Hot Fuzz

7/10. Saw this on March 19 at the West End Vue in London.

After taking on zombies in Shaun of the Dead, director & co-writer Edgar Wright, star & co-writer Simon Pegg, and co-star Nick Frost return to poke affectionate fun at the action genre. Like Shaun, Hot Fuzz isn't just a series of skits. There's clever dialogue, characters you actually care about, and even a mystery storyline that would reward a second viewing.

Unfortunately, the style of action that Hot Fuzz chooses to spoof is a style that generally leaves me cold – that is, guns blazing, quick cutting, squibs bursting, all with very little sense of where anyone is or how one thing leads to another. The fact that the movie’s final half-hour is packed with this kind of action makes the experience as a whole anticlimactic.

Another problem is how regularly Hot Fuzz explicitly refers to the movies that inspired it, something I don’t recall happening as often in Shaun. Worst is a long scene with Pegg & Frost drunk on a couch watching action movies. This may be fun to do, but it’s not much fun to watch.