With ""Shaun of the Dead,"" the team of director Edgar Wright and writer/star Simon Pegg burst out of Britain and became pop culture icons. Its ability to simultaneously parody zombie films and romantic comedies while elevating everything with its own brand of humor elevated it above a standard ""Scary Movie""-esque parody film.
The team's immediate follow-up, ""Hot Fuzz"" takes on another group of disparate genres—slashers and over-the-top action films—and seeks to parody them in a similar ""Shaun""-esque fashion. While Wright and Pegg's unique humor does show through, the parody elements seem haphazardly thrown in, which prevents ""Hot Fuzz"" from achieving the genius that ""Shaun of the Dead"" exhibited.
Pegg's character, Nick Angel, is a go-getter London cop who actually embarrasses the rest of the force by being too good at his work. The higher-ups force Angel to slum it in the perennial ""Village of the Year"" town of Sandford. Soon, Angel is the fish out of water, busting up street performers instead of drug dealers. However, when he notices a high ""accident rate"" in the city, he investigates into the village's deep mystery.
""Shaun of the Dead"" worked because it melded parodies of disparate genres—the zombie movie and the romantic comedy. With this combination, at points the romantic comedy element could jumpstart the zombie portion and vice versa.
""Hot Fuzz"" fails because it does not meld its genres; instead it gives each portion its own section. The first part mocks the fish-out-of-water big cop in a small city setup, while the second acts parodies slasher thrillers. It finishes with an over-the-top action movie parody.
The sections do not blend together, and are incapable of commenting upon each other. ""Shaun"" was brilliantly marketed as ""A romantic comedy. With zombies."" ""Hot Fuzz"" on the other hand, would have to be sold as ""A fish-out-of-water story. A slasher parody. An action parody. With little overlap.""
The slasher section in the middle is by far the weakest portion, which is unfortunate, because it sandwiches together the much stronger fish out of water and action movie sections. The weakness of this act seems especially strange as all members involved showed their considerable horror parody chops in ""Shaun."" Most of the humor in this act relies on outrageous expressions of gore. Some scenes are violently hilarious as Wright and company find new ways to decapitate victims, but this violence can only carry the movie so far. The deaths come far apart in a mostly, pardon the pun, lifeless act. It pales compared to the character quirks of the first act, or the rapid pace of the third act.
Once the narrative shifts and becomes an action parody things truly pick up. The final act's action is quite breathless as it shifts from action set pieces to comedic action set pieces and back. This portion plays host to a considerable amount of violence as ludicrous battles occur in supermarkets, churches and a miniature-representation of Sandford.
It might seem weird to say, but the ludicrous gunplay might have hampered some enjoyment of the film in light of last week's tragedy in Blacksburg. Obviously, this is no knock against Wright and company, because they had no control over that, but it does seem odd the film was not held back a couple weeks until calmer times had come.
Regardless of world events, ""Hot Fuzz"" is a decent enough film. It's no ""Shaun of the Dead,"" and it could have been much improved with more seamless parodies of its genres, but overall, the quirky British humor prevails to make a decent film.
