasting on the flesh of the living. Along with everything else, Shaun must now figure out a way to save both Liz and his beloved mother from the sudden onslaught of bloodthirsty zombies. 

Talk about a full plate! 

Besides being ignorant of current events (he and Ed don't switch on the TV until well after the apocalypse has started), Shaun isn't very observant in general, and fails to notice time and again that all hell has broken loose around him. In one of the film's cleverest sequences, we follow Shaun as he walks to the corner store early one morning to pick up a soda. Now, we made this exact same trip with our hero the previous day, when the most hazardous obstacle he encountered was a flying soccer ball. This time, however, the journey is a tad more perilous. Aside from the blood splattered everywhere, we notice car windows have been shattered, front doors broken down, and those who are out walking the streets are doing so much more methodically than they had 24 hours earlier. 

We see this...but Shaun doesn't. 

When he finally arrives at his destination, he strolls over to the refrigerated section, grabs his usual drink, and lays his money on the counter, oblivious to the body parts strewn about the store. He then shuffles out the door and heads for home, always one incredibly lucky step ahead of the slow-moving zombies.

Shaun does finally figure out what's going on, at which point he devises a plan that, in essence, allows him to play the hero while remaining the shiftless layabout everyone assumes he is: he wants everyone to gather at the Winchester and "wait it out"!  

The sequences in which he puts this plan into motion are among the film's most uproarious, with moments that are equally as terrifying. 

A funny story that never shies away from the bloodshed, Shaun of the Dead strikes the perfect balance between horror and comedy, bringing them together in a way that will undoubtedly satisfy fans of both genres.