Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
It’s been entirely too long since we were able to say this, so let’s crow it as loud as possible from the highest rooftop: EDGAR WRIGHT HAS A NEW MOVIE IN THEATERS!
The geek-god auteur has been sidelined for four years after completing his “Cornetto Trilogy”, but audiences worldwide have spent the past few days and the upcoming weekend tearing through the streets of Atlanta with Wright’s music/action hybrid Baby Driver.
Cinapse has been treating the occasion with all the gravity of a national holiday, with interviews and reviews and editorials and oh look at that more reviews, and so we at Two Cents decided to do our part and add-on to the Edgar Wright love-a-thon.
Hot Fuzz, the second film in the Cornetto Trilogy, works as both companion/extension of the insta-cult classic Shaun of the Dead and as a totally independent piece of genre fun. When badass London cop Nicholas Angel (co-writer Simon Pegg) proves to be too good a police officer (making everyone else look bad) he is transferred to the country village of Sanford, the statistically safest place in Britain. Partnered with the eager but incompetent Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), Angel discovers that the country life may not be as peaceful as he assumed.
Gunfights, car chases, proper action and shit, all come to bear in this loving tribute/send-up to the action films of Tony Scott, Michael Bay, John Woo, Shane Black, and every other purveyor of kick-assery of the highest order.
It’s been ten years since Hot Fuzz first fired two guns whilst jumping through the air, so we put it to the team and our friends to tell us where things stand for Hot Fuzz at the moment: Yarp or…narp?
Next Week’s Pick:
Captain America: Civil War may have given us our first glimpse at Tom Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but next week’s Spider-Man: Homecoming will be the real testing ground for this most pubescent of webslingers.
To mark the occasion, we will be watching young mister Holland’s big screen debut: J. A. Bayona’s The Impossible, in which Holland and his mom and dad (played by Naomi Watts and Ewan MacGregor) attempt to survive the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The Impossible is currently streaming on Netflix Instant.
Submissions can be sent to [email protected] anytime before midnight on Thursday.
Our Guests
Karou Negisa:
What works best about Hot Fuzz is less its skewering of action movie clichés, which it does masterfully, but rather that it is so tightly woven. Every element in some way connects to another one, and even if you don’t realize it, almost every event is a payoff to a previous setup. It’s a movie that dares the viewer to watch and rewatch it in order to get a full picture of everything that’s going on.
But even if you don’t get every single reference, it’s still a highly enjoyable film which uses its comedy to strengthen the drama and action. Even in the most ridiculous, over-the-top action sequence of the film, you can’t help but take it seriously. There are old people with shotguns firing at the main characters, but we still feel that they’re a threat. Nobody is actually killed by Nick Angel, but we
don’t doubt his badass bona fides.
It’s also such a great step from Shaun of the Dead, with Wright visibly learning that parody can transcend into a refreshing take on a genre. If it weren’t such a cult hit in the US, it would have redefined action like Die Hard once did. (@Moonpanther22)
My love for Hot Fuzz knows no bounds. There are certain special movies that you just know you’re going to love for the rest of your life from the moment you first watch them and Hot Fuzz is one of those movies (the Cornetto Trilogy as a whole applies here though). When Shaun of the Dead was unleashed in 2004, lightning in a bottle was captured and it gave birth to the greatest comedy trilogy to grace ever grace the screen and our lives. Shaun of the Dead is most affectionate tribute to horror cinema out there. but it also works as a horror film in its own right. Hot Fuzz does for the buddy/action genre what its predecessor did for scare fare, and World’s End accomplishes the same for science fiction while capturing that feeling of yearning for one’s youth. Not only does the Cornetto Trilogy tickle the funny bone – it touches the feels.
Hot Fuzz is easily my favourite of the trifecta, however. It’s the most quintessentially British movie of the bunch as well, yet it still manages to instill the Hollywood action blockbuster into English country life. Essentially, it’s a crossover of Midsomer Murders and Bad Boys and it totally works. If you want to compliment its genre-bending abilities further, you could make a case for it being a slasher and folk horror film as well. You just don’t see movies like Hot Fuzz too often, and to incorporate so many ideas as seamlessly is a testament to the talent involved.
Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are one of the greatest creative duos of their generation, and Hot Fuzz marks the apex of their genius. Of course, it wouldn’t be the same without Nick Frost either. This is a triple team who belong together, and I pray that we haven’t seen the last of them together. (@HairEverywhere_)
Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz is, without a doubt, one of the most entertaining genre films of the last ten years. And yet I often find myself at a loss in attempting to explain how or why it is so effective. Part of it is, without a doubt, the onscreen chemistry of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (as well as their offscreen collaborator Edgar Wright). Also the veritable who’s who of British actors makes every scene a treat to revisit. But ultimately it is the deft blending of genres that lends the film its narrative vitality and allows it to feel at once pleasantly familiar and surprisingly original.
Hot Fuzz wears its influences on its sleeve, as the film name checks and quotes (both verbally and visually) from Bad Boys 2, Point Break, Lethal Weapon, and more — in addition to deliberately drawing stylistic influence from directors like Tony Scott. Yet woven into this mosaic of action genre touchstones are elements of horror, in particular the original Wicker Man (the ultimate British horror film) and proto-slasher Italian giallo films. While other films have mixed police procedural with horror before, Hot Fuzz amazingly also manages to work as a comedy. In fact, as with his previous film, Wright managed to create a film that is incredibly funny without tearing down or belittling the genres from which it borrows. Instead, the humor of Hot Fuzz comes from a place of respect — reverence, even — for the films and filmmakers who influenced it. This ability (along with his keen eye for staging action and suspense sequences) is perhaps one of Edgar Wright’s greatest strengths as a filmmaker. Hot Fuzz is not Edgar Wright’s best film (that would be The World’s End), but it is definitely my favorite. (Trey Lawson)
Brendan Agnew
Hot Fuzz is both the best and the “least” of the Cornetto Trilogy. Yes, I know it’s confusing, let me explain…No, there is too much, let me sum up.
First of all, Hot Fuzz probably shouldn’t work. It’s spinning several central jokes that would be enough to sustain an entire film on their own (“Applying Michael Bay’s action aesthetic to responsible police work,” “buddy cops as leads in a romantic comedy,” and “send-up of a British gothic mystery, because we’re not doing enough already”) and yet Wright pivots between his different “bits” so deftly that you’d barely notice the switch in between gasping for breath from the last belly laugh and the next killer gag. However, where Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End are about people who stumble into a “genre” situation, Fuzz is about genre archetypes stumbling toward humanity. And while they get there and still feel like people, they do so much more within the confines of their genre, which lessens the pathos (or heartbreak) so central to Wright’s other two entries.
However, where Fuzz excels is in Wright’s craftsmanship. He feels both confident and unleashed here in a way he hadn’t previously, and creates a Swiss watch of pacing, escalation, and gags (both recurring with his signature planting and payoff as well as one-offs) with the mad perfection of Gromit laying track in front of Wallace’s speeding train. It’s like he not only knows he’s got James Fucking Bond on his set, but he’s determined to show that he’s *earned* that shit.
(Spoiler: he does) (@BLCAgnew)
Husain Sumra:
“You’ve got a mustache.”
“I knowww.”
Other than absolutely destroying me with laughter, and causing the people around me to wonder whether I had legitimately lost it, this was the moment I fell in love with Edgar Wright films. I immediately realized that this was a guy that could add depth to his dialogue. This wasn’t just a joke, this was a joke coming from character. He straight-laced, matter-of-fact cop and the overconfident, oblivious other cops clashing.
It was also cinematic as shit. This isn’t a joke that makes sense just with words, like so many movie jokes. This required you to actually pay attention to what was happening visually. You see that foam mustache on top of his real mustache. You see what Simon Pegg’s character sees, making the overconfident response sing even further. And just when you think you saw a good joke, Wright uses the characters coming in and out of the frame to further the joke for just a couple more seconds, lampooning characters we’ve seen in action movies for decades.
Yeah, Hot Fuzz is a great movie all around, but this singular moment is a perfect microcosm for what Wright does so well. And it’ll forever destroy me. (Husain Sumra)
The Team
Shaun of the Dead is a revered horror comedy that truly seems to have garnered neo-classic status. I found it really dull and haven’t gathered the strength for a rewatch yet. On the other hand, The World’s End is fantastically underappreciated in many ways and, before seeing Hot Fuzz, was second only to Scott Pilgrim in Edgar Wright’s catalog.
Wedged in between an overrated zombie flick and an underrated action fantasy gem is an interesting place to be, thus my expectations for Hot Fuzz were virtually nonexistent going into this first viewing of the film. I am very pleased to say that it was truly a delight! In fact, with another viewing, it could supplant World’s End to my favorite Wright film not starring Michael Cera.
Far more horror influenced than I expected, this film was obviously heavily influenced by English folk horror and Italian gialli, as well as the comedic stylings of the cowriter/star Simon Pegg and costar Nick Frost. It’s a perfect blend and the horror gags are extremely well done. It’s intelligent humor, yet still is laugh out loud funny in many instances.
In short, it’s really good and I highly recommend this film to anyone who’s somehow avoided it this long, as I had. Watch the film as soon as you can… if not for yourself, do it for the greater good. (@ThePaintedMan)
To me, the most incredible thing about Wright’s entire oeuvre is his untouchable editing. For most films, editing is merely transitional — literally the means to an end. In Wright’s world, though, editing — especially when combined with sound — is everything. It’s key to the storytelling, comedy, violence, and kineticism. Sam Raimi pioneered these techniques in genre filmmaking, but Wright took them to the next level — each of his feature films is a staggering feat of planning, timing, and executing innumerable microshots.
Look, I know everyone loves Shaun Of The Dead — I do, too! — but Hot Fuzz is the best of the Trilogy. Wright’s ode to action pictures and the English countryside isn’t just a riotous parody of great buddy cop movies — it also is one of the best damn buddy cop movies.
People who revisit Hot Fuzz often have the shocking realization that the trolley boy (Rory McCann) is The Hound on Game Of Thrones, but after seeing this countless times, I had a completely different eureka moment. The guy who plays the minister is Paul Freeman — Belloq from Raiders Of The Lost Ark! (@VforVashaw)
It does the heart good to see so much love for this film, but I’ll confess to being just a little bit baffled by the numerous responders naming this as their favorite entry in the Cornetto Trilogy, if not their favorite Wright film full stop. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Hot Fuzz and consider it one of the absolute best comedies of the 00’s (and almost certainly the best screenplay of any comedy film this millennium). But Hot Fuzz always struck me as a bit of an outlier in the Cornetto films, more interested in genre and form than in the characters trying to keep their heads above the rising levels of genre insanity. Both Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End are just as exacting in their genre deconstruction/demonstration, but the moments that linger for me are those when Wright and Pegg as writers and Wright as director drop the game-playing and drill down for something honest and deeply felt (i.e. the death of Barbara in Shaun or the final bar fight between Gary and Andy in World’s End).
Hot Fuzz never really tries for anything like that. Its characters are more or less pure archetype and even the money-in-the-bank chemistry between Pegg and Frost is used to wink at the homoeroticism so central to buddy cop films instead of the more sincere exploration of friendship in the other films.
None of which is to denigrate Hot Fuzz’s achievement. Again, it’s one of the absolute Great comedies of recent cinematic history. But when you’re dealing with maybe the single most talented filmmaker in his age-range making films right now, sometimes ‘just’ being great means coming in at the rear of the pack. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
Watch it on Netflix:
https://www.netflix.com/title/70056431
Next week’s Pick: