Hot Fuzz (2007)

I always thought that if I had the chance to watch the Cornetto trilogy at the cinema that I would take it. I previously saw Shaun of the Dead at the cinema back in September 2024.

Shaun of the Dead was Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s take on the George Romero films, Hot Fuzz is their take on the buddy cop genre of films. The set up of the film is that Simon Pegg plays Nick Angel who is a super cop and is sent to what appears to be a quiet country village because he is making the rest of the officers look bad. I like the pre-title scenes because it establishes just how much Nick is in love with the job, wanting the correct terms to be used.The problem is that he is making everyone look bad. The station that Angel is a part of has a nice collection of amusing people.

The relationship between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost was one the things I liked about Shaun of the Dead and it’s even better in this film. Danny (Frost) looks up to Angel from the moment that….well sobers up and this quickly leads to a great moment where they are watching Bad Boys 2 and Point Break. Timothy Dalton is brilliant in this film and actually steals it in my opinion. From the moment he appears on screen he is great to watch. He’s the supermarket manager and just acts like he’s up to something. What the film does well is hiding the fact that everyone in the NWA group is up to something. Most people probably caught on to this when they first watched it but I only ever spot something like that if the story isn't gripping me and I was totally gripped by this film. It does seem like every British actor is in this film and whilst the majority probably won't be familiar with international audiences or those under a certain age, for me it's fun to see them. 

Aside from the story, the thing I like about this film is the editing because it's done much better than in Shaun of the Dead which is to be expected as it's three years later. I was thinking about Baby Driver when watching this film because there are similarities in scene transition. Some people might think this is a style over substance film but to be honest that is unfair as the film has substance to back up the style. The whole set up of the film is better than Shaun of the Dead. I think that the film has more of a structure to it in narrative terms and as such the jokes and references are a lot more subtle and work better. 

I really love Hot Fuzz and think that it's Edgar Wright's best film. The final half hour is the perfect final act because it just feels like it's having fun. It is a buddy cop film that has a nice western vibe at one point. Hot Fuzz is a comedy that I watch every couple of years and it's still funny all these years later. I think that it's by far the best of the trilogy although I understand if people prefer Shaun of the Dead. The jokes are funnier, the story is better, the performances are stronger and the whole thing has a style that I think works better than Shaun of the Dead.