Cauldron

Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: A & E

Media Credit: Big Talk Production Good cop, bad cop "Hot Fuzz" mocks cop movies and tells a story about two very diffrerent policemen with one little town in common.

You know the story: A good cop is transferred to a new beat, warms to his dimwitted partner, uncovers corruption, gets heavy artillery and a fast car, and the rest is history. "Hot Fuzz," the latest comedy from the people (read: geniuses) that brought you "Shaun of the Dead," has all the stock thematic elements, characters and even camera angles and music that you would expect from your typical cop drama. But these elements have been woven into a laugh-out-loud, hooting-and-applauding piece of quote-it-for-weeks genius, the likes of which I haven't seen for years.

The deliciously implausible plot-line follows the fate of Sgt. Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a highly decorated London super-cop, whose exploits make the rest of the force look bad. Angel is transferred to the tiny village of Samford, where the police force is plagued with crimes like a man trimming his neighbor's hedge without permission and ills like the occasional run-away swan. There, he is paired with Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), a completely undecorated Sandford cop who owns every cop-movie ever made, and whose chief goal in life is to imitate them. His immediate goal, however, is to pump his new partner's brain for all the exciting experiences a sleepy little town like Sandford could never offer.

When a particularly gruesome rash of "accidents" (think: exploding heads) leads Angel to suspect foul play, he and his sidekick set off to crack the case, despite a lack of cooperation from the rest of the police force who, having had nary a murder for 20 years, are convinced that "accidents happen every day."

From this minimalist story-line, the dynamic duo set out to spoof cop-movies, just as they spoofed zombie movies in "Shaun of the Dead." The off-beat cast includes all of the stock characters of the typical cop-drama: the workaholic protagonist, the likable but unhelpful police chief and the twinkle-eyed suspect. Most spoofs fail because they forget that they are movies in their own right. The plots tend to jump from one predictable punch-line to another, leap-frogging over such mundane aspects as plot and character development. We're there to laugh, who needs them?

In "Hot Fuzz," the "spoofing" lets plot and characters ride shotgun. Sometimes it's subtle, hidden in a phrase, a particular pair of sunglasses, a particular camera angle. Mostly the imitation is pretty blatant. Butterman does want to be a super-cop a la Bad Boys or Jackie Chan, after all. If you are not a cop-movie connoisseur yourself, you might not get it. But unlike most spoof movies, this one will be funny anyway.

This comedy works because the plot-line is taken seriously and the actors play their parts with conviction. In stark contrast to the repetitive, punchline-driven comedy of recent years, this one is driven entirely by characters, and the characters are hilarious. Indeed the most disappointing thing about the movie was the piddly size of the audience. But if their laughter and spontaneous applause were any indication, the people who were there had a riotous good time.

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