“Usually it’s a bad thing if a movie makes you laugh when it’s not supposed to. What are you supposed to think when a movie is funny but are treated parts of it as serious fare? That’s the dilemma in Rogue Pictures’ Hot Fuzz, in theaters Friday. Hot Fuzz comes from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the same guys behind the hilarious 2004 zombie spoof Shaun of the Dead.”
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Usually it’s a bad thing if a movie makes you laugh when it’s not supposed to.

What are you supposed to think when a movie is funny but are treated parts of it as serious fare?

That’s the dilemma in Rogue Pictures’ Hot Fuzz, in theaters Friday.

Hot Fuzz comes from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the same guys behind the hilarious 2004 zombie spoof Shaun of the Dead.

Pegg, Shaun in Shaun of the Dead, plays Nicholas Angel, a cop who makes everyone else on the force look bad with his hard work and dedication.

To get back at him for being a better cop, Angel is sent to the small, quiet village of Sandford.

But when he gets there, brutal deaths begin piling up and Angel makes it his mission to find out the identity of the murderer.

When none of his fellow officers care, he enlists the help of Danny Butterman, the aloof police chief’s son.

The inept Butterman is perfectly played by Nick Frost (Ed in Shaun of the Dead).

At first, Butterman is reluctant to do work, but eventually is inspired to do so by Angel after they watch some goofy action movies.

On screen, Frost and Pegg have an incredible rapport, playing off each other’s jokes and mannerisms.

The movie has a couple nods to Shaun of the Dead, the most notable is when Angel and Butterman have to scale a series of fences to take a shortcut.

In Shaun of the Dead, Pegg’s character knocks down the first fence he tries to leap over. Here, as our relentless hero, he easily makes his way over each fence. Conversely, the plump Frost crashes through the first fence in his way.

The movie’s biggest setback is that Pegg and Frost’s characters are a little too similar to their characters in Shaun.

Pegg’s character is the brave leader while Frost again plays the goofy and lazy sidekick.

However, they do the roles so well it’s only a minor complaint.

As good as Frost and Pegg are together, whenever ex-007 Timothy Dalton or Steve Coogan are on the screen, they steal the show.

The humor in Hot Fuzz is more understated than that in Shaun of the Dead, which was crazy even for a zombie movie.

While Shaun blatantly laughed in the face of zombie flicks, Hot Fuzz merely chuckles and smirks in the face of buddy cop flicks like Lethal Weapon.

Although more subtle, the over-the-top action scenes in Hot Fuzz are just as good as those in a traditional action movie.

Similar to Shaun, though, the violence and gore in Hot Fuzz is deliberate. It’s meant to make jaws drop – and it succeeds. Many of the deaths come in an outrageous fashion – like when a cop is killed when the peak of a house splits his head in half.

The 115-minute Hot Fuzz may not succeed in America like Shaun of the Dead did because the humor isn’t as straightforward.

In general, American audiences tend to like big, dumb action cop movies – as evidenced by the popularity of the two garbage Bad Boys movies starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith.

The Bad Boys franchise seems to be spoofed the most by Hot Fuzz as is Point Break.

Just in case anyone doesn’t get the obvious send-ups, clips from both are shown at different points in the movie.

If, or when, some seriously think of Hot Fuzz as a real action flick with cheese unintentionally added, the filmmakers biggest joke – one on the viewers – may be achieved.

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