Merrick here...


...with a look at HOT FUZZ.

Believe it or not, I've recently encountered a number of folks who've yet to hear about this film - even though they were fans of the fabulous SHAUN OF THE DEAD.

So, just in case...

HOT FUZZ a new police comedy from the SHAUN OF THE DEAD gang. You can get a look at the film's trailer (and more) HERE. Frankly, the trailers underwhelmed me when I first saw them...but I'm hearing great things about the movie itself, so I'm holding out a lot of hope.

Here's Uncle Monty's review. PLEASE NOTE : Monty references an incomplete sound mix and so forth, which means he saw a version that may be adjusted by the time the project hits UK theaters in mid February. HOT FUZZ opens in the U.S. early March.

I thought you may be interested in my stream of consciousness on a preview
of a film I saw last Thursday.

The film was 'Hot Fuzz', from the same people that brought you 'Shaun of the Dead', a film I know that is dear to your heart and many of your readers. I loved SOTD and was pretty stoked to see the film, to say the least. The packed preview was held about thirty miles to the west of London, and (writer/director) Edgar Wright sat up back (it must be nice to sit back, sip a coke and hear belly laughs from your own film!) After the usual speil about not using recording devices and unfinished sound/sync (gunshots and explosions turned out to be incredibly loud) we were straight in.

The basic synopsis is simple - Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a 'supercop' who is kicked out of the London police for showing up the rest of the force (a 400% better record than all the others) so is then drafted out to spend the rest of his days in a sleepy crime-free village in the West of England, with hilarious consequences. The fast cutting that gets you to this point is a bit eye-boggling but does the job, and we then ease into the slower life of the rural village of Sandford, and Nicholas introduces himself to the lazy bumbling police officers in the station. Some great characterisations, and Paddy Considine is great as one of a pair of moustached inept detectives.

It's difficult to write about this film without giving away key spoilers, as a lot of the plot revolves around who will get murdered next, how they meet their (very satisfying in most cases) ends, and eventually 'whodunnit'. So, there be a few spoilers ahead. Suffice to say that the film is a lot more bloody and gory than I expected (even more than SOTD, believe it or not), and there's decapitation, bombs, some superb gun fights, and one murder that owes a lot to a scene in the Omen, which took me and the rest of the audience aback. The real comedy is in many cases a lot more subtle than SOTD, and the belly laughs come from the interesting twists on the stable sit-com English village characterisations - think Vicar of Dibley with uzis and you wouldn't be too far away.

We left the cinema feeling that the film was a very enjoyable two hour gun-fest, (you get a lot of film for your money if they don't trim it too much) with a very satisfying shoot-out pay-off and believable character arcs.

However, many of the jokes were parochial and relied to a certain extent on an inate knowledge of English small town mentalities, 'hoodie' yobs, prejudices and impeneterable accents which may not translate easily to an international audience. Simon is very believable in his role as Nicholas the starched collared officer, and Nick Frost as Simon Pegg's foil is pretty much Nick Frost with a yokel accent (which isn't a bad thing). There are British character actors aplenty; Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Bill Nighy are only on screen for a few minutes, in virtual cameo appearances. Jim Broadbent plays Nicholas's new station boss and stole every scene he was in. The most surprising find for me was Timothy Dalton, who chews up the scenery as the sinister local supermarket manager. Edward Woodward plays the controller of the village CCTVs and has a final explosve scene that is very
funny indeed.

You can tell that all involved in this film were having a 'bloody' good time, and although it has a slow middle act and the plot gets a little convoluted at the end, in my opinion it easily matches SOTD for laughs. I'm sure there were many many cop/buddy film in-jokes that I didn't spot on first viewing, (Simon and Nick actually crack open beers, and sit and watch scenes from Bad Boys 2 and Point Break half way through the film) but I would give certainly this film a solid two thumbs up and look forward to watching it again.

If you use this, can you call me 'Uncle Monty' - thanks.