#140RVW
Falling somewhere between a send-up & a celebration of action movies, Cornetto#2 tonally inconsistent & far too long, but wonderfully funny.
What’s more:
Action comedies often have a hard time finding the right balance between comedy and action. Too often what it really means is that the movie is a comedy for most of the first two acts before becoming stupid violent in the third act and completely forgetting to be funny (until the decidedly cheery coda, which pretends that all of the seriousness and bloodshed of the climax didn’t just happen).
Hot Fuzz unfortunately is another example of this; sort of. Unlike a Hollywood picture, Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg’s script is intentionally written as a celebration of action movies. They aren’t spoofing action movies, but they are deliberately reveling in all of the clichés of those movies. This ambition leads the movie to have a bit of an identity crisis; it feels like a spoof but doesn’t embrace it fully.
The result is a VERY long movie for the type. That is, if it’s a comedy. If it’s just an action movie, well, 2 hours is fine. But that’s too long for a comedy. And I think that whatever other aspirations they may have had, Wright & Pegg were aiming for laughs. And Hot Fuzz provides those in buckets. This is a seriously funny movie.
Simon Pegg & Nick Frost are arguably the best comedy duo working at the moment. Their familiarity with each other leads to some great material and is one of the reasons they can take on so many different genres. The supporting cast is fantastic, and there are a slew of cameos if you look for them (although I didn’t recognize Cate Blanchett or Peter Jackson – I’ll let you Google it).
Hot Fuzz is a great movie. But it needs a serious haircut…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Simon Pegg Nicholas Angel, Nick Frost PC Danny Butterman, Martin Freeman Met Sergeant, Bill Nighy Met Chief Inspector |
| Rating | R |
| Release Date | Wed 14 Feb 2007 UTC |
| Director | Edgar Wright |
| Genres | Action, Comedy |
| Plot | Exceptional London cop Nicholas Angel is involuntarily transferred to a quaint English village and paired with a witless new partner. While on the beat, Nicholas suspects a sinister conspiracy is afoot with the residents. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 121 |
| Tagline | They’re bad boys. They’re die hards. They’re lethal weapons. They are… |
| Writers | Edgar Wright (written by) &, Simon Pegg (written by) |
| Year | 2007 |
