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Herald rating: 3 out of 5
Emboldened by the success of their amusingly anglicised zombie-romantic-comedy Shaun of the Dead, the team of Pegg, Frost and Wright emerge from the lab with another feat of genre-splicing.
Hot Fuzz takes the England of Antiques Roadshow and dumps a double-barrelled Hollywood action movie on it. The result - at least for three-quarters of its two hours - is hilarious.
But it has its drawbacks, chief among them is its tiresome, stylised whiplash editing. And having successfully bridged the gap between Lethal Weapon and Midsomer Murders for a tidy 90 minutes, it doesn't know when to stop.
Thankfully though, Hot Fuzz is lots of fun even before the big shoot-out in the local supermarket or the really big explosions.
It follows married-to-the-job uptight Sergeant Nicolas Angel (Pegg), who, showing up his fellow officers in London with his spectacular arrest record, is transferred to the sleepy crime-free village of Sanford, Gloucestershire. He is partnered by the cheerfully chubby PC Danny Butterman (Frost), who is the son of the station's inspector (Broadbent), and pines for the lock'n'load Hollywood cop action that features heavily in his vast DVD collection.
Angel soon figures that all is not what it seems in this idyllic hamlet and soon a body count is mounting up from a series of deaths his dimwitted colleagues are only too happy to rule as accidents.
Somewhere, Hot Fuzz veers off into ye olde English horror territory of The Wicker Man. That sets up a over-stretched final act and conclusion - not only does Peter Jackson get a cameo, it seems he's being paid another tribute with Hot Fuzz's neverending endings just like Return of the King.
But the mismatched double act of Pegg and Frost are a constant giggle, as are the many and venerable Brit actors who make up Sandford's Neighbourhood Watch group. That includes a fabulously slimy Timothy Dalton and Edward Woodward as a wheezy tweedy version of his Equalizer former self.
The surprising thing about this is that for a supposed parody, its shoot-'em-up and car-chase action sequences are the genuine article. The Hot Fuzz team sure know their stuff and their fanboy enthusiasm proves infectious.
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton
Director: Edgar Wright
Rating: R13 (violence, horror scenes, offensive language)
Running time: 122 mins
Screening: SkyCity, Village, Hoyts
Verdict: West Country coppers get some better work stories
