Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007)

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Web site. This one looks really funny. Can't wait... Teaser trailers are online.

Best line: "Is it true that there is a place in a man's head that if you shoot it, it will blow up?"

Synopsis:

Top London cop, Police Constable Nicholas Angel, finds himself reassigned to the sleepy West Country village of Sandford. With garden fetes and neighbourhood watch meetings replacing the action of the city, Angel struggles to adapt to his situation and finds himself partnered with Danny Butterman, an oafish but well meaning young Constable. Just as all seems lost, a series of grisly accidents motivates Angel into action. Convinced of foul play, Angel realises that Sandford may not be as idyllic as it seems.

[Antoine Doinel]

Yeah, the teasers are very nice and I loved Shaun Of The Dead but I hope they bring something fresh to the police spoof genre. With all the directions they could've gone in, it seems to be a pretty uninspired choice.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Yeah, the teasers are very nice and I loved Shaun Of The Dead but I hope they bring something fresh to the police spoof genre. With all the directions they could've gone in, it seems to be a pretty uninspired choice.

Well, the trailers seem to hint at them spoofing Hong Kong action films with the slow mo John Woo shots of action, which is cool. That slow mo stuff has been done to death! Hopefully this film will be that technique's epitaph for awhile.

[Len]

In a way, I agree that the police spoof is a genre that has been done to death, but I've such faith in Wright, Pegg and Frost that I'm sure they'll be able to deliver, and it's about time someone did a loving tribute/spoof to the glory years of Woo. Not to mention the teaser looks fucking awesome!

[DrewReiber]

I can't wait for either this film or Ant-Man.

[Antoine Doinel]

Full trailer is here

[Cinesimilitude]

Fantastic trailer! Stephen Merchant is in it, and everything else looks top notch. can't wait to see this one. I bet Gervais is the killer, any takers?

[Len]

Oh my, that looks absolutely fantastic!

That'll be the most downright enjoyable film of next year if it's even half as good as the trailer makes it look.

[jon]

The grocery store shootout will be a-fucking-mazing. Two shotguns on his back I'm so excited!

"Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"

[colinr0380]

It also seems to be a spoof of that middle of the road mystery show Midsomer Murders, where every week the quiet country village has a double or triple murder! I think their murder level was about the equivalent of New York's by the end of the third or fourth series! In fact I remember watching one episode (and this is supposed to be a gentle Murder She Wrote-esque series) which had a priest killing a couple of people, trying to strangle his housekeeper and then when cornered by the police threw himself from the roof of his church only to land a few feet in front of his oblivious-to-his-crimes, loving daughter who was coming to visit him with a picnic basket!

Considering the trailer seems to be all about the country-folk constantly brushing off what seem to be axe murders as natural deaths it could be an joke about those type of murder mystery shows! (Plus they did use the theme tune from Murder She Wrote at one point in the Spaced series!)

Well, the trailers seem to hint at them spoofing Hong Kong action films with the slow mo John Woo shots of action, which is cool. That slow mo stuff has been done to death! Hopefully this film will be that technique's epitaph for awhile.

If that's the case, they'd better have a couple of doves in there!

The grocery store shootout will be a-fucking-mazing.

Looking at the trailer as they are running into the store (just before you see Timothy Dalton saying "here come the fuzz!") there is a very visible Somerfield logo. I'm surprised a real grocery store didn't mind a shootout being filmed there! Good publicity I guess!

I'm also looking forward to what seems to be a fight scene in a Gulliver's World themepark-styled miniature town!

[jt]

The cast list is a relative who's who of good british comedy. It's nice to see that while Simon Pegg is off filming big and small hollywood features, he's still spending time on what he does best (and better than anyone else), silly home-grown farces.

If you liked Sean of the Dead, this looks like a no-brainer and I'd also suggest picking up as much of his british sit-com output as possible, a lot of which (big train, spaced, look around you...) is very like these films in style, if not as polished.

[Cinesimilitude]

But don't do that before picking up the complete (2 series and a 2 art christmas special) BBC version of 'The Office' which is the single greatest thing to come out of great britain EVER. I know that's quite the generalizing statement, but I do honestly believe it.

[colinr0380]

My choice for 'best show out of Britain' would have to be Brass Eye

In what other TV show do you see a baying crowd grab a paedophile from the prison he's just been released from and burn him to death in a "giant wicker phallus"(!) As the overbearing news reporter says: "My children are safe, are yours?"

"What's that behind you Ted?"

"The giant, dressed as a girl? It's been here all day"

[jt]

My choice for 'best show out of Britain' would have to be Brass Eye

I'd have to agree.
Anything that makes fun of the right-wing press and their hysterical over-reactions is AOK with me. Especially when the day after transmission, The Daily Mail devotes half its editorial to...hysterical over-reactions...

I didn't include it as part of Pegg's output as he's not one of the regular cast members, although he did play a paeodophile in the brass-eye special. He was locked up and Chris Morris was parading a small boy in front of him:

CM: So you sick bastard, do you want to have sex with my son?!?

SP: No

CM: Oh really? Why not?

SM: Well, I don't...fancy him...

CM: WHAT!?! WHY NOT, What's wrong with him???!!!

ps SncDth, if you like the office that much, pm me and i'll give you a list of other british comedies you might not have heard of that are just as good.

[MichaelB]

Anything that makes fun of the right-wing press and their hysterical over-reactions is AOK with me. Especially when the day after transmission, The Daily Mail devotes half its editorial to...hysterical over-reactions...

I'm particularly fond of the Brass Eye paedophile special, as it was first broadcast the night before I went out on a blind date with the woman who eventually became my wife (and the mother of my two children, so they should be even more grateful).

It was a great ice-breaker, since I knew that I couldn't possibly have a relationship with anyone who didn't get it, but she thought it was just about the funniest thing she'd ever seen. In fact, what triggered our conversation about it was seeing someone in the cafe reading the Daily Mail, with the front-page headline SICKEST TV SHOW EVER.

[jt]

seeing someone in the cafe reading the Daily Mail, with the front-page headline SICKEST TV SHOW EVER.

that edition actually contained the following picture of the 11 and 13 year old princesses, perhaps the most hypocratic story in the history of journalism...

anyway, back on topic...

maybe we need a chris moris appreciation thread

[colinr0380]

I could never understand the thinking of the Daily Mail since they went so far as to print a detailed transcript of the entire episode, with a number of pictures! So if their intent was to show how sick and corrupting the programme was, surely completely reprinting it was only corrupting more people? I remember in addition to the part where Morris parades his child in front of Pegg, they got particularly upset about Morris keeping his children 'safe' by locking them in a filing cabinet and the reconstruction of child prostitutes in Victorian England by using a 25 year old woman (with soft focus photography and porn music while the reporter casually mentions that the breasts on the actress are larger and therefore inaccurate), but having her say "Can I have the money now, please" with a child's voice!

I'm annoyed at myself that I didn't keep the paper for posterity! (I've kept the 'Ban This Sick Car Crash Sex Film' headlined issue the Daily Mail did when they were running their campaign against Crash!)

Perhaps the best way to end is with this quote from the episode:

The number of adults having sex with children is almost beyond belief. If you define a child as anyone under 30, the figure is over 86%

And congatulations MichaelB, that is a great story - who'd have thought Brass Eye would ever bring people together?

[Fletch F. Fletch]

North American trailer

[Fletch F. Fletch]

The Guardian profiles/interviews Simon Pegg.

[colinr0380]

There's the usual collection of obsessive-compulsives on the internet.

The cream of contemporary comedy is in Hot Fuzz - Martin Freeman, Stephen Merchant, Bill Bailey, Steve Coogan, Adam Buxton. As well as more Great British character actors than even Harry Potter can provide employment for: Billie Whitelaw, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Edward Woodward, Timothy Dalton, Paul Freeman, Kenneth Cranham.

'We had a rule early on. We said let's try and populate the film with British actors who have been in Hollywood films and who have played bad people in Hollywood films ... We wanted an ensemble of brilliant actors playing really small parts. So the fabric of the village is made up of this really impressive cast of people who you glimpse every so often. So there's Paul Freeman, Stuart Wilson and Kenneth Cranham, people I'd grown up seeing in films. Paul Freeman was in Raiders of the Lost Ark for God's sake! I mean that film was a huge influence in my life, and suddenly he's playing a vicar in my film.'

It is good to see Kenneth Cranham in there. I wonder if his (very impressive) performance as Dr Channard in Hellbound: Hellraiser II was brought up during the filming!

[Fletch F. Fletch]

The Guardian's review.

Their interview with Pegg and Edgar Wright.

And their their solo interview with Pegg.

[MichaelB]

Saw it a couple of nights ago. Two-thirds genuinely funny, one-third protracted self-indulgence, especially towards the end when I suspect Pegg and Wright decided that this was a heaven-sent opportunity to fulfil a number of action-hero dreams that they'd both harboured since adolescence. With only a tiny number of exceptions (Some Like It Hot), a full two hours is simply too long for this kind of lightweight fluff, and cutting 15-20 minutes would have improved it no end.

But I can't be too rude about it as it's still far better than just about any other current or recent British comedy, and I suspect there were plenty of gags I missed first time round because the audience was laughing too hard.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Hot Fuzztivals
Date: March 14, 2007

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Rogue Pictures

HOT FUZZ, the hit action comedy from the U.K., is headed your way! Director/writer Edgar Wright, writer/star Simon Pegg, and star Nick Frost (the whole team from SHAUN OF THE DEAD) are coming to the U.S. -- armed with rare theatrical prints and showings of some Cop Movie classics, plus a sneak peek at their own HOT FUZZ (weeks in advance of its April 20th release in the U.S. from Rogue Pictures). Hot Fuzztivals will be held in select cities (see below), with the HOT FUZZ gang on hand for Q&As. Here come the FUZZ!

WASHINGTON DC
Date: Friday, March 23
Details: A screening of Die Hard followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Location: Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington VA
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Mike Jesson at [email protected]

BOSTON
Date: Friday, March 16 - Thursday, March 29
Details: Hot Fuzztival Boston will run over the course of 10 days, with the highlight being HOT FUZZ (3/25) with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Additional screenings include The French Connection and Dirty Harry (3/16 & 3/17), Lethal Weapon (3/18), Hard-Boiled (3/19 & 3/20), The Super Cops (3/21), Electra Glide In Blue (3/26), Bullitt (3/27), Dead and Buried & The Hidden (3/28), and Infernal Affairs (3/29).

Location: The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Phyllis Mercurio at [email protected]

CHICAGO
Date: Sunday, March 25 - Monday, March 26
Details: Hot Fuzztival Chicago will run over the course of two days with screenings of To Live & Die in L.A., Infernal Affairs, and Point Break on Sunday, March 25 at the Brew & View theatre.

On Monday, March 26th HOT FUZZ will screen at the AMC River East followed by Q&A with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Locations: Brew & View theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield in Chicago; AMC River East, 322 East Illinois, Chicago 60611
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Lara Golubowski at [email protected]

ATLANTA
Date: Monday, March 26 - Wednesday, March 28
Details: Hot Fuzztival Atlanta will run over the course of three evenings with screenings of LA Confidential (3/26), Bad Boys II (3/27) followed by HOT FUZZ (3/28) with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Locations: Palace Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30306
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Marci Miller [email protected]

SAN FRANCISCO
Date: Tuesday, March 27 - Tuesday, April 3
Details: Hot Fuzztival San Francisco will run over the course of four evenings with screenings of Point Break (3/27), Training Day (3/28), L.A. Confidential (3/29) followed by HOT FUZZ (4/3) with Q & A featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Locations: Landmark Lumiere Theater, 1572 California Street, San Francisco; Landmark Embarcadero Center Cinemas, One Embarcadero Center, San Francisco; Landmark Clay Theater, 2261 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: John Weaver at [email protected]

DALLAS
Date: Thursday, March 29
Details: A screening of Bad Boys II followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Location: AMC Northpark 15, 8687 N. Central Expressway, Dallas
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Sally Smolenski at [email protected]

AUSTIN
Date: Saturday, March 31
Details: Screenings of Police Story 2, Freebie & The Bean, Sudden Impact and Electra Glide In Blue followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A to follow featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Location: Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Colorado Street, Austin
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Lawrence Wilczewski at [email protected]

SEATTLE
Date: Monday, April 2
Details: A screening of Bullitt followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A to follow with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Location: Landmark Varsity Theater, 4329 University Way N.E., Seattle
For more information or to get tickets, please contact: Amanda Bedell at [email protected]

LOS ANGELES
Date: Saturday, April 7 - Series starts at 6:00 PM
Details: A screening of HOT FUZZ followed by a Q&A featuring Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; as well as screenings of Hard Boiled and Point Break.

Location: The Aero Theater, 1328 Montana Avenue (at 14th Street), Santa Monica, CA.
Tickets are $10 general, $8 Student/Senior, $7 AC members and will be on sale at Fandango.com, for more information visit www.americancinematheque.com

NEW YORK
Date: Tuesday, April 10
Details: A screening of Electra Glide in Blue introduced by Edgar Wright followed by HOT FUZZ with Q & A featuring with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Location: Film Society of Lincoln Center/Walter Reade Theater - 70 Lincoln Center Plaza
For more information or to get tickets, please visit: www.filmlinc.com

[Cinesimilitude]

Anyone in Boston or LA lucked out. Hard Boiled is something I long to see on the big screen.

[Barmy]

Why does Austin get Freebie & the Bean and NYC is stuck with Electra Glide in Blue??? #-o