Bad Blokes II: Hot Fuzz

          The L.A. heat blazes, barely blurring the wide slow-mo shot of two mean looking cops that have a gangsta’ swagger and desert eagles to prove it. You know them from capping drug dealers and tearing up the streets with lead, it’s the Bad Boys. At the same time though, two pasty white English chaps, a portly one with scruff from lazy hygiene habits and an organized, straightforward and by-the-book officer, make their way past the hedges of a well tended to back yard in their own cinematic slow-mo walk attempt, because, while Martin Lawrence and Will Smith may be on their way to bagging an itlian mob boss, this afternoon, these Englishmen have got a bone to pick with an elderly grocer. The question here is, how come the English guys are more badass?
          
          There’s no easy answer to this. The movie truly accomplishes a lot. It’s not often that a movie about a Police Force officer, let alone a high ranking one demoted to suburbia, becomes so intense and yet full of belly-laugh moments. Evidence of that can be found first and foremost in the acting performances of Simon Pegg, a clinical ex-London police sergeant named Nicholas Angel and Nick Frost, his bumbling, cop-movie buff, and drunkard of a friend named Danny Butterman. The term dynamic duo is thrown around a bunch, often times too much, but the acting relationship between Nick and Simon are truly dynamic, the partnership feels real and it’s evident that they feed off each other when you hear the comedic timing and the delivery the two have with each other.
          The parodic nature of “Hot Fuzz” and it’s UK style, really give it a humorous edge, and that’s why most people will go see it, but much like Frost and Pegg’s previous box office outing, “Shaun of the Dead”, humor is only one layer of a movie that touches on so many aspects. So while the wide cast net will haul in tons of laughs, with its perfected slap-stick and witty cop dialogue, the movie comes up strong on other fronts, like action and storytelling. Most will agree when I say London’s finest may not have the chiseled abs of wife-beater sporting Will Smith, but England’s crack team bought tickets to the gun show, in mass surplus. It should be noted though that although there's lots of action, lots of really quality action, it sometimes teeters and the verge of excessive to say the least, but most will warm up to the ridiculous combat.
          But of course while the slugs are flying there’s still a tale to be told, and in terms of plot, sophistication may not be the word that comes to mind when watching Butterman and Angel scuttle after a fugitive swan, but the story still has merit and proves oddly engaging in a ‘British’ sort of way. It will be overlooked for being whacky, much like most of mainstream comedy found today, but it does the movie a great service, that’s for sure. Because I don’t know anyone, or want to meet anyone who doesn’t think the idea of senior citizens wielding illegal firearms is worth their time.          The story of course, like in any comedy as of late, is the first to take a hit and Hot Fuzz is no exception. This two-hour roller coaster ride of a movie definitely has its turbulence. The most blatant bump being that fact that it’s two hours. While “Hot Fuzz” may not have the same unprecedented amount of unneeded flack as The Lord of the Rings series, (Oh wow, Frodo’s crying again?) “Hot Fuzz” could’ve karate chopped anywhere from 20-30 minutes off without taking a hit to the story. Sadly this is not the case, so while the film finds itself slowing down to baby crawl in its rising action, like any good sprinter it finishes with all its got.
          Because of this, sexed up California life and high speed cars makes Martin Lawrence and Will Smith look like some cops that don’t play by the rules by putting dress code last and semi-automatic weapons first, but across the pond, slick aviators straight off the convenience store rack hide the suburban warfare hardened faces of true law enforcement legends. Prim, proper and always packing heat.