Class Project
Kevin Payne, kevinsterlingpayne@hotmail.com,61 M/W
5/8/07
692 Words
Personal Movie Review Blog
Headline: Hot Fuzz
Subhead: This Isn't Your Ordinary Action Flick
Hot Fuzz had a tremendous fan base right off the cricket bat, as its creators are the same pair that brought the world Shawn of the Dead back in 2004. Rest assured, fans of writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg will not be disappointed. The Brit Duo followed the same premise for this one as with Shawn of the Dead, making a well thought out parody of a overdone genre. The result is a movie that is fresh, interesting, and a ton of fun.
The film's plot seems simple enough. Trained in everything from advanced driving and cycling to chess, Officer Nick Angel is London's top cop, but there's a problem. He's proved to be too much for the department, and is making the other cops look bad. So Angel is reassigned to his nightmare job, working as a beat cop in the sleepy little English town of Sandford. The seemingly boring town has been the proud winner of the "village of the year" award many times over.
Like Shawn the first half of the film isn't exactly a action thriller. With the scene set, the audience is introduced to the townspeople as Nick Angel is. He finds their character, or persona's as it turns out, to be a little odd and can't help feeling that there is more to the quaint little town than people would have him think. On his first night he arrests the town drunk, only to find out that He is his new partner,Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). Butterman has an obsession with Hollywood action flicks and seems to think of Angel, the big city cop, as one of the heroes from his rather extensive movie collection. The Childish Butterman seems to emulate the police heroes of his movie collection so badly that doing actual police work is beyond him. Angel tries to get Butterman to look at Sandford's townspeople with a critical eye, but all he sees is the good hearted folk he grew up with.In the end Angel is right, the people of Sandford are not what they seem, and the entire town is blown to hell in this larger than life small-town spectacle.
"Taking the piss" out of all the 80's and 90's action packed, gun slinger cop flicks Wright and Pegg show us what the Hollywood action genera truly is, an absurd spectacle. Unlike parodies of the past, such as the Police Academy flicks and Airplane, the humor you find in "Hot Fuzz" original and reaches far beyond simple parody. This is not a film of silly puns and bad takes on other movies. This is a film that does everything the standard "buddy-cop" Hollywood shoot 'em up does, only better, plus it does so in a way that makes you realize just how bad most of those movies really were. Gone are the days of the Naked Gun parodies.
An example of Hot Fuzz's humor is when we are shown a clip of Keanu Reeves in Point Break, and later on the scene is reenacted by Butterman as he is pulled into a similar situation. Drawing a bead on his own father as he runs away from him, Butterman, who's lying on the ground, cannot shoot his beloved father, no matter how bad the man is. He fires his pistol into the air repeatedly while yelling at the top of his lungs in rage and frustration.
The audience was rolling with laughter, and at the same time trying desperately to stop so we could see what was happening next. And that's just the point. If it had not been a spoof of a cheesy scene from Point Break, Buttermans actions would have been accepted by viewers as an emotional scene in an action flick. But Hot Fuzz makes us conscious of how absurd those scenes are, which makes you laugh on whole new levels.
As a "buddy-cop" action flick, it blows away the competition. As a comedy, the original humor in it is better than most films I've seen. And as a parody, it is second best only to Shawn of the Dead. Creators Wright and Pegg are true masters of their trade.
END
Thesis: Hot Fuzz is an excellent parody that everyone who likes to watch action movies, laugh, or do both at the same time should see.
5/8/07
692 Words
Personal Movie Review Blog
Headline: Hot Fuzz
Subhead: This Isn't Your Ordinary Action Flick
Hot Fuzz had a tremendous fan base right off the cricket bat, as its creators are the same pair that brought the world Shawn of the Dead back in 2004. Rest assured, fans of writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg will not be disappointed. The Brit Duo followed the same premise for this one as with Shawn of the Dead, making a well thought out parody of a overdone genre. The result is a movie that is fresh, interesting, and a ton of fun.
The film's plot seems simple enough. Trained in everything from advanced driving and cycling to chess, Officer Nick Angel is London's top cop, but there's a problem. He's proved to be too much for the department, and is making the other cops look bad. So Angel is reassigned to his nightmare job, working as a beat cop in the sleepy little English town of Sandford. The seemingly boring town has been the proud winner of the "village of the year" award many times over.
Like Shawn the first half of the film isn't exactly a action thriller. With the scene set, the audience is introduced to the townspeople as Nick Angel is. He finds their character, or persona's as it turns out, to be a little odd and can't help feeling that there is more to the quaint little town than people would have him think. On his first night he arrests the town drunk, only to find out that He is his new partner,Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). Butterman has an obsession with Hollywood action flicks and seems to think of Angel, the big city cop, as one of the heroes from his rather extensive movie collection. The Childish Butterman seems to emulate the police heroes of his movie collection so badly that doing actual police work is beyond him. Angel tries to get Butterman to look at Sandford's townspeople with a critical eye, but all he sees is the good hearted folk he grew up with.In the end Angel is right, the people of Sandford are not what they seem, and the entire town is blown to hell in this larger than life small-town spectacle.
"Taking the piss" out of all the 80's and 90's action packed, gun slinger cop flicks Wright and Pegg show us what the Hollywood action genera truly is, an absurd spectacle. Unlike parodies of the past, such as the Police Academy flicks and Airplane, the humor you find in "Hot Fuzz" original and reaches far beyond simple parody. This is not a film of silly puns and bad takes on other movies. This is a film that does everything the standard "buddy-cop" Hollywood shoot 'em up does, only better, plus it does so in a way that makes you realize just how bad most of those movies really were. Gone are the days of the Naked Gun parodies.
An example of Hot Fuzz's humor is when we are shown a clip of Keanu Reeves in Point Break, and later on the scene is reenacted by Butterman as he is pulled into a similar situation. Drawing a bead on his own father as he runs away from him, Butterman, who's lying on the ground, cannot shoot his beloved father, no matter how bad the man is. He fires his pistol into the air repeatedly while yelling at the top of his lungs in rage and frustration.
The audience was rolling with laughter, and at the same time trying desperately to stop so we could see what was happening next. And that's just the point. If it had not been a spoof of a cheesy scene from Point Break, Buttermans actions would have been accepted by viewers as an emotional scene in an action flick. But Hot Fuzz makes us conscious of how absurd those scenes are, which makes you laugh on whole new levels.
As a "buddy-cop" action flick, it blows away the competition. As a comedy, the original humor in it is better than most films I've seen. And as a parody, it is second best only to Shawn of the Dead. Creators Wright and Pegg are true masters of their trade.
END
Thesis: Hot Fuzz is an excellent parody that everyone who likes to watch action movies, laugh, or do both at the same time should see.
posted by KevinSterlingPayne at 10:13 AM
1 comments
