Hot Fuzz (2007)

From the crazy people who gave us Shaun of the Dead (2004) comes Hot Fuzz (2007), a fantastic cop film that’s a quirky mix of comedy and action.

It stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two cops named Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman.

Angel is a successful, straight-laced cop from London. Butterman (on the other hand) is the naive small-town cop who has never seen any action, but who is obsessed with action-packed cop films (and who therefore idolizes Angel for his real-life crime-fighting experience).

They are partnered up as an odd couple of sorts in the village of Sandford — where Butterman grew up, and where Angel was reassigned (because his success in London was starting to make the other cops there look bad).

All goes well until people mysteriously start dying under suspicious circumstances — and yet no one but Angel seems concerned about this unlikely string of deaths… hm…

I won’t ruin the story for anyone, but I will say that the first two-thirds of the movie is quick-witted comedy, and then the last third is saturated with funny, over-the-top action. (The action both emulates and mocks the gun-fighting and car-chasing scenes in typical cop films.)

The great thing (for me) was that I had no idea what to expect with this movie, so the turning point between the comedy and the action was pretty sudden — and hilarious.

So if you like comedy, or action, or (ideally!) both, please rent Hot Fuzz — you’ll definitely enjoy it. After all, it received a phenomenally high 90% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Finally, here is the official site (turn down your volume before you click, though).