HOT FUZZ Film Review - 4/3/07

Having thoroughly enjoyed Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's previous work I expected to be onto a winner with their latest effort "Hot Fuzz" but like the proverbial bag of liquorice all-sorts that wasn't to be the case as the last one in the bag is usually the small blue one covered in sprinkles that you don't like. Purported to be a comedy this comes over more as a drama with some dry sarcasm and falls from one category to another without quite deciding what it wants to be. Added to that the frenetic jump-start cutting flashing past with headache inducing monotony over and over AND over again and it really starts to get thin in places. With the odd chuckle I felt this really missed the mark but you can't keep striking gold every time but with such an ace cast you would think it would shine with the calibre of Jim Broadbent and Timothy Dalton and a scattering of cameos from Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and so on. Quite a disappointment after seeing preview material from over a year ago and looking forward to it for so long - Never mind.

Hot on the beat cop Nick Angel (Simon Pegg) shows up the rest of his force in the big city so gets transferred to sleepy nowheresville out in the sticks. But all isn't as quiet as it seems in the sleepy village hamlet that he is posted to and eventually a blood-fest ensues in the local Somerfield supermarket amongst other goings on....