Absolutely awesome film. Not only is the story touching and the comedy is great. Almost all the jokes work for me (Romeo and Juliet, and Point Break were I think my favorite bits) But this movie is absolutley great. I need to see it again. It's hard to say if this is better than Shaun of Dead, but its at least as good, if not better.

Bring in Collaboration Number 3

A+

Zodiac, Grindhouse, and This are certainly making this a great year for me so far.

This sort of is Collaboration Number 3, if you count their TV show Spaced. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you search for it on Youtube (I believe all 12 episodes of it are still up on the site).

Aaah a fellow Spaced fan, nice.

Can Brits even be Britophiles? Seems awfully incestuous...

You people give it more credit than it deserves.

I hate you, Bradley.

In a good way. But I hate you.

Despite how much I loved Shaun of the Dead, I had my reservations about seeing the follow-up collaboration, Hot Fuzz. Perhaps it was due to my pure indifference toward high-octane, shoot-em-up action flicks, or perhaps it was just because I couldn't believe that anything could match the brilliance of Shaun. The trailer seemed to confirmed my fears, as it was considerably less funny than I would have hoped for, but once the glowing reviews started rolling in, I was a bit relieved. All of them seemed to say the same thing: it was not as good as Shaun. So, with mild trepidation, I went out and saw Hot Fuzz to judge for myself.

And the result is: I agree. It is not as good as Shaun of the Dead, though that may be for a couple of reasons: I was expecting it not to be, Shaun took me a few viewings to fully appreciate its brilliance, or perhaps its just my lack of outright love for action flicks. Whatever the case, I still found it to pale in comparison to the brilliant zom-rom-com (or is it rom-zom-com?). Do not take this as a sign that the film is bad; quite to the contrary, it's one of the funniest films I've seen. It just was missing something. All of the ingredients were there: same director, same writers, same leading duo, same style of humour. So what went wrong?

I suspect that it tripped over its plot. The story of Shaun was simple: it merely re-told the tale of every other zombie movie from the past 40 years; a relatively easy plot to follow. It just added its own spice to it. The problem with Hot Fuzz is that it gets too caught up in trying to tell its story that it forgets to make the audience laugh. As the mystery is solved about 2/3 of the way through - complete with a scene that made me remember The Da Vinci Code, whether intentional or not - the tone sharply turns from light to dark. The characters have been developed so well that it seems like almost a cheat to the audience to treat them this way. Thankfully, all is not as it seems, and the film soon redeems itself with a fantastic ending. But that section in the middle was enough for me to downgrade the grade, if it was only a brief hiccough.

The rest of the movie is absolutely terrific, though. Apart from a slightly awkward opening scene, the laughs are fast and furious, obvious and sly, dirty and dirtier. The cast of characters are so insanely colourful and yet somehow real; they're funny without being stupid. From the dirty-mouthed female cop to the asshole pair of detectives to the dastardly evil supermarket owner, every character has their moment in the sun and shines. The evolution of the relationship between the two leads feels real and yet somehow still manages to mock the typical buddy cop dynamic of most action flicks; like Shaun it mocks the genre in a loving way, paying homage to its roots while still laughing at them. The nods to other films aren't as apparent as in Shaun - perhaps that's due to my own relative inexperience with the action genre, though - but a few notable ones - Point Break - are not only obvious but embraced. The stunning death scenes are available in all their gory detail; in fact, I was so blown away by the death scenes that I will devote an entire paragraph to them.

The first death scene starts off normal enough: a killer cuts off the heads of his victims. But what happens next - the staging of the scene - is what blew me away. Two decapitated heads lie in the middle of a road; the town welcome sign stands crooked a few feet away, bloodied on the bottom and hopelessly mashed; a topless convertible sits perched over an embankment beyond it, showing the signs of an obvious accident, two headless corpses sitting in the front seats. In a comedy, it was stunning to see such a viciously gory and horrific accident scene - but it made me laugh. The second death is a mere house explosion, but the third death has to be the single most gruesome effect I've ever seen. A man has his head literally replaced by a giant cornerstone. To see it is to believe it. It must be witnessed.

All in all, Hot Fuzz is another worthy addition to the comedy subgenre of loving spoofs that includes Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and, of course, Shaun of the Dead. It doesn't quite measure up to those two, mostly due to the problems with the plot. Though the mystery was interesting, the payoff left something to be desired. Apart from that, the film is a hilarious take-off on the action genre, at once both acknowledging and ridiculing the influence of shoot-em-up flicks, and certainly should not be missed. And definitely should be seen twice.

Call it elevated expectations from loving Shaun of the Dead and hearing this was better in every way, but I was sadly underwhelmed. I think what did it is that while Shaun of the Dead is full of British humor, it's just a more universal concept. Here, the punchline that it's a slam-bang mystery/action movie in a sleepy village just didn't translate to belly laughs for me. And frankly, a lot of the dialogue just felt lazier and many of the gags quite obvious. Blame it on the incessant quick cuts. They lampoon the action movie style, but don't have any punchlines, and where the jokes in Shaun of the Dead were often repeated in different ways for laughs, here they get repetitive. That said, Simon Pegg really is great, as is most all the rest of the cast, and when Wright switches into horror movie mode (it seems pretty clear to me that horror, not action, comedy is more his bag) there's some fun to be had. And sure, the last 30 minutes when the film becomes a true parody of action films - it felt like a spoof of CSI more than anything to be honest - allow for some good visual gags.

God I wish I had liked this movie more.

Give it some repeat viewings, that was the case with me with Shaun, everyone said it was great so I watched it, and was underwhelmed, but it continuously grows on me, and Hot Fuzz is doing the same, but at a much higher rate for me.

I'll definitely need to see Hot Fuzz again. I keep thinking about Shaun, and how much I love that movie. And Hot Fuzz doesn't measure up to Shaun entirely, but it really shouldn't be the same either. So... I don't know. I'll stick with the A for it, but I definitely need a second viewing.

I thought Shaun was much the same as this: really over-the-top in the finale. And it works in both films. The only difference is Shaun has a much better lead-up.

I really can't believe this is only 14A up here. I thought all the f-bombs and gruesome deaths would make it 18A, but nope. Gotta love the Canadian ratings board.

Saw it a while ago. Could have sworn I wrote something about it...

I liked it, though. Fast-paced, enjoyable. But when it comes down to it, I simply laughed a lot less than I wanted to. Shaun of the Dead (which I still consider one of the best comedies in recent years) didn't exactly have me doubled over, but it had me chuckling constantly, whereas Fuzz's chuckle ratio was much lower. And nowhere near the gravity of Shaun's finale either.

Not great, but a fun watch. Simon Pegg's great.

B

The last third of the movie is the most awesome thing I've seen in theatres in several months.

I expected the movie to be a lot funnier as well. Really a step down from Shaun but there are still some really funny scenes there. The story wasn't to bad either but like someone else mentioned, the movie was surprisingly long and they could have cut some stuff out. And yeah, the last 30 minutes are awesome. B

While I don't think it's as funny as Shaun of the Dead, it's still quite a treat. Both Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are terrific. And the last third of the film kicked all kinds of ass.

B+

#1 movie of the year.
A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Awesome, awesome movie. And Nick and Danny were so gay for each other.

I didn't realize Peter Jackson was the Santa in Hot Fuzz who stapped Nicholas Angel through the hand

Yep. And Cate Blanchett was his ex at the beginning with the mask on.

Well, like most of you I really liked Shaun of the Dead but was unsure about this one based on the trailer. Actually unsure isn't right, I was ready to be disappointed by this.

Watched it two days ago and loved it, very happy with and can't wait for their next project.

A

Extra note: really gory in parts which makes sense since they made Shaun, just not sure if it all really fit with this though.

I'm on the middle on this one... it had a good sense of humor, but was never as funny as I expected it to be, and rarely did I laugh out loud. I thought the last gun battle was good for the first 10 minutes, but got a little old and goofy the next 45 minutes (or what felt like 45 minutes). They could have easily cut 30 minutes out of the movie and made it better.

It definitely had some entertaining moments and good characters, but overall left me feeling slightly disappointed. B-

Am I the only one made terribly uneasy by the scene where he finds all the bodies of the young hooligans and crazy farmer? Or maybe I just find the idea of ideal communities that go crazy to keep it that way really creepy.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. Like everyone else, it was really slow in parts, but when it was on, it was ON. Especially in that final half hour.

***.5

No, that bothered me as well. It's what caused my grade to drop from an A to an A-. It just felt too disturbing and dark for the type of film it was (even it is was a very dark comedy).

I've decided to settle on a *** rating for the film. The first two acts were insanely crooked at times, and wobbled between action satire and slasher spoof, which makes it probably a weak 2.5-star most of the time. It's the showstopping 4-star final act that elevates it so much. I was seriously giddy at moments and doing little claps at moments (When he dropkicks the old lady...OMG ).

The British have always been more comfortable with black humor, and don't need their comedy homogenized like the Yanks...