by Samantha Scott
Daily Lobo
As I prepared to watch Simon Pegg's second foray into feature film, "Hot Fuzz," I was braced for a major disappointment.
I had heard good things about the film, but I tend to steer clear of the movie theater. So, I was eagerly awaiting the "Hot Fuzz" DVD release. As a cinematic realist, I had to be prepared that the super-cop comedy might not live up to its predecessor, 2004's "Shaun of the Dead," a self-described romantic zombie comedy, or "rom-zom-com," which brilliantly used absurdity, slapstick comedy and clever editing to illuminate the plight of the working class and the importance of self-reliance and friendship.
"Hot Fuzz" continues to explore these themes, in addition to being an intricately woven tale with action enhanced by co-writer and masterful director Edgar Wright.
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The story begins with police constable Nicholas Angel (Pegg) who's so good at his job that he's showing up his London colleagues. Tired of living in the shadow of Angel's exemplary skills and ethics, his superiors promote him to sergeant and transfer him to the bucolic village of Sandford.
Here, Angel encounters a village of people who seem completely removed from the chaos and violence outside their city limits. Angel immediately feels there's something amiss in a community where everyone seems civilized and the crime rate is unimaginably low.
After a series of bizarre and gruesome accidents, Angel begins to investigate, suspecting the village and some of its inhabitants are not what they seem. Convinced there is chaos and mayhem lurking beneath the surface of Sanford's quiet streets and neatly trimmed hedgerows, he applies his super-sleuthing skills and digs deeper into the mystery. At every turn, he tackles - sometimes literally - a citizenry that seems too content with its way of life to acknowledge or follow the law.
Wright uses the camera to his and the audience's advantage in spinning out the narrative, cutting from scene to scene with lightning speed while also making imaginative use of close-ups and innovative angles to build tension and advance the complex on-screen action. In addition, the movie's characters, the deadpan dialogue and the addition of a hard-rocking soundtrack add to the film's charm, creating a world that is as joyful as it is dangerous and perplexing.
The great thing about this film is that it uses all of the above elements - combining action, humor and a unique filmic vision - to explore some serious societal issues.
Pegg and Wright confront the complacent middle class head-on. "Hot Fuzz" examines modern life as it is overtaken by different versions of reality, the groupthink that comes to haunt insular communities and the homogeneity that poisons post-modern Western culture. The two also take a stab at the trend in Britain and America that allows mediocrity to flourish at the expense of excellence.
As a shootout near the end nudges the film towards a sort of self-referential, genre-mocking surrealism, it becomes clear that "Hot Fuzz" is much more than the sum of its parts. More than merely a comedy, action-adventure or cop movie, "Hot Fuzz" is a classically executed and wildly entertaining trip through the dark spaces that are part of our bright world.
"Hot Fuzz"
Rating: A+
Available now on DVD
