Fuzz Worthy

Edgar Wright's uproarious cop flick lives up to its brain-eating predecessor.

by Shaun Brady

Recommended

More amiable than hilarious up until its riotous finale, Edgar Wright's follow-up to Shaun of the Dead is still a worthy successor. While not quite as spot-on and consistently laugh-provoking as his 2004 zombie farce, Hot Fuzz nonetheless scores its points at the expense of the moribund American action film, but wisely reaches deeper to create a warm character comedy.

TEN BULLETS OR LESS: Simon Pegg and company gently remind shoppers to go easy on the dairy. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Co-writer Simon Pegg stars as police sergeant Nicholas Angel, a literally by-the-book cop so concerned with the rules and regulations that he not only adheres to the letter of the law, but to the force's — er, service's — PC verbiage changes. He's so effective, in fact, that he's embarrassing the rest of his department — which is why his superiors (a delightful relay race of cameos by Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Bill Nighy) have decided to transfer him to a tiny village with the lowest crime rate in the country.

Wright milks expected laughs from the contrast between small town and big city, but recognizes the pitfalls of the clichés inherent in that setup. Most of the focus soon shifts to another contrast: that of the differing takes on law enforcement embodied by Angel and new partner Danny Butterman (Shaun's Nick Frost), whom Angel first meets when he hauls him in for drunk driving and whose idea of metropolitan policing is entirely gleaned from Hollywood shoot-em-ups. That, of course, points up the very Shaun-like mismatch between American bluster and English reserve.

Due to the no-nonsense facade of his character, Pegg is forced into a straight-man role this time out, so the success of the film lands pretty squarely onto Frost's shoulders. He carries it with a fine comic performance, one that doesn't end with the buffoon he could have been. Butterman, the son of the avuncular police chief (Jim Broadbent), is a goof-off who clearly respects and emulates Angel, and as the two characters rub off on each other, it makes perfect sense that he straightens up while Angel's rigidity breaks down. Their interactions are the heart of the picture, and in two films they've become the finest comedy duo to appear in some time. Their work promises much for when Wright looses himself from the strictures of genre parody.

Of course, Shaun proved that Wright's too smart to let parody overwhelm, unlike the scattershot reference-fests that pass for satire in this country's various movies — scary, epic or otherwise. Buddy-cop action flicks are a less endearing and more fish-in-a-barrel target than zombies anyway, so Wright allows for a long, quiet build (punctuated by ridiculously gory murders), so that when his quaint small-town officers finally get to slo-mo leap through the air, guns in both hands, shades on their eyes, the laughs come all the heavier.

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Hot FuzzDirected by Edgar WrightA Rogue Pictures release