Hot Fuzz
Also reviewed by:
Slick
Let me begin by saying that it is without doubt that Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are the best and brightest comedic force in Britain today (surely Gervais and Merchant will never top The Office), and challenging Judd Apatow and his former Freaks & Geeks crew as the guys making the freshest comedy films of the moment. Prepared for the deluge of copycat films trying unsuccessfully to ape the formulas of both of these unique bands of filmmakers.
However, with the disclaimer out the way, it has to be said thatLet me begin by saying that it is without doubt that Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are the best and brightest comedic force in Britain today (surely Gervais and Merchant will never top The Office), and challenging Judd Apatow and his former Freaks & Geeks crew as the guys making the freshest comedy films of the moment. Prepared for the deluge of copycat films trying unsuccessfully to ape the formulas of both of these unique bands of filmmakers.
However, with the disclaimer out the way, it has to be said that as much as I admire these guys and what they’re trying to do, I found Hot Fuzz, the follow-up to instant cult classic Shaun of the Dead, somewhat underwhelming.
It’s almost certain that I’m judging Pegg & Co harsher than I would, say, the nth American Pie film, but just because they’re the smartest kid in the class doesn’t mean they can’t do better.
The direction was awesome. I love how these guys lovingly pull the piss out of genre favourites, it’s their strong suit as far as I’m concerned, as just as they took their zombie gore and scares seriously in Shaun, so to do the perfectly aped American action movie homages and clichés come delightfully thick and fast.
As much as I enjoyed Pegg’s performance and character I felt Nick Frost’s was a little too sameish to his Shaun character to really enjoy, although you’re asking for comparisons when you team up the same pair in back-to-back films. What I wasn’t so much of a fan of was the Small-town-Britannica stuff. I get how the idea of combining a mindless American action film with these sorts of Darling Buds of Hamish McBeth plodding British shows is a great one, but in execution adhering to the same stuffy character clichés before sharply turning the whole sleepy-town thing on its head at the end didn’t really work for me, and a few of the more obvious moments of comedy were a little too slapsticky and plain goofy for my tastes (I’m looking at the swan stuff here).
Don’t get me wrong. Hot Fuzz is still immensely enjoyable, but it just didn’t really excite or massively amuse me like I was expecting and wanting it to. I did have the exact same reaction with Shaun the first time I saw it and then liked that a lot more the second time round, and more again the third. However the difference is at this stage I don’t really see myself sitting through Fuzz again. I’m not sure there’s anything there left to discover, any patches of genius that I may have missed, as it hardly seemed like subtle or layered humour was what they were going for, but I’ll still watch anything these guys do and recognise they’re still ahead of the pack when it comes to current comedies, so more power to ‘em.
It’s almost certain that I’m judging Pegg & Co harsher than I would, say, the nth American Pie film, but just because they’re the smartest kid in the class doesn’t mean they can’t do better.
The direction was awesome. I love how these guys lovingly pull the piss out of genre favourites, it’s their strong suit as far as I’m concerned, as just as they took their zombie gore and scares seriously in Shaun, so to do the perfectly aped American action movie homages and clichés come delightfully thick and fast.
As much as I enjoyed Pegg’s performance and character I felt Nick Frost’s was a little too sameish to his Shaun character to really enjoy, although you’re asking for comparisons when you team up the same pair in back-to-back films. What I wasn’t so much of a fan of was the Small-town-Britannica stuff. I get how the idea of combining a mindless American action film with these sorts of Darling Buds of Hamish McBeth plodding British shows is a great one, but in execution adhering to the same stuffy character clichés before sharply turning the whole sleepy-town thing on its head at the end didn’t really work for me, and a few of the more obvious moments of comedy were a little too slapsticky and plain goofy for my tastes (I’m looking at the swan stuff here).
Don’t get me wrong. Hot Fuzz is still immensely enjoyable, but it just didn’t really excite or massively amuse me like I was expecting and wanting it to. I did have the exact same reaction with Shaun the first time I saw it and then liked that a lot more the second time round, and more again the third. However the difference is at this stage I don’t really see myself sitting through Fuzz again. I’m not sure there’s anything there left to discover, any patches of genius that I may have missed, as it hardly seemed like subtle or layered humour was what they were going for, but I’ll still watch anything these guys do and recognise they’re still ahead of the pack when it comes to current comedies, so more power to ‘em.