(detailed information about this entry from Wikipedia)
Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British police action/comedy film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, who were previously in the motion picture Shaun of the Dead and the television series Spaced. It was directed by Edgar Wright and produced by Nira Park.
Nicholas Angel, an extremely dedicated and over-achieving police officer in London's Metropolitan Police Service, is so good that he makes everyone else on the service look bad. As a result his superiors send him to a place where his talents won’t be quite so embarrassing: the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford, where there hasn't been a recorded murder for twenty years. Once there, he is partnered with well-meaning but overeager and naive police constable Danny Butterman, the son of local police chief Inspector Frank Butterman. A committed action movie fan, Danny is in awe of his new big-city partner, believing him to be a real-life "bad boy" who just might provide him with his chance to experience the life of gunfights and car chases he so longs for. Angel, meanwhile, struggles to adjust to the quiet and uneventful pace of the village, and despite clearing up several otherwise unnoticed crimes and misdemeanors in short order (such as shoplifters, underage drinkers and a farmer storing a huge supply of illegal weapons in his barn), soon finds his most pressing concern being a swan that has escaped from its owner. Faced with the reality of his situation, Angel and Danny eventually bond over drinks at the local pub and action movies.
That day, Danny and Nicholas stop a speeding car owned by a man, Martin Blower. He is with a woman called Eve Draper. They claim to be late for a dress rehearsal of an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet they are starring in. Nicholas makes them aplogise and lets them go. When this story turns out to be true, Nicholas and Danny are invited to the play. Nicholas speculates that the two were having an affair because "They just watched three hours of so-called acting and the kiss was the only convincing bit". Later, Martin and Eve are brutally beheaded in a dressing room by a hooded figure dressed as the Grim Reaper. The murder is covered up and made to look like a car accident and is found by the police the next day. More and more "accidents" occur over the next few days, such as George Merchant's house blowing up due to a faked gas leak and journalist Tim Messenger's head being, literally, squashed by a falling church spire. Convinced that there is a murderer on the loose, Nicholas clashes with the other officers (particularly the two detectives, who believe he is just a stupid city cop with an overactive imagination.) That afternoon, Lesley Thomas is stabbed with her own shears and Nicholas chases a suspect (the Grim Reaper figure) from the scene, but is outrun by them. After shouting and yelling in a fit of anger at the other officers who disagree with his murder theory, Nicholas is told to sleep on it by the Chief. In his hotel room, he is attacked by Simon Skinner's thug, Michael Armstrong, who is dressed as the Grim Reaper. He beats Armstrong and listens on the thug's radio as Simon Skinner is revealed to have set it all up. Nicholas proceeds to the castle Skinner told the unconcious Armstrong to meet him at, and sees all the NWA members performing some kind of ritual, and all dressed as the Grim Reaper. He bursts in on them and they tell him what has been going on - it turns out that all the victims had been murdered for 'The greater good': to win the Village of the Year competition. All the people were murdered simply because they made the town look bad (Blower and Draper were bad actors, Merchant's house was ugly, Messenger couldn't spell and Thomas was moving away and would give another village her gardening skills, thus raising competition for Sandford). The Chief of Police appears with Danny and they all chase Nicholas down the street. He finds skeletons and bodies of teenagers and gypsies who had previously spoiled the village. He is suddenly approached by the NWA and is stabbed by Danny. We find out that it was staged and Nicholas is still alive. He returns to Sandford on horseback with hundreds of guns and begins to take down the NWA. Danny soon joins in and the other officers realise he was right. They turn on the Chief and aid Nicholas in his battle against the village people. Simon Skinner and the Chief escape in a car and Danny and Nicholas chase them into the model village. Skinner falls on the model church spire and it goes through his mouth, while the Chief crashes his car into a tree. Although Angel's old supervisors arrive from London begging Angel to return, as their crime statistics have risen drastically seemingly as a result of his absence, Angel elects to remain in Sandford. Back at the police station, the Sandford Police celebrate their triumph and attempt to complete their paperwork, but are ambushed by a remaining member of the NWA. He attempts to shoot Angel but Danny jumps in front of the blast. In the resulting chaos a confiscated naval mine is triggered and the station is destroyed. One year later, Angel lays flowers on a grave marked 'Butterman'; it is revealed that Danny has survived, however, and that the grave is his mother's. Angel has been promoted to Inspector and Danny to Sergeant, and the film ends as they go back to working the beat together in Sandford.
The Sandford Police Service
[edit] Production
Director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg spent eighteen months writing the script.[2] During the latter half of 2005, Working Title approached several towns in South West England looking for an appropriate filming location. Simon Pegg commented "We're both from the West Country so it just seemed like it was the perfect and logical thing to drag those kind of ideas and those genres and those clichés back to our beginnings to where we grew up, so you could see high-octane balls-to-the-wall action in Frome".[3]
Stow-on-the-Wold was considered amongst others, but after being turned away, the company settled upon Wells,[4] Edgar Wright's hometown. Wright has commented "and Wells is very picturesque [...] I love it but I also want to trash it".[5] Filming also took place at the Hendon Police College, including the driving school skid pan and athletic track.[6]
Wright has said that it takes elements from his final amateur film, Dead Right, which he described as both "Lethal Weapon set in Somerset" and "a Dirty Harry film in Somerset".[5] He uses some of the same locations in both films including the Somerfield supermarket, where he used to work as a shelf-stacker.[5]
The film parodies clichés used in other action movies. On the topic of perceived gun fetishes in these movies, Pegg has said "Men can't do that thing, which is the greatest achievement of humankind, which is to make another human, so we make metal versions of our own penises and fire more bits of metal out of the end into peoples heads [...] It's our turn to grab the gun by the hilt and fire it into your face".[3] Despite this, Pegg maintains that the film is not a spoof in that, '"They lack the sneer that a lot of parodies have that look down on their source material. Because we're looking up to it."[7] The film was scored by David Arnold (well known for his James Bond series scores since 1997).
Filming commenced on March 19, 2006[8] and lasted for 11 weeks.[9] Throughout the filming process Pegg, Frost and Wright recorded a regular video blog which is available on the Hot Fuzz section of the Working Title website. Wright cut half an hour from the film.[10] Advanced screenings of the film took place on the 14 February 2007 in the UK and was fully released on 16 February 2007. The film had a limited release in Canada and the USA on 20 April 2007. The film carries a 15 certificate in the UK and is rated 14A in Canada for gory scenes and coarse language and is rated R in the US for violent content including some graphic images, and language.
[edit] Box office and critical reception
The film generated £7.1 million in its first weekend of release in UK cinema.[11]
Critically, the movie received positive reviews, and was rated almost as highly as their previous film, Shaun of the Dead.[12] It has a 89% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[13] and 8.4 on IMDB, currently placing it at number 110 in its top 250 movies of all-time as voted for by its users.[14] Olly Richards of Empire said of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost "After almost a decade together they’re clearly so comfortable in each other’s presence that they feel no need to fight for the punchline, making them terrific company for two hours".[15] Johnny Vaughan of The Sun already called it the "most arresting Brit-com of 2007".[16] Phillip French of The Observer, who did not care for Shaun of the Dead, warmed to the comedy team in this film.[17] The film also received positive reviews stateside. Derek Elley of Variety praised Broadbent and Dalton, "[who] are especially good as Angel's hail-fellow-well-met superior and oily No. 1 suspect".[18] As an homage to the genre, the film was well received by screenwriter Shane Black.[19]
However, the The Daily Mirror only gave Hot Fuzz 2/5, stating that "many of the jokes miss their target" as the film becomes more action-based.[20] Daily Mail also shared The Mirror's view, saying that "It's the lack of any serious intent that means too much of it is desperately unamusing, and unamusingly desperate".[21] Anthony Quinn of The Independent said "The same impish spirit [as Spaced] is uncorked here, but it has been fatally indulged".[22]
The film was met with a wealth of critical praise when it opened in the US on April 20, 2007. Currently, it has a high metacritic score of 81.[23] It made $5.8 million in its opening weekend from only 825 theatres. Hot Fuzz also had the highest per-theatre average of any film in the top ten that week. Its opening weekend take beat the $3.3 million opening weekend take of Pegg and Wright's previous film, Shaun of the Dead. In its second weekend of release, Rogue Pictures expanded the film's theatre count from 825 to 1,272 and it grossed $4.9 million, representing a small 17% dip in the gross. As of June 23, 2007, Hot Fuzz has grossed $74,193,041 .[24] Not only did it in 9 weeks make nearly twice what Shaun of the Dead made in the US but it also made more than three times Shaun did in other countries.[25]
[edit] Cultural references
Simon Pegg has said that "an awareness of the postmodern condition is still the intellectual bedrock" of his comedic method.[26] This is reflected in the large number of references to other films, TV and computer games featured in his work.
The film predominantly references and parodies action films. This is done in a number of ways, including references to scenes — Angel's collecting of guns from the evidence room plays on similar scenes in many action films, including, for example, Commando and The Matrix.[27] In particular, the films Bad Boys II and Point Break, watched by Angel and Butterman at one point in the film, are frequently referenced. Butterman's firing of his gun in the air in the final action scene is a direct reference to a scene of Point Break previously viewed by the characters in an earlier scene.[28] In the aftermath as ambulances arrive, a low angle shot of Angel and Butterman matches one from Bad Boys when police helicopters arrive. The movie poster itself spoofs early promotional material for Bad Boys II.[citation needed] Even the logo is a variation of the one found in the posters for the aforementioned film, and its predecessor, Bad Boys.[original research?] Lines such as "This shit just got real", "Punch that shit!", and "[They're] off the fucking chain" also refer to Bad Boys II.
Other films referenced through individual lines include The Shining ("You've always been here"), Chinatown ("Forget it, Nick. It's Sandford"), Men in Black ("Now that's what I'm talking about") and He-Man (the repeated "By the power of Grayskull"). Also, when Angel and Danny are standing outside the house that exploded, one of the firefighters in the background is asked on the radio, "What's it look like?" which he replies with "Something from Backdraft"
Similarly, the action sequences refer to various police and thriller movies of note. For example, Straw Dogs is referenced when Angel shoots the bear-trap down causing it close on the barkeeper's head, and Reservoir Dogs and Goodfellas are referenced when Frost opens the car trunk and looks down at Pegg.
Also when Angel is chasing the cloaked murderer between the green houses his running style with his arms at right angles reflects the distinctive style Robert Patrick created for the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
There is also a nod to the original Back to the Future when Angel is taking a beating from Skinner. Angel catches his fist with his left hand with a dramatic pause before he lands a retaliating punch with his right fist, just as George McFly did when standing up to lifelong bully Biff Tannen.
Throughout the film, Angel carries a plant with him that he cares for closely and has a near-personal bond with. This is especially prevalent during the scenes where he is moving from London to Sandford, referencing the film Léon (also known as The Professional) where that film's main character also carries and cares for a plant.
The film also shares similarity in plot and theme with films such as Straw Dogs, The Wicker Man, Scream and The Frighteners,[original research?] and twice a character notes that one of the villagers was an extra in Straw Dogs.
Multiple nods to Shaun of the Dead are also made, including the fence-based short cut ("What's the matter Danny? Never taken a short cut before?"), but with a role reversal of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the one-worded Cornetto requests, the way Angel and Danny describe some suspicious characters on the street, a pub slot machine jingle (Oo-ah-Dracula) heard in The Winchester, the product advertised in the pub; in Shaun, the rifle in The Winchester was thought to be deactivated but was not while in Hot Fuzz, it was thought the sea mine was also deactivated but was not. Also, when the massive shoot-out is taking place, Danny asks where they should go, to which Angel replies "Pub?" which is also said with the roles reversed in Shaun. In Shaun, Ed (Nick Frost) is said to have shot his sister in the foot with an air-rifle. In Hot Fuzz, Danny shoots Dr Hatcher in the foot twice: the first time, accidentally with an air rifle; the second time, deliberately by 'surrendering' his shotgun. Most blatantly, the UK DVD — altered to show the Spanish title of Zombies Party — is briefly seen in a supermarket bargain bin, with a price sticker covering Pegg's face (pictured). In a deleted scene, Frank uses the word exacerbate, then explains what it means, to which Angel replies, "I am aware of the meaning of the word exacerbate". In Shaun of the Dead, Shaun and Ed do not know the meaning, and Liz has to explain it.
There is a nod to the film Big Nothing which also stars Simon Pegg, where a reverend was drowned in a septic tank. In Hot Fuzz, it is mentioned that someone drowned in their septic tank by accident.
There is also a nod to the Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing in the car chase sequence, where the characters shout "Swan!!", followed by a close-up of the swan, followed by the car veering off the road. This mirrors the final episodes of both series of Green Wing, where similar incidents occur with a sheep in place of the swan.
When Angel sets off to drive to London the camera shows the middle white line of the road illuminated by headlights, a probable reference to Z-Cars.
Upon entering the village pub for the first time he notices a large number of obviously underage teenagers drinking. when he questions the owner of the pub about this the owner refers to the teenagers as "Younglings" an obvious nod to the name given to young Jedi in Star Wars.
The fight sequence in the model village is a homage to Godzilla and other giant monster films.
Danny Butterman wears a Bristol Rovers F.C. shirt in many parts of the film.
There are several in-jokes with regards to police terminology. Some are explained in the film such as "Police Service, you can't call it a force — sounds too aggressive" where modernisation within the police has led to changes. Meanwhile the fictional town of Sandford is the name used by Centrex for their genuine police promotion exercises.[29]
The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance has the abbreviation N.W.A., with possible reference to the music group. They are also referenced in the first line of one of the songs in the credits, "straight outta Sandford," referring to N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton".
In an interview, when asked about the title of Hot Fuzz, Wright called it "pure nonsense".
The shoot-out with Angel and the old members of the Sandford community in the market mimics the end of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The scenes shown after the arrest of several characters appears to be a parody of Man on Fire as the camera shoots from different angles and the music featured is similar to the Trent Reznor music featured throughout that film.
"Sandford" was the name of a fictional village within the Bruche Police National Training Centre in Cheshire, until closure in May 2006.[30]
When Nicholas Angel lays his theory in front of the rest of the police, pinning Skinner for the murders, Skinner notes his assistant Tina also works at Flappers. This unintentionally is the same name of the 'gentlemen's club' featured in The League of Gentlemen episode "The One Armed Man Is King" (Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith both appearing in Spaced and Shaun of the Dead).
In a scene from Spaced Vulva says "Oh Brian, you came!", to which Brian replies "No i just spilt my drink". This is similar to a scene from Hot Fuzz when in the pub Mr Blower says to Nicholas, "Sergeant Angel you came!" and which in a later scene in the pub, Angel spills his drink.
The DVD was released on 11 June 2007 in the UK and 8 June 2007 in Ireland. Disc one of the two disc set contains the feature film with four commentaries, outtakes, trailers and TV spots, 'The Man Who Would Be Fuzz', 'Hot Funk', Fuzz-o-meter, storyboards and 'Flick Book: The Other Side'. Disc two contains 22 deleted scenes with optional commentary, a making of documentary, 13 video blogs, featurettes, plot holes and comparisons, special effects feature, galleries and some hidden easter eggs. The DVD will also feature Wright's last amateur film Dead Right which he described as "Hot Fuzz without the budget". A making of Dead Right is also included on the second disc. Due to the above release date, the movie arrives on region 2 DVD earlier than the theatrical release date in Germany on 14th June, 2007.[31]
The U.S. DVD and HD DVD release of Hot Fuzz will be coming out on July 31, 2007. According to the official site so far, the HD DVD edition has more special features than the standard DVD release.
Region 2 Two disc edition
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[edit] Soundtrack
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The soundtrack was released February 22, 2007 in the UK, and April 17, 2007 in Canada and the USA. The UK (and EU) release includes eight tracks not on the US/Canada version.
[edit] References
- ^ Interview: Edgar Wright for "Hot Fuzz".
- ^ Joe Utichi (2007-02-13). Countryside Commandoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-02-13.
- ^ a b "Week Four 2007." The Culture Show. 2007-02-10.
- ^ "Thank God we did screen film event", Cotswold Journal, 2006-08-11.
- ^ a b c "Episode 2 - Around the West Country and into Wales." The Comedy Map of Britain. BBC 2. 2007-02-03.
- ^ List of locations used in Wells, Somerset
- ^ Clark Collis. "Brits and Giggles", Entertainment Weekly, 2007-04-13. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
- ^ "Filming under way on Hot Fuzz", Working Title Films, 2006-03-20.
- ^ Hot Fuzz. Channel 4.
- ^ Patrick Kolan. "Interview With Edgar Wright", IGN, 2007-03-13. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Hot Fuzz heats up UK box office", BBC, 2007-02-20.
- ^ Shaun of the Dead. Rotten Tomatoes.
- ^ Hot Fuzz. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
- ^ Hot Fuzz. IMDB.
- ^ Olly Richards. "Hot Fuzz", Empire. Retrieved on 2007-02-23.
- ^ Johnny Vaughan. "The Plod Couple", The Sun, 2007-02-16. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
- ^ Phillip French. "Hot Fuzz", The Observer, 2007-02-18. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
- ^ Derek Elley. "Hot Fuzz", Variety, 2007-02-20. Retrieved on 2007-02-23.
- ^ Patrick Kolan. "Interview With Edgar Wright (page 2)", IGN, 2007-03-13. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
- ^ "Hot Fuzz", Daily Mirror.
- ^ Chris Tookey. "It aims. It fires. And yet somehow it misses", Daily Mail, 20 February 2007.
- ^ Anthony Quinn. "Crime and Punishment", The Independent, 2007-02-16. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Box Office Mojo: HOT FUZZ
- ^ Box Office Mojo : SHAUN OF THE DEAD
- ^ A Fair Cop. The Guardian.
- ^ Hot Fuzz Feature. Empire.
- ^ "Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright of 'Hot Fuzz'". A.V Club.
- ^ Cheshire's Police Village. BBC Inside Out. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northwest/series2/police_village_chesire_training_crime_sandford_officers.shtml
- ^ Kino De: Hot Fuzz - Zwei abgewichste Profis (German)
[edit] External links
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