Franchise Reviews: Hot Fuzz

Well, the police did get involved today. And by that, I mean that I'm taking a look at Pegg, Frost, and Wright's next collaboration; Hot Fuzz. Yesterday's Cornetto was a red strawberry one to represent zombies. Today, we're having a blue classic flavour to represent the police in this buddy cop film.

Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a high-performing officer in London's Metropolitan Police. In fact, he's so high-performing that he's making everyone else look bad by comparison, so his superiors assign him to a sergeant's position. Unfortunately, this sergeant's position is not in London, but in the village of Sandford in rural Gloucestershire.

Nicholas finds that he isn't accustomed to his surroundings: the local police are lazy, while the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance is more proactive and the village's most wanted criminal is an escaped swan. Inspector Frank Butterman, played by Jim Broadbent, is content to let the NWA run things, and partners Nicholas with his son Danny, played by Nick Frost. Not long afterwards, a serial killer good at staging accidents is on the loose in the village, and Nicholas suspects the charming but sinister supermarket manager Simon Skinner, played by Timothy Dalton.

Once again, Simon and Nick have a great dynamic, but a slightly different one to Shaun of the Dead. Nicholas is a no-nonsense workaholic who can't stop enforcing the law, while Danny more affable but lazy, and is longing for the gunfights and car chases he sees in his favourite action films. Eventually, Nicholas teaches Danny to become a better police officer, while Danny teaches Nicholas to lighten up and relax.

However, there are plenty of other great characters in the film, both in Sandford's police and the Neighbourhood Watch. Timothy Dalton steals the show as Simon Skinner. He says the most sinister and violent things but makes them sound charming. There's also Rafe Spall and Paddy Considine as the 'The Andys', Sandford Police's Criminal Investigation Department. They provide a ton of funny lines, most of which are snarky comments or insults. 

As for Neighbourhood Watch, there seem to be a fair few villains. The vicar is played by Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Paul Freeman), the hotel keeper is the evil nanny from The Omen (Billie Whitelaw), and the GP is Don Montero from The Mask of Zorro (Stuart Wilson).

There are some really funny scenes, but I don't have time to talk about them all. You just have to see them for yourself. Trust me, it's worth a couple of watches.

That's about it. I'll see you tomorrow for the conclusion. I'm going back to waiting out the apocalypse in the pub. I might do a crawl.