Hot Fuzz: A Very British Buddy Movie

Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are pretty familiar to us Brits. Their comedy TV show Spaced was a Friday night staple on Channel 4. However it wasn't until 2005 that their comedy talent exploded onto the big screen in the hilarious ZomRomCom Shaun of the Dead.

With such a hilarious first movie, it must have been pretty daunting for the two of them to plan a follow up that wouldn't be a let down. Very wisely, they steered well clear of the horror genre that had offered them their breakthrough and instead decided to attack another cinema staple - the cop movie.

But although the characters, setting and plot are starkly different to Zombie movie Shaun, the winning comedy formula that made the first movie so hilarious are preserved. Strongest of all is the on-screen chemistry of Pegg and Wright, who mock the homoerotic 'bonding' from all of those blockbuster cop movies by making chubby Constable Butterman the only man who can penetrate supercop Nicholas Angel's emotional armour.

Just like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz is almost two movies in one. It starts off as a gentle comedy, featuring a brilliant London cop reluctantly taking a transfer to the country and dealing with the problems of policing a small village. Half way through, the movie takes a dramatic twist and the screen explodes into a half hour gunfight, with explosions, gore, car chases and lots of slow-motion-jumping-through-the-air-firing-two-guns-at-the-same-time.

All the way through, the film references and mocks Hollywood's 'super cop' movies, like Bad Boys and Point Break. It highlights the absurdity of the originals and twists the cliches into hysterical misadventures. And while it's always laugh-out-loud funny, it's just as exciting and dramatic as the Hollywood blockbusters.

Wrapped up neatly into two hours, with a host of famous British comedy cameos, Hot Fuzz is a highly satisfying cinema experience. I'm certain this movie is going to share the same explosive success as Shaun of the Dead - and it deserves to.