Film: Hot Fuzz

Let us cut to the chase, shall we? Hot Fuzz is the funniest film you'll see this year, and is the funniest I've seen in a long, long, long time. It's not perfect, but I laughed until I hurt while I was watching it, and continue to giggle whenever I think about it. Hot Fuzz rules.

The film is brought to you by the same crew that did Shaun of the Dead. If you have never heard of that film, I'm sorry. For you. It's an excellent film. The idea behind Shaun was to take the horror movie premise, remain faithful to that premise and genre, and produce a comedy. Thus, Shaun has all the usual horror film moments with the bonus that you're laughing your butt off. Fuzz is the same basic concept: Take the police action/buddy film premise and layer in the laughs.

The plot involves Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), who is the best cop in the world, or at least within the London Metropolitan Police Force. He's so good he's making everyone else look bad, so he gets transferred to a sleepy little town that has a crime rate somewhere south of zero (one major investigation involves a runaway goose). There he is teamed with Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), the chief inspector's son, who is a bit of a doof and a huge fan of police action films. All seems perfectly boring to Angel but he soon realizes that something sinister is afoot. (Shades of The Wicker Man; I guess the producers couldn't completely escape the horror genre.)

Fuzz is brilliantly directed by Edgar Wright (who also co-wrote the film with Pegg). I enjoyed how the they made sure to bring everyone along. For example, Danny makes a reference to one police action flick or another, and Angel groans in frustration. A portion of the audience might get the reference, or not, but that's okay because later Danny shows that film bit to Angel, and now everyone's on the same page. When the payoff comes still later the audience roars. It might sound redundant but it works to hilarious effect.

I found myself laughing out loud at the music and camera work, and I mean that in a good way. David Arnold's score starts innocuous enough but by the end has mutated into a brilliant rip on every Hans Zimmer score ever ripped for every Michael Bay film that Jerry Bruckheimer has ever produced. The highpoint to me is when the music swells as the camera spins around Angel and Danny a la Bad Boys II and it's deliriously funny. I generally hate how Bay has his music swell, the camera twirl, and all the cut scenes, but Fuzz matches all of that so damn well it's a comedic high-point, especially during a "high-speed" chase, as cars going flying over houses. See the film, you'll know what I mean.

I appreciated that clues as to what's actually going on are right out in the open, almost from frame one. You just can't see them because you're not insane, like the film's villain, but during the genre-mandated explanation sequence I was again laughing out loud because it shows all the clues that were right there all along.

Some have complained that the film doesn't translate well, being very British and all. No problem for me, because I was an original fan of Monty Python, not to mention all the inane Brit comedies that used to come our (US) way. And no problem for the audience I saw the film with. They roared with laughter, so obviously they understood what was funny. In fact, this is the third comedy I've seen in recent months and this film, by far, garnered the best audience reactions.

Some gags do go on a little too long. The result is that the film, overall, is longer than it needs be. This seems to be the trend, though, so it's hard to condemn Fuzz for being one of the crowd. Only, of course, that it's so above the crowd in all other respects. It also reflects the cinematic philosophy of the late Francois Truffaut, who stated that a film should either reflect the joy of filmmaking or the agony of filmmaking. In this case, the sheer thrill the filmmakers must have had in making this film shines from every frame.

In sum: The writing is smart, the acting is spot on, the parodies are brilliant, and the film is funny as all get out. Rated R because bad boy cop films demand F-bomb language and the murders are, out of necessity for the plot (honest), over-the-top gruesome.