Customer Reviews

Hot Fuzz (Three-Disc Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(221)
4 star:		(98)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

This set gives us what was in the Brit package.

Disc One

Commentary with Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright
Commentary with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Kevin Eldon & Olivia Colman
Commentary with Kenneth Cranham, Timothy Dalton, Paul Freeman & Edward Woodward
Commentary with The Real Fuzz - Any Leafe & Nick Eckland
Commentary with Edgar Wright & Guest
Outtakes
Storyboards
Fuzz-O-Meter (Trivia Track)
Inadmissible: Deleted Scenes
Fuzz-O-Meter
Danny's Notebook
Hot Funk
Theatrical Trailer
UK TV Spot 1
UK TV Spot 2
Director's Cut Trailer

Disc Two

We Made Hot Fuzz
Art Department
Friends & Family
Cranks, Cranes & Controlled Chaos
Here Come the Fuzz
Return to Sandford
Edgar & Simon's Flip Chart
Simon Muggs
Sergeant Fisher's Perfect Sunday
Plot Holes
Special Effects: Before & After
Video Blogs
Poster Gallery
Photo Gallery
AM Blam: Making 'Dead Right'
Dead Right (1993)
Edgar Wright Director's Commentary on Dead Right
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost Commentary on Dead Right

Disc Three

The Extended Fuzzball Rally
Video Blogs

We are very nearly through the first half of 2007 and I'm happy to report that HOT FUZZ is easily the funniest movie that I have seen so far this year. I loved Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's previous film, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and am delighted to report that this is every bit as funny at that one, if not funnier.

The film concerns a highly decorated London police officer who is so good at his job that he is shunted off to an assignment in the country because he is so good he makes the rest of the force look bad. Sanford would seem to be an impossibly idyllic place, winner several times of the top village in England award. But it is a town that houses mysteries, which our hero Nick Angel gradually uncovers. Most of the film should be predictable, but it is a credit to Wright and Pegg that it isn't. Even the big ending, the week point in most such movies, is a delight. Despite a lot of action and special effects and explosions it is never taken over by them. It remains fresh and surprising to the very end. Although the plot is surprisingly interesting for a comic romp, this would be a fun film without it. The gags are consistently brilliant throughout and every one is executed marvelously. This is a much slicker film than SHAUN OF THE DEAD was, though that wasn't in any way unpolished.

The cast is a large one and they manage to bring the village of Sandford to life in convincing fashion. Pegg is paired with Nick Frost, his costar in SHAUN OF THE DEAD. The cast is littered with well-known actors such as Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Edward Woodward, Billie Whitelaw, Bill Nighy, Stephen Merchant, and Martin Freeman as well as a rich and varied cast of lesser-known performers. The great thing about this is that the actors really enhance the film. What I mean is that the success of SHAUN OF THE DEAD meant that they could hire a cast of better-known performers. Sometimes this can lead to a decline in the quality of projects (watch Robert Rodriguez's EL MARIACHI and DESPERADO back to back and you'll see how a no name cast can free up a director while a big name cast can inhibit one), but that absolutely didn't happen here.

The film is littered with in jokes and cultural references. There are also a number of references to SHAUN OF THE DEAD, but it isn't important to get any of these to enjoy the movie. There are also, according to Edgar Wright, a couple of nice cameos, though we have to take his word for it since neither is recognizable. The crazed Santa that stabs Angel near the beginning of the film is, says Wright, Peter Jackson, while his ex-girlfriend Jeanine is Cate Blanchett. Again, we have to take his word for it because her entire scene is played with a surgical mask over her face so that all we see are a pair of eyes that do indeed look like they could belong to Cate Blanchett.

As anyone can tell, I loved this movie. I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone.

This movie is hilarious - a real satire on the whole Bad Boys/ Point Break Comedy action movies. Lots of references to other movies which makes it a fun watch.

It is a tight script, but is enhanced by superb camera work and sound track which brings the whole thing to life. Enhanced sounds make every action dramatic - but the subject is so laughably small that is really stands out.

This is Constable Nicholas Angel, top cop at the Met (London) who is moved out because his arrest rate is 400% more than anyone elses and he is making them all look bad. So he ends up in a tiny village in Gloucester (Sandford) which ahs won best village of the year for many years running. But all is not well in the village, luckily the neighbourhood watch are there keeping an eye on things - meaning Nicholas angel has time to follow up on missing swans in the neighbourhood.

Unfortunately there are a series of murders which the police force there are calling 'accidents' - Angel sees different and tries to investigate only to come up against brick walls. His research reveals a stunningly complicated link between all of them which makes sense - but when he confronts them - the reason is much more banal and it sets up a shoot-it-out, chase-em-down final scene. References to Point Break, every western you have ever watched, and even Matrix movies.

It is hard to describe this movie except to say this is as unique as Guy Ritchies Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is - but in different ways. This is a laugh from start to finish. I will never be able to drinnk decaffinated coffee again without laughing.

Truly brilliant, hilarious, comic-action fun!

The extras are pretty good - I liked the subtitled choice which meant you could watch the movie and get an idea of the references - including the police references in this (including the fact that Sandford is a fictional village used by the British police for all their role-playing and tests) There are outakes, but I didn't think much of them - they seemed banal by comparison. Story baords and much more

This is full of all the cream of British film - Great oily turn by ex-James Bond, Timothy Dalton as the Supermarket owner. Jim Broadbent is superb too.

A top watch.

Home theater enthusiasts this could be your reference disc for sound. I own about 40 hd dvds now and going by memory this is the best sounding one yet. The 5.1 Dolby digital plus ex sound gives all speakers a thorough workout and has your sub delivering tight bass for the majority of the movie. Your receiver need not be turned up during dialogue that is also spot on and delivers crisp sound from the center channel.
As for the movie itself, director Edgar Wright re teams with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost along with a host of other actors from his earlier film Shaun of The Dead. Hot Fuzz like Shaun pays homage to a genre of films, in this case the action film as opposed to horror. However there are kills in Hot Fuzz that could rival most horror movies. Homage is payed to the action genre, yet Hot Fuzz still creates a totally unique and creative spin all on it's own. I like Shaun of the dead very much and I found Hot Fuzz to be more creative as there are plenty of plot twists and turns. It is not a spoof at all and Edgar Wright takes his material seriously. I would also mention Hot Fuzz is a great deal better than the action films it pays homage to. Toss in a ton of laughs and this is one entertaining movie.
The picture quality was also dead on, i mention the sound quality so much because it was so amazing.
Hot Fuzz is already ranked on the internet movie database's top 250 films at number 140 currently. It is also one of the highest reviewed films of the year earning a tomatometer of 90% out of 173 critic reviews.
Thanks for reading, share any thoughts.

Hd-Dvd Bonus Features
-Outtakes
-Deleted scenes with filmmaker commentary
-The man who woudl be fuzz - Simon Pegg and Nick Frost act out a hilarious Hot Fuzz scene as Sean Connery and Michael Caine!
-Fuzz-O-Meter Select this feature and the trivia meter will run as you watch the film
-The fuzzball rally- U.S. tour piece-John Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright on their outrageous nationwide press tour
-And Many more hilarious features

British comedies remain an ilk of their own - smart, sassy, full of quips rendered so quickly that many are lost in the ether that propels the plot, and characters who often are such finely-honed parodies that they make us laugh at ourselves. HOT FUZZ is a fine example and it is a film brimming with a cast of some of England's finest talent who seem to be having as much fun as the viewing audience.

Sgt. Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is one of London's finest new policemen, expecting a smart career in the big city, but instead is transferred by jealous superiors (including Bill Nighy) to a little village where his rigorous training seems wasted on the sleepy town. After a first night's arrest of youthful pubsters and an inebriate driver, he reports to duty to discover the that his first 'arrest' is to be his partner PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) who just happens to be the slow son of the chief, Inspector Butterman (Jim Broadbent). The staff at the police station resembles a vaudeville team played by such fine actors as Paddy Considine, Rafe Spall, Timothy Dalton etc, not exactly what Angel had in mind as a career advancing opportunity. But soon enough the threads of evil that are beneath the silly facade of the village begin to unravel and what follows is a hilarious, almost Keystone Cop attack on the loonies in this take off of an Agatha Christie plot that curdled.

And that only touches the surface of this witty little farce: the innuendoes pop up out of every situation, giving the astute viewer quiet chuckles throughout the film. Hidden from obvious view are little vignettes by such luminaries as Cate Blanchett, Steve Coogan, and Peter Jackson! Director Edgar Wright, who wrote the script with Simon Pegg, knows his way around the genre and the result is an hysterically funny evening's entertainment. Grady Harp, March 08

Not only is this movie *hilarious*, it's also an homage to police movies from noir to boom-boom, with a bit of "Shaun of the Dead" thrown in for good measure.

One minute you're hearing an echo from "Chinatown" ("Forget it, Nick...It's Sandford."), then you're hearing from SotD ("What, haven't you ever taken a short cut before?"), seeing action from "Point Break", and who'll ever forget the penultimate scene, complete with birds taking off, a la John Woo, in any of his action movies.

These guys took every cop movie cliche, put it into less than two hours, didn't demean the sources, made it funny *and* tense (my wife actually *screamed* at one scene), and ended up with a movie I'll see again and again.

Best. Cop. Movie. Ever.



BTW: Anyone catch "The Wicker Man" reference? Yes indeed, these guys went out of their way to include police movie references.

There are some who have seen this film and said that it was full of gore, it was repetitive, and much too full of 'that hollywood stuff'. For those who feel this way--I'm afraid you've missed the point.

The point of this film is simply to, in a comedic way, blend the mundane story of an English Policeman, with the over-the-top 'explosions and guts' style of Hollywood; Hence the flower gardens and decapitation.

This isn't a Hugh Grant film- this is an Edgar Wright handmade, Bad Boys II meets Evil Dead II remix, wrapped around the genius of heterosexual life partners, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

It has explosions. It has guts. It has insanely long gun fights. And you know what? It also has one hell of a script; Borrowing from almost every cop movie ever made, it also manages to incorporate the unique quips and inside jokes belonging to Pegg and Wright.

By the power of Grayskull!



POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW

Jokes range from a simple, yet effective 'Yarp', to a lengthy and surprising scene starring one Mr. David Bradley (Mr. Filch to you Potter fans) and one olympic mine.

Excellent comedy, suspensful horrorshow, and one hell of a show.

I recommend to all.

First the movie -- In a year with some serious comedy competition (Knocked Up, Superbad, Juno), Hot Fuzz leads the pack.

1. It combines types of comedy that are generally incompatible: physical comedy (pratfalls and sight gags galore), some spot-on verbal comedy ("refrigerator magnate"), situational comedy, and character-driven comedy.

2. The movie is a virtuoso doctoral thesis on the American action flick. These dudes have done their homework. Every trope in the genre is used and twisted ever so slightly, to uproarious cumulative effect. In a way, the entire film is a set-up for the golden moment when our heroes can "jump through the air whilst firing two pistols" -- but everything leading up to it is brilliantly funny.

3. The screen talent, spanning generations of British film, is awesome!

4. One of the weirdest conventions of action flicks is the homophobic homoeroticism that pervades both the hypermasculinity and the buddy element. In a comedy, this aspect would be ripe for the crassest treatment. Instead the writer's give it an almost sweet, hilarious, and completely believable twist.

5. It gives us the latest and among the greatest of comedy duos -- Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

6. Despite the laughs, it works pretty good as a straightforward action flick -- definitely a lot of action, suspense, and bloodshed.

So, what about the extras on the 3-DVD set? Normally, I don't go in for this kind of filler even if I'm a fan of the film. I believe in letting art speak for itself and generally not interested in the creative process behind it, at least at close range and through the prism of self-promotion. But a comedy is different -- these are blokes you want to hang out a bit with, and the various making-of documentaries and video blogs give you the chance to do just that. For that reason, any fan of the film will want to have this set -- yes (sigh) even if you've purchased another DVD version. If you haven't acquired it on DVD, this is the set to own, no questions asked.

Throughout these features, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost come across as something of a natural comic duo in real life -- Pegg consistently quick-witted, Frost a bit buffoonish; and Edgar Wright comes across as a mad genius, sometimes bemused at the hairiness that his cinematic vision has gotten him into.

A brief rundown on some of the features:

DISC 1:
* Fuzz-O-Meter trivia track: Indispensable! but available, I think, on all DVD issues.
* Storyboards: The feature runs parallel to the movie, just click the "HF" badge in the upper right hand corner when it appears during the movie (at about the beginning of each scene) to be detoured to the storyboards.
* The Man Who Would Be Fuzz: Throw-away intro by Pegg and Frost.
* Danny's Notebook - Other Side: Cute / sick.
* Outtakes: Typical bits of the actors breaking character, cracking up and swearing. However, some amusing "Did you ever ..." ad-libs from Frost. And near-consummation of the film's true love story!
* Hot Funk: "The makers of Hot Fuzz were contractually obligated to provide a TV version with somewhat softer language. Enjoy."
* Trailers: Four of them. The British ones are amusingly brief, the "director's uncut" is deadpan and over-the-top at the same time.
* Inadmissable - Deleted Scenes: Pretty good, a bit more of the verbal humor on display, little bits of plot development dropped to tighten up scenes, an interesting running gag ("manager of the local supermarket") that was edited out entirely. However, no major scenes here; you definitely get the sense of a pretty tidy script.
* Commentary - 1) Pegg & Wright. 2) Tarantino & Wright. 3) The Sandford police cast members. 4) The Sandford villagers cast members. 5) Two real policement advising on the film. Not all of these are uniformly amusing, but hey they all manage to reach their stride. The filmmaking trio are predictably raucous.

DISC 2:
* Hearsay - Plot Holes: One of my favorite features, however brief. These are storyboards filling "plot holes" and showing how the filmmakers thought through the verisimilitude of some of the more outlandish incidents in the film. Not only interesting but presented hilariously. Features Tim Messenger, Danny, and Nicholas Angel -- the last of these, again, showing what might have come of the film's love story! Brilliant!
* Hearsay - Special Effects, Before & After: Very effectively presented, with music and all, but the FX techniques are merely shown, not explained. If that's what you're after, you'll have to slow it down and freeze-frame a lot.
* We Made Hot Fuzz: Parts of this making-of documentary are as much fun as the film itself: Bill Nighy delivers an impromptu monolog that is nothing short of brilliant, and the actors playing the Andies indulge a bit of shameless logrolling.
* Poster Gallery / Photo Gallery: Pretty standard stuff. Frost looks pretty silly in some of the evidently scratched versions. One hilarious poster idea that evidently never made it past the storyboard stage. Close-up option for the poster gallery!
* Featurettes: Eight of these, of variable length, and definitely a lot of fun. 'Art Department' has a great bit with Pegg and Frost mugging with props. 'Friends and Family' has an extended sequence with Peter Jackson. 'Cranks, Cranes & Controlled Chaos' is unexpectedly fascinating; Edgar Wright, naturally enough, uses camera techniques typical of the films being spoofed, but of course puts ingenious twists on them, and the variety of camera work on this film is positively dizzying. 'Here Come the Fuzz' deals daftly but insightfully with the filmmakers' passion for authenticity in portraying police work. 'Return to Sandford' is a rather whimsical tour, after the end of filming, of the cathedral city of Wells (Wright's hometown) that became Sandford. 'Edgar & Simon's Flip Chart' shows how they brainstormed on screenplay development (no, it's not more notebook animations as I thought!) -- plot, back story, psychology, humor, settings and other visuals -- a great look into their collaborative process and their wealth of invention! 'Simon Muggs' shows how the film's star decompresses from playing a straight arrow! 'Sergeant Fisher's Perfect Sunday' is a funny bit with a bit actor.
* Video Blogs: This serious of five-minute bits, filmed for Internet posting (to iTunes?) while the film was being shot, are intermittently brilliant. Early on, Edgar Wright muses, "There are probably good reasons why not too many cop films are made in the U.K. and I think we're going to discover every single one of them." The frequency of rain turns out to be a major frustration. Other blog highlights include Pegg and Frost's workout video, Peter Jackson's brass rubbings, Pegg's iron grip on the make-up department, and the significance of the British pub. You also get a sense of how impossibly complicated and claustrophobic it would be to film so much action in a small town.

You probably won't want to watch the 5-plus hours of bonus features without interruption, or you'll walk away with a British accent, or rather a jumble of them!

Having never seen 2004's Shaun of the Dead, I didn't know what to expect from director/co-screenwriter Edgar Wright's latest movie, which plays out like an Ealing Studios only-in-Britain comedy amplified on Tarantino-level steroids. The 2007 action farce achieves the impressive feat of being silly and smart, quite often at the same time, as Wright and co-screenwriter Nicholas Pegg show themselves to be cineastes with a sharp eye and nimble ear for satire. There are lots of derivative plot turns to track in this fish-out-of-water story, which shifts into a blazing, gun-toting thriller as a tribute to testosterone-driven, Jerry Bruckheimer-genre buddy movies like Point Break and Bad Boys II. Even the intentionally exploitative title fits the tone of this eminently enjoyable popcorn flick perfectly.

With laser-sharp precision, Pegg stars as a straight-arrow aptly named Nicholas Angel, inarguably the best police officer in London. However, he is so good that he makes the rest of the force look ineffectual, which leads to his unceremonious transfer to a sleepy hamlet named Sandford. There he carries his duties quite seriously, which naturally puts him at odds with the casual townsfolk. But then a suspicious car accident occurs, and the plot escalates into a wild ride of contrived but often hilarious developments leading to an ambitious, cartoon-like series of exciting finales. Angel naturally needs a partner to succeed, and Nick Frost (looking a lot like Mark Addy from The Full Monty) winningly plays schlubby Danny, a wannabe action hero who happens to be the devoted son of Frank Butterman, the village police chief. Together they uncover a plot that upends the entire community.

There are lots of familiar faces in funny supporting turns - Timothy Dalton at his smarmy best (and looking well poised to inherit Christopher Plummer's villain roles) as the suspicious supermarket owner; Jim Broadbent as the seemingly benevolent Frank; Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall as a couple of sarcastic, mustachioed detectives; and in bit parts, Bill Nighy and Steve Coogan as a couple of London's befuddled finest and an uncredited Cate Blanchett as Angel's put-upon girlfriend Jeanine conveniently hidden by a forensic mask. The one-liners are funny enough, but what really resonate are the subtle, often throwaway shots that make fun of American movie conventions. Even though the film runs for over two hours, Wright and Pegg have paced the story with a dexterous mix of thrills, intelligence and laughs. Much of this successful hat trick is due to Chris Dickens' propulsive editing and a nifty combination of over-the-top stunts and visual effects. This film is quite an unexpected kick.

Director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg have proven that lightning can strike twice with their 2007 comedy "Hot Fuzz." As was the case with "Shaun of the Dead," they are following in the grand tradition of Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks in "Young Frankenstein" by embracing the genre they are spoofing and taking everything that happens dead seriously, which is what makes it hysterical. Plus, once again Pegg and his sidekick Nick Frost have created characters that have heart, so that we care about them as well as laughing at their antics (of everything that happened in "Shaun of the Dead" the part I remember most is Shaun being upset over the fate of his mother). So when we get to the final act of "Hot Fuzz" and the film actually slips into an even higher gear, we get to root them on all that harder.

This time around Pegg is Sergeant Nicholas Angel, a guy who is no bumbling Inspector Closseau. In fact, Sergeant Angel is so competent that his bosses want to get rid of him because he is making everybody else in the police service look bad. So Angel is banished to Sanford, a perfect little English village supposedly devoid of crime. Of course Angel finds cause to arrest just about everybody he runs into, only to be informed by his new boss, Inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent), that they look at things differently in Sanford. Everybody is town speaks of "the Greater Good," and it seems that we are being set up for your standard story about a hard core true believer learning that the spirit of the law is as important as the letter of the law. Angel is partnered with PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), and we have the requisite pair for the buddy part of the picture and it looks like all of the pieces are in place.

However, there is something rotten in the village of Sanford, personified by Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton), the local rich guy. There might not be any crime in Sanford, but there sure are a lot of accidents and Angel quickly figures out that these suspicious accidents might be sneaky murders. The payoff for this whole bit is most decidedly English in nature, which is part of what makes it so funny, especially when old hands like Billie Whitelaw and Edward Woodward are playing some of the eccentric characters. I do not know what the record is for most cuts in a film, but with "Hot Fuzz" film editor Chris Dickens has got to be in the running. This movie is not just cut like an action film, it is cut like an action film on speed, which becomes another part of the fun. An hour into this film I thought there was only a half-hour left, but it turned out we were only halfway through this entertaining film. As for what I shall remember most from this action comedy, it would have to be the fate of the villain Skinner and one of the more memorable "boy, that has got to hurt" moments of all time.