A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Hot Fuzz

Date Viewed: 4/29/07

Details:

Simon Pegg

Nick Frost

Bill Nighy

Timothy Dalton

Jim Broadbent

Edward Woodward

Cate Blanchett

Peter Jackson

and Elvis the Swan

Co-written & directed by: Edgar Wright

Score: 1/2

The Review: Broad farce, police procedural, and (but?) curiously entertaining -- Slackers meets Police Academy meets Mystery on the Orient Express.

Almost-sergeant Dick Angel (Pegg, one of the co-writers) is good, actually very good, at what he does -- so good, in fact, that he's promoted against his will out of the London metropolitan district and into the country so he doesn't continue to embarrass all his teammates by his exceptional skills and effectiveness. Seems like a serious case of Resentment of Achievement to me. The quiet town (filmed in Wells, Somerset) turns out to be anything but quiet, and along the way he acquires a sidekick (Frost). You'll never again look at a quaint, picturesque English village in quite the same way -- have you ever thought about what it took to make it so quaint?

A surprising number of big names in bit parts, including some uncredited (Cate Blanchett and Peter Jackson, among them).

(6-May-07)

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