<\/b>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t argue that it was a no-holds-barred, adrenaline-fueled thrill ride, but there\u2019s no way you could perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n In the spring of 2007, Edgar Wright\u2019s follow-up to his debut feature Shaun of the Dead<\/i> arrived in the States via a most unusual package. Midway through Grindhouse<\/i>, sandwiched between Robert Rodriguez\u2019s Planet Terror<\/i> and Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Death Proof<\/i>, was a passel of fake exploitation trailers dreamed up by Wright, Eli Roth, and Rob Zombie. <\/span><\/p>\n By chance, all three had their own movies coming out that year, so it was possible that, in addition to Don\u2019t<\/i>, Thanksgiving<\/i>, and Werewolf Women of the S.S.<\/i>, one\u2019s screening of Grindhouse<\/i> could also be accompanied by trailers for Zombie\u2019s Halloween<\/i> remake, Roth\u2019s Hostel: Part II<\/i>, and\/or Wright\u2019s Hot Fuzz<\/i>. (I distinctly remember seeing the latter two at mine.) That\u2019s the kind of canny cross-pollination that birthed Grindhouse <\/i>in the first place, but the gulf between it and Hot Fuzz<\/i> meant the select audience that came out for Rodriguez and Tarantino\u2019s baby wouldn\u2019t necessarily be driven to return to the multiplex two weeks later to see Wright\u2019s. Those who did, however, were treated to an action-comedy that doesn\u2019t skimp on either side of the equation.<\/span><\/p>\n Boasting a layered script by Wright and star Simon Pegg, who boned up on their action bona-fides before setting to work, Hot Fuzz<\/i> comes out guns blazing, efficiently introducing Pegg\u2019s character, gung-ho London police constable Nicholas Angel, with a high-velocity montage that\u2019s packed to the gills with biographical info. It also ably establishes why his superiors (played by Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan, and Bill Nighy) are so eager to promote him to sergeant and pack him off to the peaceful village of Sandford, Gloucestershire. His inability to \u201cswitch off\u201d isolates him socially at the same time it makes him a preternaturally capable policeman, but where he lands seems to be in no need of his detail-oriented brand of police work \u2014 \u201cseems\u201d being the operative word here.<\/span><\/p>\n As was the case with Shaun<\/i>, the key relationship in Hot Fuzz<\/i> is the one between Pegg and Nick Frost, who plays guileless Sandford PC Danny Butterman, the only member of the local constabulary who takes to their new sergeant \u2014 or even attempts to. (Nicholas is about as popular with the rest of his new colleagues as he was with \u201cthe team\u201d back in London.) Nevertheless, Nicholas is welcomed with open arms and big smiles by the village\u2019s leading citizens, whose ranks are filled by a host of stalwart British character actors including Jim Broadbent, Billie Whitelaw, Edward Woodward, and Timothy Dalton (who has a way of making the most innocuous remark sound sinister). As Nicholas comes to suspect, though, there\u2019s something off about Sandford and its Neighborhood Watch Alliance, including its members\u2019 overriding obsession with winning Village of the Year, no matter the cost.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the primary joys of watching \u2014 and re-watching \u2014 Hot Fuzz<\/i> today is getting to see Wright and Pegg\u2019s tightly wound plot unfold as Nicholas puts the pieces together, albeit in a way that doesn\u2019t add up to the true reality of the situation. (Hannah Arendt\u2019s concept of \u201cthe banality of evil\u201d was tailor-made for these stick-in-the-mud busybodies whose stated goal is to \u201cmake Sandford great again.\u201d) Along the way, they toss in allusions and references to tons of classic action films, many of which Wright included on the list of 1000 Favorite Movies<\/span><\/a> he compiled for Mubi in July 2016, although the two that get the most direct shout-outs \u2014 Richard Donner\u2019s Lethal Weapon<\/i> and Michael Bay\u2019s Bad Boys II <\/i>\u2014 are conspicuously absent from it. And Wright\u2019s intensive pre-planning, which extended to storyboarding the entire film, pays off in an escalated series of easy-to-follow action sequences and seamless match cuts that astonish as much as they delight.<\/span><\/p>\n In the decade since Hot Fuzz<\/i> burned up the box office charts, taking in $80 million worldwide (a respectable return on its modest budget), Wright and Pegg have teamed up once more, closing out the \u201cThree Flavors Cornetto\u201d trilogy with the suitably apocalyptic The World\u2019s End<\/i> in 2013. But while Pegg\u2019s acting career has kept him busy starring in a steady stream of indies and blockbusters (chief among them the Star Trek<\/i> reboot, the last entry of which he co-wrote), Wright\u2019s output has been more of a trickle. Of course, it doesn\u2019t help that he had to pull out of Marvel\u2019s Ant-Man<\/i> over the proverbial \u201cartistic differences,\u201d but he\u2019s bounced back with Baby Driver<\/i>, his first film as solo writer and director. Anticipation has been running high since its premiere last month at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and its release has been bumped up from the doldrums of mid-August to the end of June \u2014 a sure sign of confidence on the part of its distributor. This means more competition, though, so Baby Driver<\/i> will have to do some fancy maneuvering to stay ahead of the pack. One thing is certain: If Wright brings the same level of craft and dedication that he did on Hot Fuzz<\/i>, it\u2019s sure to be a wild ride.<\/span><\/p>\n
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