All Points Bulletin

Shaun of the Dead has become a popular cult favorite, so the next film from its trio of creators -- director/co-writer Edgar Wright, star/co-writer Simon Pegg and co-star Nick Frost -- had a built-in audience, but also the built-in expectations that go along with that situation.

I enjoyed Shaun, but felt that it fell apart in its final third. Nevertheless, I found their latest comedy, Hot Fuzz, to be not just a hilarious buddy cop movie, but a simultaneous homage to and elevation of the genre. On top of all that, it is a bloody good action flick too.

As opposed to his underachiever Shaun, Pegg plays an overachieving London police officer who is shuttled off to a sleepy village because he's making his fellow officers look bad. He is partnered with the dim-bulb Frost, who is obsessed with American supercop movies, and the friendship they develop is one of the best onscreen in recent memory, devoid of any gay panic that is the norm in such movies.

Sprinkled throughout the cast is a host of Britain's best actors, including Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Bill Nighy, and (in an unrecognizable, uncredited cameo) Cate Blanchett, all game for the silliness on hand.

Click here to purchase Hot Fuzzon DVD from Amazon.com.
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