Hot Fuzz (R)

Parody is a funny thing. No, really. When done well, it can work equally well as comedy or as an entry in the genre it’s parodying. But when done poorly, you can be left with a string of barely related gags loosely hanging off the barest skeleton of a plot. “Blazing Saddles” is a classic parody because it is just as adept at being a Western (with its wide shots of lonely, dusty landscapes and depiction of the “one good man” standing up to oppressors to defend a small town) as it is at being a movie that revels in poking fun at the tropes of the genre.

Though there may be some comparisons between Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg and Mel Brooks & Gene Wilder, in my estimation, Wright & Pegg have surpassed Brooks & Wilder. Wright & Pegg’s films seem to have found the magic formula that allows them make parodies that actually can function even better as solid genre entries. As such, “Hot Fuzz“ is both one of the most entertaining action movies of the past decade as well as one of the funniest.

Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, the star of London’s police force who is so good at his job, he makes the rest of the force look like slackers by comparison. His superiors ship him off to a quiet country village to get him out of their hair and once there, his by the book attitude rubs his new neighbors and coworkers the wrong way. Especially when he starts insinuating that the town’s murder rate is so low because all of the “accidental” deaths are murder cover-ups. His only defender is fellow officer Danny (played by frequent Wright & Pegg co-collaborator Nick Frost), whose love of action movies has him enamored with the hero cop. Along the way Nicholas teaches Danny how to be a better cop, and Danny teaches Nicholas how to relax.

This seemingly standard “fish out of water” tale is a canvas for Pegg, Wright, and Frost to paint a village mystery with an American action movie pallet. While on patrol, Danny asks Nicholas if he’s ever fired two guns while jumping through the air and how cool it is to be in on a raid. Nicholas downplays the excitement, preferring to focus on note taking and filling out paperwork, the most important parts of the job in his opinion. Nicholas goes for most of the movie doing nothing more exciting than looking for a lost swan or stopping a speeder. But all of the staples of police work in a sleepy village are filmed in styles reminiscent of Tony Scott and Michael Bay. Fast cutting, colored lights, brash music, loud sound effects, the whole nine. Juxtaposition is the main source of comedy in the movie; backed up by some witty banter.

The real brilliance of the movie comes in the third act, when Nicholas uncovers the conspiracy, and it turns into an actual Tony Scott/Michael Bay action flick. When Nicholas and Danny arm up to take on any and all conspirators, the result is the intense action and massive firepower that Danny and the audience have been waiting for. But the action is far from mindless. Not only are we able to discern what is happening and to whom (a credit to Wright as a director), but we’ve grown to care for the budding Nicholas/Danny bromance (a credit to Wright & Pegg as the writers). The stakes actually matter more than, say, aliens taking over the Earth.

It’s much more compelling to see a gunfight for the lives of two people we care about than it is to see buildings crumble over the fate of 6 billion people we’ve never seen. Contrary to popular opinion, film audiences are not idiots, we know we’re seeing fiction. At no point in any of those “spectacle for the sake of spectacle” third acts, do we imagine that we in the audience are actually in danger. But if you put just one or two characters we care about in a life or death scenario, we’ll be entranced every time. Sure, big set pieces can be fun when you turn off your brain and let them wash over you, but at the end of the day, you’re still turning your brain off.

In spite of the serious comedic chops on display throughout the movie, the final 30 minutes of “Hot Fuzz” are as engaging as anything in action classics like “Die Hard.” But don’t blame yourself if you don’t notice on first viewing; you may be laughing too hard.

– by Jared Moore