Reviewed by Max Foizey

Release Date: April 20, 2007
Directed By: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent
Rating: R

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost co-wrote the comedy "Shaun of the Dead," a film I didn't get around to seeing for a few years, mainly because I'm not a big zombie fan. I finally saw it and found it hilarious and surprisingly sweet, and was upset I waited so long. My advice with Pegg and Frost's (along with director Edgar Wright) latest film "Hot Fuzz"  is see it as fast as you can. "Fuzz" is the real thing - hilarious and smart. You should also see it quickly because you're going to want to see it more than once. It's a necessity, as the jokes fly so fast you'll be too busy laughing to catch them all.

In the same way "Shaun" was both a a zombie film and a send-up of zombie films, "Fuzz" is a spoof of the BIG ACTION genre, but it's also a sincere homage. When I say BIG ACTION, I'm talking about absurd shoot-em-ups like "Bad Boys" and "Point Break" (two films that "Fuzz" name checks) and just about anything else you'd see on cable at three o'clock in the morning. It's obvious Pegg and Frost love these silly films as much as they love flesh eating zombie epics.

Pegg stars as Police officer Nicholas Angel, a London cop so good he makes his fellow officers look bad. To save face for the rest of the force, his superiors decide to send him far away to the village of Sandford, where all is quiet. Once there Angel is partnered with Danny Butterman (Frost), a local cop who has never even fired his gun.

Angel does his best to adapt to the land-of-nothing-going-on, but soon people turn up dead in a series of 'accidents', and Angel is certain it's foul play....so why does he face so much resistance from the townspeople?  If you've seen Brit classic "The Wicker Man" (I don't mean the Nick Cage screamfest) then you're close to the answer. Heck, "Fuzz" even features Edward Woodward in a small role!

From the action to the jokes everything is over-the-top, and nothing more so than Timothy Dalton as Simon Skinner, a supermarket manager so sinister he could be in constant twirl of mustache. The Daltonator wins the audience over the second he shows up, clearly having the most fun onscreen since "The Living Daylights."

If you've seen "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" too many times, you know "Hot Fuzz" is for you. But I must caution, this is very British humor. If you're a fan of "Fawlty Towers" you'll feel right at home. Otherwise, you may ask yourself "When am I supposed to laugh?" at which point I would suggest you stop watching "Fuzz" and switch to something like "According to Jim." (BURN! Take THAT, Belushi!)

In the end I enjoyed this film even more than "Shaun of the Dead," and I can't wait to see which genre Pegg, Frost, and Wright lovingly spoof next.

In addition to hosting 'Max on Movies' on Sunday nights at 7pm on 97.1 FM Talk, Max appears weekly on the Dave Glover Show Fridays at 5pm. A member of the Saint Louis Gateway Film Critics Association, Max has written about film and theatre for various print and Web media, and appeared as guest critic on various nationally syndicated radio shows. Max lives in Missouri and is a diehard Miami Dolphins fan. Since seeing "Hot Fuzz," whenever Max is in awe of something, his exclamation is always "By the power of Grayskull!"