Stanford, England is much, much worse than Stepford, Connecticut, if you can believe it. Both towns contain deceptions that permeate their very cores-- however, those in Stepford are based on male insecurities. In Stanford, only civic pride. I consider the former to be an emotion more consuming than the latter.
Alas, I read that last paragraph and realize I have done you a great disservice: I have revealed a rather important twist that occurs in Hot Fuzz, but it shouldn't deter you from seeing the film.
Have you even heard of it? It was released in early 2007 and was fairly unsuccessful, which is a shame, because it is such a sublime film.
Edgar Wright (also the director) and Simon Pegg (also the star) wrote it as a follow-up to their cult hit Shaun of the Dead, and it is more successful than that film. Hell... it is more successful than most films. It centers on Nick Angel (Pegg), a London police officer who is extremely devoted at his job. His job is his life and he's damn good at it-- so good, he is transferred to the village of Stanford to get him out of the way; he makes the other London cops look bad. Stanford comes as a shock-- from the laid back captain (Jim Broadbent) to his bumbling partner (Nick Frost, also from Shaun of the Dead), things here are just too easy. Until a series of gruesome "accidents" starts knocking off residents. Angel realizes immediately that there is more to this than it seems, but so accustomed to their bucolic country life, no one will listen to him. And there is always the looming fear that it all is in his head... maybe the fresh air is driving him mad.
I realize that I have made this film sound like some sort of police procedural/ action flick with a British bent. It isn't...really. It is an uproarious, unbearably funny satire of exactly those kinds of movies that doesn't mind getting down there and wallowing with them either. Here, a police officer gets in trouble for driving drunk-- the punishment? He has to buy the station ice cream for a month. The biggest threat to the town (before the "accidents" start)? An escaped swan. Yes, it's very funny in that wry British way where absolute nonsense is treated with absolute sincerity. But consider the final thirty minutes, which is really just an extended gunfight, a la John Woo (minus doves). In all honesty, these scenes could be picked up and transplanted into a B-grade action picture (with a few costume changes and a couple of altered lines) and no one would know the difference. Earlier, it shows scenes from Point Break and Bad Boys 2 that are just as ridiculous as anything in Hot Fuzz, only those films treat their subjects with deadly seriousness. Hot Fuzz also takes it self seriously, up to a point, but there is a self-awareness those films lack. It's like when George Bush sincerely asked "Is our children learning?" , and then everyone else began to ask the same thing, in the same way. We care if the childrens learns, but we know also that's not the way to approach the subject.
Hot Fuzz knows all the cliches, knows they're ridiculous, tweaks them slightly and sends them home. It walks a tight rope-- it has to be hard enough that we still sincerely care for the characters (at least the major ones), yet silly enough that we keep laughing. It never falters. Here is a satire of action films with enough action to satisfy fans looking for gunfire and explosions but, most amazingly, it manages to transcend both action flicks and satirical comedies-- it is just a great movie.
How? Well, there are lots of very funny comedies and very effective action films that I enjoy, but don't consider great. It lies in the characters, and whether they're forced to take a backseat to their jokes or their special effects. Here, Simon Pegg takes a back seat to no one, and neither does Nick Frost. They both give stellar performances-- they don't know they're in a comedy, they play it straight (mostly), and they keep everything afloat. If Pegg plays the straight man to Frost, Frost and Pegg play the straight men to everyone else. Jim Broadbent delivers impossible lines with the honest face only a great actor can possess, and the rest of the cast, including Timothy Dalton, Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan and Paddy Considine (so good as the father in In America) take twisted, over the top characters and never bother to wink at the camera. Thank God for good comedic actors not raised on mindless "___ Movie" parodies or the Dane Cook/Adam Sandler school of "scream, because the louder you are, the more people will laugh!".
The film does go on a little long, but who cares? Sure, there may be a little too much shoot out towards the end and a little too much exposition towards the middle and the final two scenes (involving the sea mine and the cemetary) are completely superfluous, but can you have too much of a good thing, especially when it's as fun as this? And besides, you know what they were doing right before those two superfluous scenes? Paperwork. When was the lst time you saw that in an action film? That act of audacity right there buys them all the superfluous scenes they want.
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