“…for the greater good.”
If I had one complaint about the DVD release of Hot Fuzz it was that there were hints of a more expansive special edition and those features didn’t make it to that release. The greater good was not served well when you want those hinted at special features.
Luckily, the people responsible for that travesty met with terrible accidents and the Blu-ray is packed to the gills with content.
Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is one kick-ass cop. He’s so good in fact that he’s making the rest of the force look bad. So his chief decides to transfer him to the small village of Sandford. The village is quite, sleepy, and nothing like the bustling crime-ridden London. So on his first night (and he’s not even on duty yet) Angel makes several arrests, including a drunk and disorderly.
The next morning it turns out that the drunk and disorderly is Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) who happens to be Chief Butterman’s (Jim Broadbent) son and Nick’s new partner. Soon people are meeting with horrible fates and Angel is on the case to solve the case.
Hot Fuzz follows on the heels of the success of Shaun of the Dead, the first film in the self-named Blood and Ice Cream trilogy. Where Shaun of the Dead was a parody of the zombie genre, Hot Fuzz takes aim at the cop film genre and hits the bull’s-eye. Though don’t think that a certain horror movie doesn’t worm its way into the film as Hot Fuzz has a delicious strain of the Wicker Man running though it, you even get Edward Woodward in a role.
In fact, the roles of the village council are ripe with many genre and character actors. The top spot is a charmingly slimy (meant as a compliment considering the character) Timothy Dalton as well as familiar English actors Billie Whitelaw, Stuart Wilson, Kenneth Cranham, and Paul Freeman.
Pegg and Wright pepper the film with numerous references to cop pictures (the pop-up trivia track with help out a lot with identifying many) including Dirty Harry, Lethal Weapon, and Point Break (a moment of silence for the late Patrick Swayze) amongst others. It’s fun to try and spot them all.
If you loved Shaun then you may equally be delighted with Hot Fuzz, depending on your enjoyment of the cop genre. I dearly love all the horror trivia found in Shaun but find Hot Fuzz a bit better a hair more satisfying. I know I’m going to hell for saying that or at least become a shuffling reanimated zombie.
Hot Fuzz is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Special features include a gaggle of commentaries: the first is from director Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the second is with the Sandford police service (Pegg, Frost, Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Kevin Eldon, and Olivia Colmon), the third is from Wright and special guest Quentin Tarantino, the fourth is from the Sandford village people (why do I imagine Timothy Dalton, Kenneth Cranham, Paul Freeman, and Edward Woodward sitting there dressed as the musical group?), and the fifth is from real cops Andy Leafe and Nick Eckland.
The disc also features U-Control pop up Fuzz-o-meter trivia track and storyboards. The rest of the special features are presented in standard definition. The “Inadmissible” section has 20 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary. Next are 10 minutes of outtakes.
The “Evidence room” section has the 29 minute making of “Conclusive: We Made Hot Fuzz,” “Speculative: Video Blogs” has 29 minutes of video diaries, “Forensic: Featurettes” has 45 minutes of making of specials, “Photographic: Galleries” has a poster and photo gallery, “Hearsay: Plot Holes and Comparisons” has 3 minutes of storyboards filling in the plot blanks and 6 minutes of effects footage, “Falsified: Dead Right” has Wright’s 1993 first attempt at a cop film (made with school chums) and has two optional commentaries (Wright solo and another with him and Pegg).
“The Fuzzball Rally” is a 71 minute look at the promotion of the film and has an optional commentary from Wright, Pegg, Frost, and Joe Cornish. The 34 second “Man who would be Fuzz” has Pegg and Frost imitating Connery and Caine. The 4 minute “Hot Funk” is a scene with sanitized versions of some scenes for telly.
“Danny’s Notebook: the other side” is a 21 second animated look at Danny’s flip animation. You also get 40 minutes of additional video blogs, 5 minutes of trailers, and storyboards. The disc is also D-Box and BD-Live enhanced.
Hot Fuzz is listed as the “Ultimate Edition” and I can’t see how you’d want more… punk! It’s a hilarious take on the cop genre, but is also dragged through the brilliantly diseased minds of Pegg and Wright. Acquitted on all counts.
Hot Fuzz [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story