2021 Movie Draft: Hot Fuzz

2021 Movie Draft: Round 4, Pick 1

Featured on SLICEOFLIFE.COM

Genre: Comedy

Hot Fuzz is a balderdash buddy cop flick with the machinegun fire of both action and British wit. The only comparison to the film’s slapstick originality would be Airplane! (1980) and the previous debauchery of the comedic Pegg and Frost duo, Shaun of the Dead (2004).

The moment one gag ends, the next one doesn’t have time to develop, so it smacks you in the face with a quaintness only the British know best. If you can understand the accents, the Fuzz will have you laughing over a pint and some fish and chips.

Nick Angel (Simon Pegg) is the top London police officer with an arrest record 400% higher than the rest on the force. He’s so good that his higher uppers send him to the peaceful town of Sandford in order to receive less professional embarrassment on their part. Here, Nick meets Danny (Nick Frost), an overweight, lazy officer and proprietor of American action films like Point Blank and Bad Boys 2 (not the original, mind you, but part 2). In the meantime, odd “accidental” deaths unfold in the small town, and Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton), the town magnate, is a possible suspect.

Cop meets cop, expert meets sloth. The two unlikely cop-buddies will form another classic cinematic duo against corruption in a city that last complained of a runaway goose. What is pro-cop Angel to do with his spare time?

It is an understatement when I say the gags smack you in the face. The moment you laugh at the first one-liner, bloody mayhem – both metaphorical and quite literal – splatters the screen as if you’re watching a prequel to Midsommar (2019). To add to the fun, British old-timer marvels, Steve Coogan, Jim Broadbent, and Bill Nighy, do what they know best – make fools of themselves.

If you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, and you’re up for some over-the-top slapstick (and gore), you will surely enjoy the Fuzz. It may push in 34 minutes more than Airplane!, but I encourage you to wait until the last 10.

(You’ll be laughing over your next order of fish and chips.)