Guest Movie Review with Spoilers Galore - Hot Fuzz (2007)
I've Been Watching is gone, but technically, even though I was watching, I'm not reviewing here. Today's guest reviewer is my father in law David, who sat with me and watched this movie one Sunday night and felt the need to talk about it in a public forum. How could I NOT post his comments?!
Guest Review – Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz is three genres of movie in one, and if it doesn’t always make the most of each, it manages to be more than entertaining in two of them.
It also provides a unifying theme – graphic violence. The theme is introduced early, as the hero, a British police officer, has been stabbed in the hand at the time he is introduced. The stabbing is shown in a brief flashback, and the violence will never again be that subdued.
In the first genre, we have the big city copy in the small town. He is gung ho regulation; they are laid back and untroubled. They are also ineffectual, unintelligent, unwilling to change and often quite nasty about it – and those are their good points. And so we expect a comedy in which we see which changes the other. For a truly heartwarming film, we could have both changing the other.
The transition into the second genre is clear enough, two slayings by a robed and hooded figure wielding what seems to be a scythe, quickly followed by decapitation. No blood is spared: a portent of things to come. And now we have a fairly standard, if notably gory, duel between a serial killer and the dogged cop.
Alas, the clearly guilty suspect has an unbreakable alibi (not unheard of in other films of the type), and the detective grows more and more depressed, particularly since everyone else seems convinced that these are all accidents. They assure the cop that he is losing it, and he seems inclined to agree. At this point, the film seems notably downbeat, not to say depressing, and certainly not much fun.
Don’t fear, though; the dogged cop remains dogged, and discovers the trick to the unbreakable alibi. We also find that this small town has a dark secret. (Yes, this is a wholly novel idea.) At this point, any semblance to verisimilitude is thrown gleefully overboard, and the violence dial is moved to eleven. (No, I’ve not seen Spinal Tap, at least not all of it, but I’m shameless.) Suffice it to say that Rambo should be taking notes.
Let it not be thought that the movie is wholly careless. A small ruse to save the detective’s life is prepared by what seemed like a pointless vignette earlier. But not too much care is taken. (If, for example, every death is officially an accident, why a hidden crypt filled with victims?)
And at the heartwarming end, the big city and the small town have indeed both changed the other. Aww.
Guest Review – Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz is three genres of movie in one, and if it doesn’t always make the most of each, it manages to be more than entertaining in two of them.
It also provides a unifying theme – graphic violence. The theme is introduced early, as the hero, a British police officer, has been stabbed in the hand at the time he is introduced. The stabbing is shown in a brief flashback, and the violence will never again be that subdued.
In the first genre, we have the big city copy in the small town. He is gung ho regulation; they are laid back and untroubled. They are also ineffectual, unintelligent, unwilling to change and often quite nasty about it – and those are their good points. And so we expect a comedy in which we see which changes the other. For a truly heartwarming film, we could have both changing the other.
The transition into the second genre is clear enough, two slayings by a robed and hooded figure wielding what seems to be a scythe, quickly followed by decapitation. No blood is spared: a portent of things to come. And now we have a fairly standard, if notably gory, duel between a serial killer and the dogged cop.
Alas, the clearly guilty suspect has an unbreakable alibi (not unheard of in other films of the type), and the detective grows more and more depressed, particularly since everyone else seems convinced that these are all accidents. They assure the cop that he is losing it, and he seems inclined to agree. At this point, the film seems notably downbeat, not to say depressing, and certainly not much fun.
Don’t fear, though; the dogged cop remains dogged, and discovers the trick to the unbreakable alibi. We also find that this small town has a dark secret. (Yes, this is a wholly novel idea.) At this point, any semblance to verisimilitude is thrown gleefully overboard, and the violence dial is moved to eleven. (No, I’ve not seen Spinal Tap, at least not all of it, but I’m shameless.) Suffice it to say that Rambo should be taking notes.
Let it not be thought that the movie is wholly careless. A small ruse to save the detective’s life is prepared by what seemed like a pointless vignette earlier. But not too much care is taken. (If, for example, every death is officially an accident, why a hidden crypt filled with victims?)
And at the heartwarming end, the big city and the small town have indeed both changed the other. Aww.
posted by Jeff - WeinerToons at 10:29 AM
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