Hot Fuzz review

DVD of the week - As British flick Hot Fuzz hits the shelves this week, we find we can hardly contain ourselves.

It’s not because the film is set in the fictitious Gloucestershire village of Sandford or even that the leading man, Simon Pegg, hails from Gloucester, Hot Fuzz wins the covetable title of DVD of the week because it is a home grown comedy, packed with laugh-out-loud hilarity, that gives Hollywood’s action movies a run for its money.

Yes, Tinseltown may have fast-paced car chases, budget-blowing explosions and short-range shoot-outs, but thanks to Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s penmanship so does seemingly sleepy Sandford – plus Cornettos, village vicars and missing swans to boot.

Centring on straight-laced super cop Nicholas Angel (Pegg), the story begins when the by-the-book PC is sent packing from his post in the Met because his efficiency is making his superiors look bad. Angel is given a job in a village with the lowest crime rate in Britain (yes, set in Gloucestershire, but filmed in Somerset), where police work consists of little more than attending WI meetings.

As Pegg plays the straight man to perfection, Angel is teamed-up with bumbling idiot Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), who spends his time obsessing about Bad Boys II and automatic weapons in equal measure – as well as delivering much of the wickedly funny laughs.

In short, while Sandford prepares to win the Village of the Year Award for another year in a row, Angel and Butterman bond over Point Break and investigate a series of coincidental ‘accidents’ which result in the action sequences the Hollywood homage was clearly written for.

Among the (bit too close for comfort) West Country accents is a crammed line-up of cameos from British comics and actors including Bill Bailey, Steve Coogan, Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent, while ex-007 Timothy Dalton plays a superb villain / supermarket boss.

Following-up a fantastically well-received film like Shaun of the Dead was never going to be easy, and in many ways Hot Fuzz doesn’t quite match the Pegg-Wright predecessor. But don’t let that out you off, Hot Fuzz is a superbly-crafted piece of British comedy, packed with one-liners and littered with snide references to Hollywood’s action genres. It is the DVD of the summer, as well as this week.

Film: Hot Fuzz
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton, Bill Bailey, Jim Broadbent
Classification: 15
Release date: 11 June 2007
Available from: Amazon for £11.98

Michelle Byrne
11 June 2007