Hot Fuzz is the sophomore effort of director Edgar Wright. His debut film is Shaun of the Dead. Hot Fuzz reteams Wright with Shaun pals Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Hot Fuzz is a send-up of action films with a particular focus on cop genre action films. Point Break and Bad Boys II are frequently referenced in the film.

Pegg plays Sergeant Nicholas Angel, a top cop in London who is transferred to the quiet town of Sanford because his overzealous antics are making the rest of the London force look bad. Frost plays Danny Butterman, Angel’s bumbling partner in Sanford. At first, Angel is bored with Sanford’s quiet atmosphere. But he soon discovers that Sanford has a very dark side to it. One of his first clues focuses on Sanford’s extremely low murder rate that corresponds to its very high accident rate. As series of events follow leading Angel to several gruesome realizations that force him to take action, pardon the pun.

Sadly, Hot Fuzz does not have the appeal of Shaun. But then, as a huge horror fan and only a mild action fan, that would be expected for me to say so. Still, Shaun seemed more relatable with Pegg and Frost equally matched in slacker-dom. In Fuzz, Pegg is a bit too straight-laced and Frost comes off as too dim-witted.

Of course, to compare it to Shaun may be unfair. It isn’t as though it is a sequel. But with the same director and actors, and both films paying homage to the genres they spoof, I think it is a valid comparison, nonetheless. In comparison to Shaun, Fuzz definitely falls short.

But even on its own, it has its flaws.The action spoofs really don’t begin until very late in the movie. But once they start, they are worth the wait. Plus there is some great humor and fantastic gore to keep one entertained until then. But the film seems very incongruous. It comes off like a different genre in each act. At first, it’s somewhat straight comedy. Then it moves into a sort of dark comedy bordering on horror. Then it becomes the cop genre spoof.

It doesn’t have any direct spoofs either, other than the references to Point Break and Bad Boys II. But with some many cheesy action films out there, it could have done a lot more with the spoofing. I realize it’s not supposed to be a spoof film like Naked Gun or Scary Movie where specific films are mocked. But Shaun managed to spoof the horror genre in general and Hot Fuzz could have done the same with the action genre but fails to do so strongly.

Still, Hot Fuzz definitely has plenty of hilarious moments and is certainly worth watching. I expect if I were to watch it again, I would find it even more amusing than I did watching it only once.

Grade: B