Movie review: Hot Fuzz

Seeing as how I had the day off today and Ms. Boo was working, I decided to see Hot Fuzz. If you've seen Shaun of the Dead, then you know what to expect. The same kind of humor, only this time in a more Stepford Wives-type plot rather than a zombie flick. The film stars Simon Pegg (who also wrote it) as Nicholas Angel, a kind of super-cop with the London metro force. He is "promoted" to serve as Sergeant in a country bumpkin town because he makes everyone else look bad (with an arrest rate 400% higher than any other cop on the force). There, he meets slovenly partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost, who was also Pegg's sidekick in Shaun). They quickly become man-friends, with Butterman learning something about being a true cop, which Angel learns to chill out and enjoy stupid cop movies like Point Break. All while townspeople myteriously die in suspicious accidents. The final act of the movie is a pure B-movie campy mayhem, unapologetically wallowing in gory FX and corny lines of dialog (bad guy with a spike in his throat says, "Oww, thith really hurtth" while the audience laughs).

The pacing is a bit slow at first, and it isn't until the movie reaches it reckless and silly climax that Pegg and director Edgard Wrights' style of film making shines. However, they really have a handle on intelligent "meta" movies that appeal to the fanboy in all of us, with beautiful tales of platonic man-love saving the day against unspeakable evil. All while winking at convention and bringing the audience along with them into the realm of pure silliniess. Overall, this is on of the most intelligent dumb movies I've seen in a while.

Overall Grade: B