On DVD.
I’ve been a little pissy with some of the latest reviews. Many people seem to hate everything and sometimes I want to scream out, “What are you for?”! Personally, I’m for exceptionally well-written screenplays with perfectly placed plot points and recurring lines and situations. A screenplay as well-crafted and hilarious as Hot Fuzz comes along only once or twice per year. Co-writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg also penned Shaun of the Dead, a humorous send-up of the zombie movie. If I liked horror or zombie movies in the least, that movie would have made my top ten of 2004.
As co-writers and collaborators, director Wright and star Pegg have successfully satirized and paid homage to the Hollywood action blockbuster. Pegg plays a London cop with a high arrest rate and numerous accolades who is shipped to a country town because of jealous colleagues. When he gets there, he begins apprehending people immediately for underage drinking, drunk driving, etc. His new boss (Jim Broadbent) tries to get him to settle down into the country life, but when a string of suspicious deaths starts, Pegg’s big city instincts are needed to solve the case.
The cast has more famous British actors than a Harry Potter movie. Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan, and Bill Nighy play London cops. Broadbent and Paddy Considine play two of the local cops. Peter Jackson and Cate Blanchett have unrecognizable cameos on first viewing. Edward Woodward, Paul Freeman, and Timothy Dalton all play local townsfolk. It was worth sitting through both of Dalton’s lame 007 outings to watch him chew up the scenery here. The rest of the cast are uniformly superb as is the group of unknown cops. As Pegg’s new partner, Nick Frost and Pegg display the perfect chemistry they had in Shaun of the Dead.
The gore definitely goes over the top and the actual culprit is a little too “Wicker Man” for my taste, but the ending shootout is excellent. Wright and Pegg have simultaneously made the best “action” movie and the best comedy in the last few years. Even better, they don’t pretend like it actually means anything other than a great time at the movies. A-
3 comments:
Wow. A-. I'll have to add to my queue. I couldn't tell from the preview if it was stupid or smart.
P.S. "If its not Goodfellas, its crap!"
Saw it tonight....B for me. Its a well written screenplay, but too clever by half and boring in some places.
Post a Comment