British screenwriters hit a home run with 'Hot Fuzz'

What writers' Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg "Shaun of the Dead" (2004) did for horror films, "Hot Fuzz" does for action movies.

Outrageously funny and jam-packed with excitement, "Hot Fuzz" is much less a parody of action films and far more an homage.

Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is a good cop with one major flaw - the inability to stop working. Promoted by the London Police to Sergeant and transferred to Sandford (the safest place in England, and consistent winner of Village of the Year) so he'll stop making his squad look bad with his remarkable arrest record, Angel is beyond disappointed with his relocation.

While staying in Sandford's quaint hotel - reminiscent of something out of John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" (1995) - Angel quickly finds everyone knows everyone in a village that seems perfect.

After arresting a would-be drunk driver his first night in town, Angel is horrified to learn the man is not only his new partner, Police Constable Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), but the son of Chief Inspector Butterman (Jim Broadbent).

Things quickly go from bad to worse for Angel when he realizes some of the local accidents (of which there are many) may actually be murder, a theory outright mocked by the other officers and the community at large.

And the community at large is rather unique. Angel works with two useless detectives - both called Andrew (Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall) - as well as the village's only police woman, Doris (Olivia Colman), who claims to have been "around the station a couple times."

Local pub owners, the Coopers (Eric Mason and Billie Whitelaw) obsess over an error in the newspaper listing Mrs. Cooper as two years older than her age. Spelling-impaired newsman Timothy Messenger (Adam Buxton) is more interested in fluff pieces than investigative reporting. The neighborhood grocer, Simon Skinner (former James Bond, Timothy Dalton), is a "slaughter of prices" as well as a theatre snob. And everyone worries when a local swan escapes.

"Hot Fuzz" is buddy film, an action movie, and an uproarious comedy rollercoaster that unrolls one twist after another.

Rated R for violent content including some graphic images, and language, "Hot Fuzz" is a clever and exhilarating all-round good time for the grown-ups.

Published in The Chronicle in April 2007 as Jade Lee Culberson