In case you've been living under a rock, this is the new film from most of the people behind Shaun of the Dead and, before that, the ever-wonderful Spaced.
First off, is it worth seeing? Yes. Relax. It's a very funny film. If you liked Shaun of the Dead, this one will ring all the same bells. There's no zombies, of course, which makes comparison unfair. There's also no real love interest to speak of (depending on your interpretation, but nothing 'on-screen' anyway) so no zom, no rom, but still plenty of com.
The Met's top cop, Nicholas Angel, (Simon Pegg to you) has such a great arrest and clean up record, he's making the rest of the force (sorry, service) look bad. So, when they get a chance, they send him off to a sleepy country village, where he is partnered with Nick Frost, son of the local chief inspector, who dreams of car chases, shootouts and high drama. So far, so Heartbeat with Nick Berry (before he left to become a mountie and was replaced with a series of pale imitations, which I still find hard to believe is possible, but they did it anyway.)
Of course, life in a perfect village is never all it seems (just as well, I think they'd have had a harder time selling this film if Pegg and Frost just went round ticking off truants and chatting to farmers) and soon Angel is embroiled in a series of vicious murders.
The casting is excellent. Obviously, Mr Pegg has again gone round his entire circle of luvvie mates and got as many as possible to pitch in. Who wouldn't, when your pals include Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan, Bill Bailey, Kevin Eldon, Edward Woodward, Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent and Olivia Colman (Sophie from Peep Show)?
It trundles along at a fair old pace, riffing off American cop movies and British TV shows in equal measure (providing a lot of the humour is the vast gulf between these two worlds; Point Break meets Midsummer Murders, anyone?) and I left highly amused, as will you.
Hot Fuzz website
