HOT FUZZ

The team that created SHAUN OF THE DEAD returns for some cop comedy with HOTT FUZZ. Writer/director Edgar Wright, and co-writer and star Simon Pegg, center their comedy on Nicholas Angel, a brilliant London police officer. After a successful stretch of patrolling London’s streets, Angel is reassigned to an outlying community where crime is nearly nonexistent. His by-the-book antics served him well in the big city, but seem out of place in the quiet, quaint town of Sandford. After a tragic traffic collision claims two Sanford residents’ lives, Angel believes that the collision wasn’t an accident, but murder. No one believes Angel, including his bumbling partner, Danny Butterman.

HOT FUZZ is everything that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez had hoped GRINDHOUSE would be, and more. This satire and homage to cop action flicks provides plenty of oft-beat and silly British humor, thrilling and action-packed gunplay and hand-to-hand combat and several comic-book style deaths. With Wright as writer-director, and Pegg as writer-actor, the two have carved out quite a cinematic niche, by both mocking and honoring certain genres. They’ve essentially found a way to have their cake and eat it to. The comedic timing works in HOT FUZZ thanks to Wright’s patience and willingness to let the jokes and plot unravel, and Pegg is terrific in yet another dead-pan role, allowing the manic nature of the film to run its course. As in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ greatly benefits from a strong supporting cast. Whether its in a supporting role or a cameo, Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine, Steve Coogan, Bill Nighly and Jim Broadbent leave their marks in wonderfully humorous ways. Whether your looking for a hysterical comedy, an exciting action movie or a silly mystery, HOT FUZZ delivers all three. It’s the most fun I’ve had in the movie theater this year.

Grade: A-