Hot Fuzz

On the flight home from London, I perused the United Airlines entertainment guide and came across a description for “Hot Fuzz,” a film “by the makers of ‘Shaun of the Dead.’” I never saw “Shaun of the Dead,” so I didn’t know what to expect, but the description otherwise intrigued me.

This particular flight offered individual screens for each passenger, allowing personal viewing of a choice of about seven films. Clearly unaware of what to expect, I punched up the channel for “Hot Fuzz.”

On the surface it’s a story about a London cop who’s just too good. His arrest record is 1000% higher than his colleagues’, and so, because he’s making the rest of them look bad, he’s sent away to a small town where, historically, nothing happens. And of course, nothing there is as it seems.

Deep down, however, it’s a good-natured spoof of the Hollywood genre “buddy cop” movies, and manages to send up those movies quite vigorously, as well as entertain in its own right. They nail just about every cliché along the way, from ridiculous car chases to the cheesy lines the bad guys – as well as the charismatic good guys – spew at the climax of a scene, to the impossible gun-fight scenes, to the painfully touching sweet scene at the end.

My biggest surprise came when I heard the ‘f’ word clearly in the dialogue. I checked the guide again and discovered that this film was presented without editing by the airline, so all language was intact! I guess it’s only allowed on international flights, but I’m not complaining!

The “Shaun of the Dead” gang also apparently love blood and gore, so there was a fair bit of that throughout, though it only added comedically to the film.

Bottom line, if you like intelligent spoofs of mindless films, if you don’t mind some raw language or some (funny) mild gore, if you want to laugh yourself silly, oblivious between your headphones while others stare at you as though you’ve come unhinged, buy, rent or otherwise view “Hot Fuzz!”