THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Sometimes, the things we care for are not what they seem.
PLOT
2007’s Hot Fuzz follows Nicholas Angel, a police sergeant from Metropolitan to the small town of Sandford, due to being overly exceptional. On the first night in his new home, he continues his ways by arresting underage drinkers and fellow officer Danny Buttterman for drunk driving. The latter gets let go though due to being the son Inspector Frank. Danny is in awe of Angel’s attitude, but the rest of his colleagues remain incompetent towards him. The rest of the division includes: veteran PC Bob Walker (Karl Johnson), sole female PC Doris Thatcher (Olivia Colman), twin desk sergeants Turner (Bill Bailey), sergeant Tony Fisher (Kevin Eldon) and detective constables Andy Cartwright & Wainwright (Paddy Considine & Rafe Spall). The incompetence and mundanity comes from how the Neighborhood Watch Academy is more prioritized over low crime statistics instead of law enforcement. Despite an uneventful pace, Nicholas gets by with minor incidents like picking up a naval mine & unlicensed firearms from farmer Arthur Wembley (David Bradley). Things pick up however when actors of a local play, Martin Blower & Lucy Punch (David Threlfall & Lucy Punch) get murdered by a hooded figure but are staged as a car accident. The second he sees the crime scene, Angel suspects foul play unlike everyone else. Eventually, he does warn up to Danny as they binge watch action movies together, but at that same night, land developer George Merchant (Ron Cook) gets killed as well by the same hooded figure who stages it as an accidental gas explosion. At a carnival, Angel suspects the deaths to be connected to a recent property deal. Just when journalist Tim Messenger (Adam Baxton) plans to share information with him, he gets killed by a dislodged masonry that was pushed off a church tower by the cloaked figure. When Angel continues investigating on his own, he discovers from florist Leslie Tiller (Anne Reid) of her plans to sell land to Merchant’s business partners. Just when the protagonist turns to get his notebook, the cloaked figure strikes again and stabs her with a pair of garden shears. Due to how he couldn’t catch him to have legit evidence, he doesn’t go public with how the death happened. He does suspect supermarket manager Simon Skinner for what’s happening, due to his snarky sarcasm of murder and passing by the pass crime scenes, but his alibi backs him up. Just when he suspects multiple people are involved, he gets attacked by the hooded figure in his apartment by Simon’s employee Michael aka Lurch (Rory McCann). . Just when he hears Simon on the radio, which confirms his involvement, he tracks him down at Sandford Castle. However, he finds out every NWA member led by Frank have been committing the murders they stage as accidents for the sake of winning Village of the Year. Frank has been severely motivated because his wife Irene took her life when travelers ruined their chance to win for the first time years prior, thus being motivated to win yearly. When Angel tries running away, he finds bodies of all their victims in the catacombs. Danny finds him after he told him where he was going, but he stages his death and convinces him to leave since it’ll be unlikely to stop his dad. Angel holds his ground however and arms himself with the recently confiscated firearms to stop the NWA. Danny joins him in the fight and the others are able to be convinced of Frank’s corruption, joining him as well as they fight off the employees at Somerfield. Angel & Danny chase down Frank & Skinner in a high speed chase that concludes at a model village. Just when Skinner is defeated as a result of tripping onto a mini church steeple, Frank tries running away again in another car, but the distraction of a captured swan causes him to crash into a tree. With most of the NWA arrested, Angel’s former superiors from Metropolitan ask him to return due to the crime rate heavily rising in his absence. The protagonist declines the offer and prefers staying in Sandford. Just as the officers review their paperwork of multiple arrests, the last NWA member Tom Weaver (Edward Woodward), who was looking over the town with surveillance cameras, defiantly attacks. He shoots Danny with a blunderbuss, who survives, but the remaining antagonist dies when accidentally setting off the mine from earlier that kills himself and destroys the station. The film ends in a time jump taking place a year after the incident, showing Angel be promoted as Inspector and Danny become sergeant.
THOUGHTS
Director Edgar Wright made something hella fun when it came to Shaun of the Dead and he shook things up big time here. He makes a high octane homage to the action films that came before and it’s so funny that you’ll miss all the Easter eggs. You know you’re in big laughs when Nick Frost & cowriter Simon Pegg are the leading dynamic duo, but the supporting cast had me cackling the most. Every single one of the roster brought the most laughs in their given time due to how they’re unintentionally unserious in their environment and still find something to joke about when shit hits the fan. The editing by Chris Dickens makes the right amount of octane you expect from the climactic shootout which also does a great job setting up the deliveries for the jokes. Buddy cop action comedies feel like a dime a dozen when going into the 21st century, so you can ask how is it still effective in a modern era. Well in my surprise, it gave such a creative spin on telling us finding the balance in work & life is important and to never blend them together otherwise you’ll never make the relationships you seek for such reason. This is the lesson you get to learn thanks to Pegg & Frost being polar opposites that teach us so. Pegg shows Angel to be an interesting protagonist because he did not know how. Being a police officer has been a passion since he was a kid and feels like any bit of lenience will destroy how he’s felt. He’s so much of an overachiever that only did the whole department anticipate getting rid of him, but things didn’t work out between him and his girlfriend Janine (Cate Blanchett), who worked as a forensics investigator because he didn’t prioritize being a boyfriend and kept putting work over others’ feelings. If that doesn’t convince you he needed to change things up, Peter Jackson attacking him while dressed as Santa Claus will seal the deal. Angel doesn’t get the message across until he comes to Sandford and meets Danny. Frost makes him so enjoyable because even though he’s the most laidback of people in town, which he proves when he makes a cartoon on his notebook when not watching action movies. He does learn from Angel to take things serious, but he in turn reminds him that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself which he shows him every time they hung out. Even though he couldn’t bare stopping his dad that he had to do his homage of Point Break that expresses instant regret, he still had Angel’s back when it came to dealing with the NWA. Since he survived that gunshot from Weaver, it doesn’t change the fact how he’ll appreciate his newfound motivation as a person of the law. Angel also did the right thing to stay because he can tell who appreciates him and who doesn’t, which he’ll relish & appreciate as the next chapter of his life unfolds. Now we definitely had a dynamic duo in terms of villains here because while Timothy Dalton showed Skinner to be quite manipulative & crafty when using his charming facade, he’s surprisingly far from the most shameless of NWA because he was a big distraction of the main man. Jim Broadbent surprised me with his own deception in showing Frank to be one who comes off understanding that his good nature is echoed onto his son, but that’s his own facade in showing him to be actually vicious as a result of his own heartbreak. The guy makes it sound like he wants to honor his wife with his actions, but is only making the situation worse with such corruption, which also makes everyone’s selfishness excusable, not the point he was going for. It was a surprise that he was able to do it so long with zero suspicion until Angel, which makes it a miracle he did or the tradition could’ve gone worse. With the town properly cleansed due to his arrest, it’s clear now that the town is in safe hands. This movie holds up very well on its own when not thinking of it being part of Wright’s anthological Cornetto trilogy, but there are a few moments I couldn’t help questioning as I rewatched it. For example, why didn’t Nicholas do a background check on Sandford? He probably would’ve not picked up on the conspiracy sooner, but I bet it would’ve helped him how nonchalant the station was gonna be. It is funny when the underage teens come with him as he calls them out for drinking at the pub, but how come they don’t make a break for it? Danny knows it’s gonna get brushed off because his dad will get him out of it, but those teens don’t have that leverage which would’ve saved them from death. So it’s crazy they don’t continue the recklessness by running from the most honest man of the law they’ve met. Also, why would the NWA not make the skid marks to further stage the accident? If they wanted Angel off their trail, that would’ve sealed the deal. And why attack him at his home? If they wanted to isolate him, they could’ve shot him at an alleyway and Danny wouldn’t second guess it. That’s more of a surprise than how there is not a single missing persons report before Angel got there. Ignore this, then you’ll still have a blast as much as I did. In short, Hot Fuzz holds up for arguably being the shakeup that action comedies need at the time of release. If this genre is your preference, see this now.
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