"Hot Fuzz" (2007) - Movie Review

I still remember my child hood days when I was crazy for toy guns. The toy guns especially due to the action movies both in my native language Tamil and Hollywood flicks. Even the weirdest illogical movies inspired not only me but lot of the kids during that time to get into the game of “gun fighting”. Whenever our six cousins get together, it will be the game of “gun fight”. Of course it is the fun of being cool and having a strange sensation of heroism and definitely not the fun of killing some one. I have outgrown those movies but still enjoy if it is made with niceties and logics. And I cannot imagine some one coming up with the same concept in a movie in a funny/serious way.

Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the man of perfection. He adheres to the law and its procedures with dedication and nobility. “In the name of law” is what he yells when he needs to break glasses of a shop to catch a killer. He is been put in a totally remote and peaceful village of Sandford. He is suited up with partner Danny (Nick Frost) who is a great fan of action movies. Nothing happens in this village and thus the story goes on. This is not new but the fast cut editing style makes it funny and entertaining. The technique of fast cut shots could have been fatal of overdoing it often, but Edgar Wright knows it and his editor Chris Dickens knows it as well. They use it at right moments. They use it when the story looks to fade into slow mode of normal clichéd movies tend to.

Many people feel that comedy films are easy to make. While it is getting off their mind now a day, creating a comedy movie is as tough as dealing an emotional movie. There can be lot of liberty which can be taken in these but the same is the limitation. A sequence has wafer thin line of being stupidly not funny and ridiculously funny. It is the biggest challenge of any movie maker of comedy films. Edgar Wright had the same kind of it in his previous films “Shaun of the Dead” (which by the way has the funniest scenes in the first half of the film) and he started to falter in the end. He did not know where to take it from an astounding start. In the end he aims for a serious plot to it which does not work the way it supposed to. Now in “Hot Fuzz”, the movie slowly gets into the very same mode of it but came out with brilliant concept.

This movie is the homage to the action films every kid has grown up for. Wright uses the two main movies for this, “Point Break” and “Bad Boys”. The style and usage of action sequences are well in it, but for me it is the “Broken Arrow” and “Face/Off”. I may sound silly but those are the two movies for me which defined the style of the action sequences. I guess for Wright it was those two. Everyone wants to enact the same if given in real life with no loss of blood and do it for the fun of it. Wright brings their dream on to the screen. It is fun to watch the final thirty minutes of the film. Nicholas gearing up his bullet proof vest and loading him up with the weapons and the cooler shades he wears and slightly lifts up his head just enough for light source to reflect on it. Amazing and an enthralling enactment! I need to mention about an actor at this point of time. Rajinikanth is considered literally a god in the southern Indian Cinema. His movie has lot of ridiculousness but people go crazy for him because of his style. He brought in the flavour of the onscreen charisma with respect to how “style” can make a big difference. I am sure whoever has seen those can definitely identify his style with this movie.

So does it mean that “Hot Fuzz” has lot of ridiculous stupid scenes? Yes, of course, but the beauty in it is the honesty of it. While lot of movies say that they are different and try to say that these are classically made to have emotions attached to it, “Hot Fuzz” says that it is stupid and have fun along with it. It is this honesty to the script which makes the movie one hell of an entertaining ride.

The movie added to it has solid characters, so to say. Nicholas character is one such which is another best part about it. He is good in his job and they present it in terrific scene sequences. They do not make him a clown boy as in other comedy movies like “The Naked Gun” wherein the main character is stupid but ends up as the praised one in the service. There is no compromise in his character for the sake of the comedy. Even till the end, he remains faithful to his values and principles. Similarly they do not give silly explanation of strange happenings in the events of the story. They narrate it to much perfection that it becomes a dramatically serious movie for certain moments. But they pull the carpet from the audiences’ feet when it is about to get intense. That is a sheer joy to be enjoyed.

This is the film which can be watched over and over and over again. And every time it is been watched, the funny sequences are expected and will be laughed out with the same zeal and enthusiasm. Wright proves that it is not necessary to make the characters and story stupid to bring out an action spoof/homage comedy. Nor does it need lot of blood and gore (even though it has couple of bloody sequences which could have been avoided) as that of “Planet Terror” to pay homage to the genre of movies it reflects. It does not also need the ridiculing the audience in the end by the strange explanation of strange sequences. All it needs is the right creativity and honesty to the script. It will never be the same again when I put on my cool shades. It may be silly but my internal film is running 24/7 and the audience is only me.