Saturday night was movie night too. This time it was the Arclight (that modern movie palace I love so much) for the venue, and the movie was “Hot Fuzz”. My normal practice of remaining in stealth mode when I hear other British people nearby was abandoned at some point – I could not resist surprising someone in the line for ice cream and coffee (well, that’s what I was getting, ok?) by speaking to them with my English accent to point out conversationally, as an opening gambit, that half the line (maybe a good percentage of the movie’s audience, by extrapolation) had British accents. This unveiling almost always throws people (wherever they are from since I do not fit most people’s idea of what a British person is “supposed to” look like, especially in an American context). Anyway, to the movie…
Oh, Joy!
As a big fan of “Shaun of the Dead”, made by (more or less) the same team, and having a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with the big “buddy-cop” hollywood blockbuster genre (which evolved into pointless streams of unspeakably stupid set pieces glued together, for the most part), I simply had to see this movie. It both parodies and celebrates the genre, but it is not the sort of mindless parody that has become famous these days – it is very very clever indeed. That this is likely true is hinted at by the fact that they place the setting in two of the most unlikely scenarios to have a hollywood buddy-cop blowout: (1) The British police force, (2) A sleepy traditional English village.
So the first half of the film is very (UK) traditional and is sort of like the Archers with the gentlest scenes from an Agatha Christie dramatization -it would not look out of place on Masterpiece Theatre (for those of you in America)…. but it then gets more and more HBO or pay-per-view as the film goes along…as they gradually build in more of their look toward films like “Bad Boys II”, and (say) the recent “Miami Vice” film.
It is brilliantly done, as it is not only the culture from the USA that is being gently poked for fun, but also the UK culture. This team of film makers is just perfect to appreciate both aspects properly, and put it up there on screen rather cleverly.
I know a ton of people went to see it over in the UK over a month ago, so if you are one of them, do tell us what you think, if you like. But don’t give away the plot since a lot of people have not seen it yet -but I think many will eventually, as (I’m pleased to see) that it is doing rather well here in the USA so far.
-cvj
Oh God, that was an awesome movie. So much fun. I enjoyed it even more than Shaun of the Dead.
The run-up in the first half lays out all the jokes that end up being exploited (and exploded) in the second half. It really is insanely well-done.
I loved ‘Shaun of the Dead’ too! Haven’t seen ‘Fuzz Ball’ yet, but hope to soon. Thanks for the recommendation!
Another Shaun of the Dead fan! I enjoyed that one immensely, but they did not have proper British accents and I had to fast-reverse several times on the DVD to make sure I heard them right. Since your Children of Men recommendation turned out well, I’ll give this a try – but wait – I just saw my Landmark Theater is playing 2001: A Space Odyssey at midnight. I must see that on a big screen, never have, so Hot Fuzz will have to wait until tomorrow.
As an aside: When I was five and in love with the Beatles, et al., I found out they were British much to my consternation; I didn’t understand why they didn’t sing with English accents. I thought they belonged to us. So I decided to become British for awhile and walked around with an accent. Strange child, but everything sounds better with an English accent, even bad news on TV . 🙂
Cheers for the weekend!