Hot Fuzz

The second film in Pegg and Wright's "Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy", Hot Fuzz sees Nicholas Angel (Pegg), the London Met's top police officer, transferred to the quiet village of Sanford in rural Gloucestershire after being forced out of London by his superiors for making his colleagues look bad. After partnering with action-hungry constable Danny Butterman (Frost), the two parade the streets looking for missing swans and eating Cornettos. When a series of gruesome deaths rock the village they are simply labelled as accidents. However, being the exceptional officer that he is, Angel realises that they must be murders and that he has to find the culprit with no help from his colleagues or the residents of the village. What he uncovers shatters his beliefs about right and wrong to the very core.

Inspired by huge budget action films such as Point Break, Bad Boys, and Lethal Weapon, Hot Fuzz delivers by creating a hyperbolic, adrenaline fuelled dream world where British policemen are portrayed as similar to their American counterparts. It's a breath of fresh air seeing the action set in a stereotypically rural English town, as opposed to the usual urban settings of LA or New York. There's so much action and mystery that it makes an episode of The Bill look like a children's TV programme.

Kudos must be given to Pegg and Frost. Having worked together for 10 years, their developing friendship in the film is a joy to watch. With laugh-a-minute jokes and fantastic cameos from Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan, and Martin Freeman (also watch out for Lord of The Rings director Peter Jackson as Father Christmas), it ticks the boxes for great action, superb comedy, and a quintessentially British film. Finally we have a film that makes the British police look cool.

Michael Buttigieg

Archive

Nicholas Angel is the finest cop London has to offer, but with an arrest rate four times higher than any other officer, he’s just too good. In a conspiracy to stop everyone else looking bad, Angel’s superiors send him off to Sandford, a supposedly quiet and crime free village.

Angel’s new ‘partner in crime’ is the Police Chief’s son Danny Butterman, who views Angel as his own personal action hero. From day one Angel is on the case with the minor crime in Sandford, and manages to fill up the cells on his first night. His frustration with the sleepy village only increases as Danny’s action hero fantasies continue, with talk of car chases and gunfights straight out of his favourite action movies.

The peace was never set to last and it’s not long before a series of suspicious deaths happen in Sandford. The locals do not have much time for Angel’s theories, but in his determination to prove them wrong he and Danny step up the game and become more than just your local village officer. Danny’s dream of exciting car chases, gun-fighting and much more soon become a reality as this unlikely duo work together for justice and truth.

A follow up to Shaun of the Dead was always going to be tough, but all expectations have certainly been exceeded here. It’s hard to know at times in this movie whether you’re watching a comedy, a horror, a crime thriller or an action movie and I guess the case is it’s a bit of everything. This is often a recipe for disaster but in this case Wright has pulled it off and made a truly superb movie, well worth anyone’s time and money! With one liners that will have you in stitches, you may even be tempted to watch it again and again!!

Michelle Foy