After the global success of Shaun of the Dead, the world was on the edge of their seat awaiting what mad works Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg would come up with next. It wasn't too long before we got what became the second film in the "Cornetto Trilogy": Hot Fuzz.
We are introduced to Police Constable Nicholas Angel, an overachieving police officer that believes heavily in the immutable word of the law. His arrest record is several times higher than all other officers in the London Metropolitan area and is making all of them look bad, so the higher-ups decide to promote and relocate Angel to Sandford, Gloucestershire, a lovely little village in the countryside that has won "Village of the Year" countless times in a row. After a brief conversation with his ex-girlfriend, it becomes quickly apparent that Angel is too obsessed with his job, which hurts his interactions with other people, making him come off as cold and narrow-minded.
Admittedly, the fuzz is considerably toasty.
Nicholas glumly moves out to Sandford, and we're introduced to Danny Butterman, an inexperienced PC that takes a quick shine to Angel by being fascinated with stories of some of his more exciting encounters in the city. Eventually, Butterman's charm rubs off on Angel, helping him to learn to loosen up, and Angel's no-nonsense attitude starts helping Danny to shape up into a more serious officer himself. But it isn't long until shady occurrences happen in Sandford, as people are dying left and right, but their deaths appear to be accidents. Nicholas is convinced it's murder, and furiously digs into the incidents, but is he actually just going off the deep-end from not having the action from the city for so long? Watch and find out.
The effects used in this film are pretty dang good, and the soundtrack is quite excellent. There are many hilarious anecdotes, and the film is absolutely packed with jokes that you're just not going to be able to catch everything on a single watch, making it a real treat to watch over and over. This film, being a parody of action movies, has a lot of over-the-top scenes, even showing over-caffeinated segments of Nicholas Angel doing paperwork of all things. There are several references that aren't in your face, as everything just flows mmmmmm perfectly. As an added bonus, the DVD has audio commentary by the writers of the film who play off of each other so well that it's genuinely entertaining and humorous even to watch that. And there's also a fun trivia track you can turn on that will tell even more stuff than the writer commentary did. All in all, this is one of my most favorite films and is often a go-to for when I desire some comedy and action in a tasty package. Be a little warned, though, that the comedy is fairly British, which I know isn't everyone's cup o' tea, so as much as this movie does the trick for me, it may not for you. But I still say give it a shot, you'll at worst have a good time.
