Like I said earlier, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright have generated a lot of good will with me. Shaun of the Dead was one of my favorite movies of the last few years. It both lovingly tributed and lovingly sent-up the zombie movie genre. They made a zom-rom-com, a zombie romantic comedy, which was genuinely funny yet didn't insult the fans of that type of movie (of which I am one)
With Hot Fuzz the give a similar treatment to the cop movie. Although, unlike Shaun, which all-in-all kept true to the genre, it takes this type of movie to it's logically illogical extreme.
Simon Pegg stars as Nicholas Angel, London's best cop. His arrest rate is hundreds of times better than anyone else on force--oh, excuse me--service. So much so that he is making everyone else look bad. So they ship him out to Sandford, an almost crime-free village outside London.
Angel's by the book methods don't sit well with his fellow cops, and he finds it hard to adjust to differences that come with policing a small town. But when he begins to suspect that a series of accidents are actually cleverly disguised murders, he finds himself at odds with the entire town--literally.
I loved this movie. It is truly laugh out loud funny. Actually, not laugh, guffaw. I was sitting in my seat at the theater, laughing like a fool.
What I love about the movie is that it builds to a logical explanation for the accidents/murders, then throws that conclusion out the window and comes up with a crazy, over the top, completely silly one. Which leads to a hilarious ending which I will not spoil for anyone reading this.
The creators haven't gone that far from their Shaun of the Dead roots. They retained several cast members and a fair amount of gore. And they have several hilarious cameos, from Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Bill Night to an unrecognizable Peter Jackson (look for the stabbing Santa) and Cate Blancett (look for CSI girlfriend).
But even though the movie is more silly than Shaun was, it still pays tribute to the cop movie genre. Several scenes ape famous scenes in other movies like Point Break and Bad Boys II, and certain music in the soundtrack is lifted from their soundtracks as well (Grindhouse director Robert Rodriguez also provides part of the score.)
So if you like British humor, parody, cop movies, or Shaun of the Dead, definitely go see this movie. Trust me, it's a laugh riot.
Now, the trailers.
- Run, Fatboy, Run: It's a movie starring Simon Pegg. He's a man apparently training for something, but the clip never truly tells you what. Hank Azaria is in it too.
- Death at a Funeral: This one's an odd one. It appears to be a British comedy, but it's directed by Frank Oz. And one of the stars is Alan Tudyk, doing a British accent. It appears to be the story of a man who is holding a funeral for his father but then discovers that his dad was having an affair with a gay dwarf played by Peter Dinklage. Weird.
- Superbad: I've seen this trailer before, but, apparently, Seth Rogen also wrote the movie in addition to co-starring in it.
- 28 Weeks Later: Gotta love the marketing mind. Let's place a trailer for a sequel to a zombie movie set in London before a film done by creators who previously did a different zombie movie set in London. I like the way the dots were connected there.
- Balls of Fury: I guess people though the producers of Dodgeball got it wrong. The figured ping-pong was a way more worthy psudosport to mock. This was done by a couple guys who were in The State, so it's got that going for it. And Christopher Walken dressed up as a Chinese warlord, which has got to be worth something. And a Jack Black wannabe in the lead (who is Dan Fogler, who was a member of the original cast of Broadway's "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee")
- Knocked Up: Judd Apatow has the same good will that Pegg and Wright has. I went in to the 40 Year Old Virgin expecting to hate it, partially for reasons that are obvious for anyone who reads this column, partial for reasons I don't want to discuss in this blog. But I ended up loving it, which makes this movie a must see. It marks the second trailer to feature Seth Rogen, Alan Tudyk and Jonah Hill. It's going to be a busy summer for those guys.
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