Hot Fuzz

Review in a Hurry:  The evil geniuses behind Shaun of the Dead take dead-on aim at overblown buddy-cop movies. It's hard to imagine having more fun in a theater without being arrested.

The Bigger Picture:  Top cop Nick Angel (cowriter Simon Pegg) is unfortunately not the pride and joy of the London police department.

His relentless pursuit of crime is wrecking the curve, so he's transferred to the picayune village of Sandford, where his no-nonsense approach to law enforcement is at odds with the idyllic pace of country life. But while Sandford has postcard looks, it also suffers from an alarming number of suspiciously, hysterically fatal accidents. With his bumbling new partner (Nick Frost), the straitlaced Angel is soon searching for a killer, uncovering a conspiracy and discovering the joys of lager and action films.

The players are what sell Hot Fuzz, and the ensemble is criminally funny. It's great fun to watch Pegg invert his hopeless-naif persona from Shaun of the Dead, becoming here a surprisingly believable die-hard action hero, and former 007 Timothy Dalton stands out with a gloriously cheery villainous turn as a supermarket owner who becomes Pegg's nemesis.

But while there's obviously plenty of silliness on tap, this is no mere spoof—like Shaun, it functions as well as the genre films Pegg and writer-director Edgar Wright are sending up. In order to make a successful parody, you've got to take the subject seriously first, and while Hot Fuzz is built for laughs, the over-the top gunfights and explosions have an intensity that's no joke.

The bone-rattling soundtrack and rapid-fire compression editing would have Michael Bay rolling over in his grave—if he were dead.

As it is, he might just have to be looking over his shoulder. Because if Hot Fuzz has a flaw, it's this: It makes the slick action look too easy. Fortunately, this is essentially a victimless crime.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  Audiences weaned on the hand-holding sight gags of the Naked Gun movies may feel a little lost. And we're not kidding when we say it's holy-cow loud—there are times when this cop-movie-turned-up-to-11 could stand to go down to 9 or 10.