Web posted
May 10, 2007
The filmmakers of 'Hot Fuzz' approve the use of deadly farce
By Phoebe Flowers
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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| Courtesy of Big Talk Productions |
 Not a spoof: Simon Pegg, center, stars as a cop whose spectacular arrest record has made the rest of London law enforcement look bad in comparison, so he's shipped off to the English countryside. |
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For all the incessant profanity in Edgar Wright's movies - 2004's "Shaun of the Dead" and this weekend's "Hot Fuzz" - there is a certain expression the director and his writing partner, Simon Pegg, would rather never hear.
"The one word that we bristle at is 'spoof,'" said Wright, whose first film was a loving homage to the zombie classic "Dawn of the Dead"; with "Hot Fuzz," he takes on the cop genre. "And only because unfortunately 'spoof' seems to have become synonymous with a particular strain of sub- sub- sub-Zucker Brothers humor. ... That style of humor has become so tired, and I think that's what most people think of when they say 'spoof.'"
Indeed, "Hot Fuzz" is bereft of the zany antics that run rampant in the sort of films - think "Date Movie" or the "Scary Movie" franchise - that take their cues from Zucker classics such as "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun." Wright's sophomore feature is more an appreciation than a satire of the likes of "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon." It stars Pegg as Nicholas Angel, a cop whose spectacular arrest record is making the rest of London law enforcement look bad in comparison.
To remedy this, Angel's superiors ship him off to the English countryside, where he's partnered with hapless local officer Danny Butterman (played by Nick Frost, also Pegg's wingman in "Shaun") and tasked with tracking down missing swans.
There are myriad references to other films in "Hot Fuzz" - everything from "The Wicker Man" to "The Professional" to "The French Connection" - but most prominent is "Bad Boys II."
Wright's open affection for trashy escapism like the Michael Bay-directed police drama with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence is part of why he describes his work as "more like funny genre films."
"Because basically, we don't break the fourth wall, we don't kind of, like, wink at the camera. So there's a rule to (the movie) that it does have proper plot and characters."
"When we write, we write as writers," Pegg said. "In that, we're not writing for me to grandstand, for it to be a vehicle just for me. We're thinking of the picture as a whole, as an entity in itself, and that is made up of lots of different parts. ... A lot of our comedy comes from the fact that it's played absolutely straight, and the humor arises from that. Rather than goofing around, or pulling faces, or being silly. Obviously, there are elements of slapstick here and there ... it's a sort of tonal thing that we try to do."
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