OK before we get started let me say one thing. This film is awesome see it!
I know, I know, I'm supposed to work up to that giving my pros and cons detailing a bit about the story carefully weighing the evidence to come to the conclusion but I just couldn't help myself.
Anyway on to the review proper for those of you that haven't dived out the door to get the next ride to the cinema.
Hot fuzz centres on Nicolas Angel (Simon Pegg) who is basically one bad ass cop he's got the best arrest record in the Met and is making them all look bad. So they promote him to sergeant and ship him off to Sandford an idyllic little village somewhere in the countryside that has one best village in the country multiple times in a row.
He soon finds that his iron rule of law attitude doesn't fly well with the locals who are eager to just let things slide for the greater good. His big cop in a small town rep doesn't endear him to his colleges on Sanford police. All except Danny Butterworth (Nick Frost), son of the head of the police Inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent). Danny is an action film fanatic and sees Nicolas as an action hero come to life.
Soon he's up to his elbows in village fêtes, neighbourhood watch meetings, and chasing the local escaped swan. He meets a fairly colourful cast of characters including the creepy and villainous Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton) manager of the local supermarket. Who does a superb performance, wonderfully evil in a sort of suave slightly amused at his own cleverness sort of way.
Pretty soon things start going a bit pear shaped with a series of bizarre accidents that Nicolas is convinced are murder. All the other cops think he's just seeing things as he is a big city cop not used to a small village where murder just doesn't happen.
The juxtaposition of the two sections of the film the beginning with Nicolas as the big cop in the small town denying to Danny that the sort of things he sees in the action films ever happen to the later part where it all kicks off and you have some wonderful Hollywood action film style gun play but overlaid on a idyllic country village is wonderful, both homage to and making fun of action films.
The performances are great, with some great characters from all the major cast. The gradual build of the friendship between Nicolas and Danny is well done. The play off between the two is quite good with Pegg being the very serious never switch off police officer and Frost someone who wants to be a police officer like he sees in the movies and thinks he's missing out somehow. The cast is a who's who of British comedy and indeed films with people like Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Edward Woodward, and Bill Bailey to name but a few.
There are multiple nods to other films some references to their previous film Shaun of the Dead.
All in all it's a wonderful film well paced and very funny with some top draw action sequences. I was a big fan of Shaun of the dead and if anything I think they have produced a better film than it's a really fun film and well worth seeing.