Entertainment, Movies - Marine Corps Times

Hilarious absurdity abounds in ‘Hot Fuzz’

Imagine the gang from Monty Python re-enacting “Die Hard” and you’ve got a good picture of “Hot Fuzz,” the latest comedy from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the pals behind the gory but too-funny zombie spoof “Shaun of the Dead.”

This time, writer-director Wright, writer and star Pegg, and co-star Frost take on the already over-the-top “supercop” genre and give it that droll, uniquely wacky Brit twist.

Along the way, they offer a succinct object lesson in how to hook audiences — give them characters to like.

For all the carnage stuffed into both “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz,” each exhibits an infectious air of good-natured affection — not only among the fictional characters in the script, but also among the real-life actors playing those characters.

Wright’s talents behind the camera also can’t be ignored. He did a fine job with “Shaun of the Dead,” his first feature film after years in British television, but he really comes into his own here — nimble editing, inventive camera work and action scenes as good as anything you’ll see in a big-budget Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer flick.

The opening sequence introduces Pegg as London Police Constable Nicholas Angel, an intense, dedicated, overachieving paragon of justice who has racked up an arrest record 400 percent higher than any other officer and pulls in commendations with regularity.

His reward? A one-way reassignment to Sandford, a small village in the boonies.

“You’re making us all look bad,” explains the doddering chief inspector (Bill Nighy). “If we let you keep running around London, you’ll continue being exceptional. We simply can’t have that.”

He reluctantly accepts his exile, and finds Sandford — statistically, the safest place in England — just as sleepy as he had feared.

His police mates are a soft and eccentric bunch that includes the kindly chief inspector (Jim Broadbent), his goofy constable son Danny (Frost) and a pair of too-slick detectives (Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall) who have seen too many reruns of “Miami Vice.”

Angel’s patience is sorely tested when he’s partnered with the roly-poly Danny, whose knowledge of police work has been gleaned almost entirely from cop flicks like “Bad Boys II” and “Point Break.”

“Ever fired your gun in the air and yelled, ‘Aaaaaaah?’” he natters at Angel. “Ever flown through the air firing two guns at once?”

Angel is dreading the prospect of endless days doing little more than chasing missing swans. But soon enough, a series of deaths begins to rock the town.

The locals pass it off as coincidence. But Angel smells foul play, and he and Danny (“Crockett and Tubby,” as they’re dubbed) are soon neck-deep in a real murder mystery featuring gruesome deaths that seem to revolve around a local businessman (Timothy Dalton).

As the mystery deepens, the film tosses off jokes and sight gags at such a rapid pace that you’ll need to see it twice to catch them all. (Included is a top-shelf rendition of the poke-your-eye-out-with-a-fork-using-a-ketchup-pack-behind-your-fingers trick.)

At two hours, the film runs a bit long, but the last 20 minutes are a hoot, building to absurd heights of lunacy topped by a surreal gunfight in the town square pitting Angel and Danny against half the village — including the spinster librarian, the geezer in the baggy overcoat, and the kindly pub owner and his wife.

That it all works so well is a credit to the sublime comic timing of Pegg and Frost, quickly becoming a British Abbott and Costello for the 21st century. “Hot Fuzz” is most definitely a fine cup of tea.

3 ½ stars. Rated R for language and graphic violence. Opens April 20.