Hot Fuzz

directed by Edgar Wright
United Kingdom 2007

The wits behind the controlled chaos that is Hot Fuzz, a parody of Hollywood-style action flicks, wield a somewhat heavier comic cudgel than they did in their last big-screen outing, the zombie caper Shaun of the Dead. This time, as they say in the blow-up business, it’s personal, or at least somewhat personalized, since the more obvious targets here include high-octane producer-auteurs like Jerry Bruckheimer and Joel Silver, who, with their fat budgets and armies of heavily armed bad boys, have helped define the modern action spectacular, reshaping the old kiss-kiss, bang-bang movie experience into the cinema of lock-and-load.

Simon Pegg, the snub-nosed, cricket-bat-swinging blond avenger of Shaun of the Dead, plays Nicholas Angel, a crack London police officer who’s bounced to a small town by his inferior superiors (Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, smirking and smiling) for being just too damn good at his job. Banished to the sticks, where a missing snow-colored swan initially proves the only investigative distraction, he finds himself desperate for action. He rousts some teenagers from the local pub, but outside of fielding smutty insults from the precinct’s layabout detectives (Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall, as matching and mustachioed as a Tom of Finland cartoon), there’s little to do but water his lily plant and nurse his cranberry juice nightcap.

There are few girls allowed inside the Bruckheimer and Silver clubhouses, and so it is here. Although the homosocial worlds of Messrs. Bruckheimer and Silver on occasion make room for a Venus in leather like Carrie-Anne Moss or, more routinely, a neonatal-size waif like Keira Knightley, these are testosterone-fueled domains, largely defined by bulging muscles and exploding guns, both symbolic and actual. It’s a world that Mr. Pegg and the film’s director, Edgar Wright, who together wrote the awfully funny screenplay, know intimately and recreate with admirable fealty, from the hard-crashing edits to the soft, tender looks exchanged by Angel and his slavishly attentive sidekick, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). It’s a world in which boys will be boys at every available opportunity.

Excerpt from Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

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Theatrical Release: 14 February 2007 (UK)

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DVD Review: Universal - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to Yunda Eddie Feng for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Universal Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	121 min
Video	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.92 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	DD 5.1 EX English, DD 5.1 EX Spanish, DD 5.1 EX French
Subtitles	Optional English SDH, Spanish, French
Features	Release Information: Studio: Universal Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • audio commentary by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg • Storyboards branching • Fuzz-O-Meter trivia track • deleted scenes • outtakes • The Man Who Would Be Fuzz • Hot Funk • The Fuzzball Rally • Danny’s Notebook: The Other Side • trailers • previews for other movies DVD Release Date: 31 July 2007 keepcase Chapters 28

Comments:

Video:
The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen looks soft and drab. Perhaps due to the way that the movie was shot, some outdoors scenes strained my eyes. After seeing how good Perfume and Disturbia look on SD-DVD, I can’t help but feel disappointed by Hot Fuzz’s SD-DVD presentation.

Audio:
The very busy DD 5.1 EX English audio track is a cacophony of sirens, alarms, gunfire, and explosions. This is a very lively, aggressive mix that is a lot of fun for the viewer (which means that your neighbors won’t be having fun when you’re watching Hot Fuzz). The rear surrounds and the subwoofer are full participants, though dialogue is balanced well enough that you can always hear what the actors are saying.

You can also watch the movie with DD 5.1 EX Spanish and DD 5.1 EX French dubs. Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles support the audio.

Extras:
Upon loading, the disc plays previews for other Universal releases.

Director Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg contributed a fun, lively audio commentary. Although the movie is clearly a spoof of super-serious self-important action movies, Wright and Pegg also enjoyed following all the expected clichés of an overblown spectacle.

There are two additional ways of watching the movie. With the Storyboard option, a police badge appears in the top right-hand corner from time to time; press the Enter button to look at storyboards for the scene. With the Fuzz-O-Meter, you get a running subtitle commentary.

There are 22 deleted scenes and about 10 minutes of outtakes.

“The Man Who Would Be Fuzz” is a brief skit with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost mimicking Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

“Hot Funk” is a collection of scenes with “toned down” language for TV exhibition.

“The Fuzzball Rally: US Tour Piece” is a compilation of behind-the-scenes footage from the moviemakers promotional journey across the US.

“Danny’s Notebook: The Other Side” is a flipbook cartoon of someone getting run over by cars.

Finally, you get a gallery of trailers.

--Miscellaneous--
An insert advertises Universal’s HD-DVDs.