Hot Fuzz (Movie Review)

What a smart comedy — clever, well-written and just enough twists and turns to keep our modern day (that is to say, "short") attention spans on the hook.

By no means is this "slapstick" or anything of the sort; I wasn't howling with laughter until my stomach ached. And yet: I never lost interest in this film, and was always amused on some level or another — with my face contorted somewhere between a chuckle and a grin.

Hot Fuzz (2007) is a British comedy wherein London's top cop, Nicholas Angel, is forcibly relocated to a small rural community when his big-city colleagues determine that by being so good at his job, he makes the rest of them look bad.

So it's off to the supposedly crime-free village of Sandford, a sleepy little town with a murder rate of zero and an "accident resulting in fatality" rate that's off the charts. But Angel is alone in realizing the word "accident" is used a little too loosely in Sandford, with only a goof ball partner (who Angel himself arrested his first night in town) to offer him backup.

Hot Fuzz is a tad more violent than I'd been expecting — hence its "R" rating — but it was also far more amusing than even its stateside previews gave it credit for being. It's from the same guys who did Shaun of the Dead — a comedic zombie spoof — if that gives you any idea.

FINAL GRADE: A-