Dominoes, motherf*****!
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are back! This time they’re playing PCs Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman. When PC Nicholas Angel is reluctantly transferred to a small village on the outskirts of nowhere, life gets boring. Life spruces up though when a series of murders occur and the town acts as if they’re accidents. Angel, the only PC wanting to reveal whatever secret the village is hiding, recruits a sidekick with PC Danny Butterman and find out that the village (and its residents) aren’t all that they seem.
Hot Fuzz is certainly a different breed of movie. It revolves itself around the concept of gross/wacky. It’s gross in the sense that each killing made in the movie is overblown and grotesque. For example, cutting shears through the throat of a pleasant old woman in a flower shop is pretty damn gross. There are several scenes in the film that have this type of blood thirst moment. To offset this, the creators of Shaun of the Dead took the sick humor of that movie and shifted it into this one. So you might see a lot of blood, but it’s countered with subtle humor that makes you forget about the horrific scene that just took place. For example, Angel does a flying sidekick into the nose of an elderly woman (shattering it), but the shear visual representation of that will make you smile and laugh. It’s gross, but it’s wacky. That’s pretty much the formula for the entire film. For the most part this works to its advantage. The idea of horrific things going on in a small, innocent village is damn near funny by itself; that’s what you get with Hot Fuzz.
Of course, the real push in the movie is the actors involved. Simon Pegg has to be one of the most underrated actors for this decade. He’s funny, witty and badass at the same time. You can’t get that through many skinny English actors. What’s better is that his role in Shaun of the Dead is completely different than his role in Hot Fuzz. With two incredibly similar movies, built on a similar story structure, it’s unique to see the same lead actor take the concepts completely two different directions. Pegg’s Shaun is a wimpy nobody who finds purpose through a crisis. Pegg’s Angel is a badass who sticks to his principles (and gut) to unveil something horrible. There’s certainly a more confident character in Angel than in Shaun, which makes for a stronger role and movie. Pegg aside, his counterpart Nick Frost pretty much plays the same character in both films. Thankfully, we love this man enough to let it pass. Frost plays a wonderfully charming fat man. I know that sounds horrible, but that’s his motif. He’s witty, funny; he’s the Jerry Lewis of the group. He does a lot more physical comedy in Hot Fuzz and is just a treat to watch. As for the supporting cast, having Jim Broadbent in this type of movie shows you his range. He plays Danny’s father and the police chief. Finally, the return of Timothy Dalton to a ‘non-made for DVD’ film was a treat. He might be in his 60s/70s, but the old boy can still be vicious and charming; he plays the super market owner Simon Skinner.
It was tough to find a lot of flaws in the film, other than the movie gets a bit drawn out somewhere in the middle. I know this is going to sound sick, but it seemed like they was just one murder too many. When a film gets rolling it shouldn’t have to slow down to explain itself again and it seemed like that happened. By the end of the film you’re going to be happy, but somewhere around the murder of the newspaper guy you’re going to really want a conclusion to start.
It’s not called DVD anymore; it’s officially called blu-ray.
Much like many Universal Studios features the quality of HD here is unrivaled. The colors of the beautiful village and countryside of England is something to behold on this Blu-ray. From beginning to end you will be hard-pressed to find many flaws; simply put it looks fantastic. As for the audio, you’ll appreciate the sound effects (much like Shaun of the Dead‘s effects) to get the full force action of what’s going on. The soundtrack is pretty neat too, though I can’t say I loved the quick montage scene’s music much (little annoying).
As for what makes this the Ultimate Edition, check it out:
• Feature Commentary with Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright
• Feature Commentary with The Sandford Police Service: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Kevin Eldon & Olivia Colman
• Feature Commentary with The Sandford Village People: Kenneth Cranham, Timothy Dalton, Paul Freeman & Edward Woodward
• Feature Commentary with The Real Fuzz – Andy Leafe & Nick Eckland
• Feature Commentary with Edgar Wright & Quentin Tarantino
• Inadmissible: Deleted Scenes • Danny’s Notebook: The Other Side
• The Man Who Would Be Fuzz • Hot Funk
• UK TV Spot 1
• UK TV Spot 2
• Director’s Cut Trailer
• We Made Hot Fuzz
• Speculative Video Blogs
• Art Department
• Friends & Family
• Cranks, Cranes & Controlled Chaos
• Here Come the Fuzz
• Return to Sandford
• Edgar & Simon’s Flip Chart
• Simon Muggs
• Sergeant Fisher’s Perfect Sunday
• Plot Holes • Special Effects: Before & After
• Poster Gallery
• AM Blam: Making ‘Dead Right’
• Dead Right (1993)
• Edgar Wright Director’s Commentary on Dead Right
• Simon Pegg and Nick Frost Commentary on Dead Right
• The Extended Fuzzball Rally with Commentary by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Joe Cornish
• Video Blogs
• iTunes Blogs
• Storyboard Gallery
• BD-Live
Yeah, so there’s a lot on this blu-ray to be happy about.