Review of Hot Fuzz (2007) by Victor T — 03 Jun 2015

After the massive hit that "Shaun of the Dead" was, the Peg/Wright/Frost trio decided to make another comedy but now changing the target. For the second chapter of the Three Flavor Cornetto Trilogy (this time the color being blue representing the police service) they would instead of make a buddy cop parody in the form of "Hot Fuzz".

Nicholas Angel is an extremely serious and efficient police officer that has a big passion and dedication to his job that he makes his agency look bad in comparison. To get rid of this problem, his superiors send Angel to a countryside village called Sandford, but Angel will soon discover that there is more to this peaceful little town that meets the eye.

After a clever and hilarious satire of the overblow zombie genre, it seem like a good choice to focus on a buddy cop film now and the result was as fantastic as the last film. "Hot Fuzz" counts with fun performances, the chemistry between Peg and Frost continues to improve the acting and the enjoyment of the film, Wright´s energetic direction continues to surprise as he shows to be a talented director who can handle different genres, the writing has improved, the jokes continue to be hilarious without exceptions, it has subtle callbacks to "Shaun of the Dead", a bigger cast of peculiar and fun to watch characters, the atmosphere is executed marvelously, there are numerous references/gags of various films of this category-as in "Shaun of the Dead"-, well shot action sequences, an excessive use of gore that has a Verhoeven kind of vibe, a mystery which resolution is so hilarious that its an appropriate punchline for this joke of a film, the dialog is hilarious, the number of gags is increased but surprisingly it doesn't feel forced or oversaturated, lots of memorable scenes, it uses clichés in a fun/inventive way, a pacing that knows when it is required to be fast or to take its time, a humongous entertaining value and it shows respect to the genre they are making fun of. My big problem is that the film could have been more creative, it feels like an incomplete parody as it could have offered more.

"Hot Fuzz" is, as its predecessor, a well-made hilarious satire. It takes the gags to a new level and it perfectly works. A more than worthy addition to this hilarious/memorable trilogy and another comedy that I love. Edgar Wright proves that he is more than a promising director/screenwriter and the trio shows that when they´re together the result will defiantly be hilarious.