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No one is safe from Edgar Wright. No one. The man is a fucking fiend. A frenetic comic genius who has assembled an unstoppable team that is redefining comedy for the new age. You think I’m exaggerating? You think this is premature AICN ejaculation? You think maybe we’ve become a bit too close in our connections to ole Edgar and company?
Then you haven’t fucking seen Hot Fuzz.
Exactly thirty years ago, a writing/directing team exploded onto the scene with a movie that began to change modern comedy forever. Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers began with their writing for The Kentucky Fried Movie and parlayed that into a series of classic comedies that took the popular genres of the day, turned them on their ears and made entire films out of them. These parody films developed a series of imitators – both professional and independent – and none ever so good as the classics these three made together (even the films they made when they separated lacked in comparison.) Airplane!, Top Secret!, Police Squad! (with exclamation points one and all) which of course led to The Naked Gun. All classics.
The unfortunate side effect of this massive change is that the slew of parody films that followed simply got worse and worse until we finally sank to the low of the recent Epic Movie, a movie that dared even to sink lower than their previous Date Movie. Yes, the parody film is dead and buried in this incarnation at the age of 30. But you know who else is about 30? Edgar Wright. And along with his team of writing partner/actor Simon Pegg and Comedian Nick Frost, he’s set out to completely reinvent the parody film.
The biggest mistake that most parody comedies make is that they simply remake a scene from a film, almost word for word, or they just add in a completely absurd element AND THEN remake the scene. Or, oh gee look! It’s a character from another movie making a quick appearance. Comedy gold. Thirty Years ago.
But Edgar has set out to do something different. He’s making a series of films that not only make fun of other films, but does so lovingly, and in doing so manages the unbelievable distinction of being able to completely exist as a film within the genre it sets out to roast. You got all that? In Shaun of the Dead every single convention of the zombie genre is brought to bear. There isn’t a zombie gag out there, save maybe Shark vs. Zombie, that doesn’t make some sort of appearance. And the more you know your zombie movies, the funnier the movie is. BUT, you don’t ever have to see a single zombie movie to laugh. Because at the same time it is a sendup of the genre, it faithfully plays by every last rule OF the genre. Which in and of itself is part of the parody.
But somehow, magically, it still remains a perfect example of what it is making fun of. Shaun of the Dead is a brilliant zombie movie. Even without the comedy. It’s telling a new and interesting story that fits wonderfully in the canon of zombie film history. Of course, the formula was so perfect, such lightning in a bottle, would it be possible to duplicate it in another film?
Absolutely. In fact, I would argue that I found Hot Fuzz a funnier film than I ever found Shaun, if not better.
Hot Fuzz works with the exact same formula, this time turning its attention towards the buddy cop comedy. Every convention of that once great, and long over clichéd genre are brought front and center…all except those that have been parodied so often that it hurts. So no, no one gets their badge and their gun taken away by a screaming Chief of Police…but pretty much everything else is there.
And no one is safe. No one. Richard Donner. Tony Scott. Even Michael “Damn You” Bay. They all get their licks here. Through stylistic gags, soundtrack cues and even riffs on the old gags, Hot Fuzz puts the entire genre through the wringer while actually, surprise surprise, using those conventions to make a perfect buddy cop comedy. Like Shaun before it, this will stand on its own without the need to know what films are being made fun of. Because even without the parody, it’s a damn good movie.
And if for some reason you thought it would be impossible for this movie to exceed the sheer amount of gore and bloodshed that was present in Shaun, boy do you have another thing coming. Occasionally shocking, occasionally fall down funny as fuck, the bloodshed adds to the films aesthetic in a number of ways. And anyone who thinks that this is somehow wrong or out of place hasn’t watched their fair share of buddy cop films – traditionally a bloodthirsty and R-rated genre.
One of the things Edgar and Simon excel at is wordplay – something, it seems, we only got a brief taste of in their last film. As writers, the two spent an entire day working over that classic bit of dialog “We’ll have a Bloody Mary in the Morning…” which proceeds through puns to run through the entire plot of the second half of the film. Well this time they’ve outdone themselves. There’re so many clever plays on words that it’s going to take a few more run-throughs before I’m sure I’ve caught them all. But if you pay attention, you’ll be fed a steady stream of sharp one-liners that set up virtually every gag that follows.
And they never go for the cheap laugh here. Everything, EVERYTHING, is carefully constructed and perfectly executed. Multiple layers exist making this a comedy accessible to anyone. But for us, for film geeks, this thing is absolute heaven, a veritable goldmine of comedy that riffs on our deep fried favorite material. Material you can tell that the guys themselves are equally in love with. This is how comedies are supposed to be made.
I mean, for the love of all that is holy, there was applause at the end of the film. At a CRITIC screening. A roomful of critics (with only myself representing AICN) and we were all applauding. Six years of screenings here in Austin and I’ve never once seen that from this crowd. Shaun of the Dead was no fluke. It was a signal, a harbinger of the comic genius that was to come out of a couple of movie geeks from Britain. I haven’t laughed this long and this hard in I don’t know how long. Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are all busy rewriting the rules of the modern comedy. Nobody out there is doing anything close. And no one is safe. Lord only knows who, and what, they’ll take to town next. But god damnit I’m ready to see it.
After I see this one a few dozen more times.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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