Homage or parody, Hot Fuzz is the best of modern British comedy. Police Constable Nicholas Angel is the pride of the London Service, trouble is is that he is making everybody else look bad, so much so his superiors promote him to Sergeant in the sleepy village of Sandford, Gloucestershire. Yet all is not right with Sandford as the locals start meeting grizzly deaths, thus thrusting Angel into his biggest case so far. The biggest question on most film goers lips was could the pairing of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg triumphantly follow the monster cult success of Shaun Of The Dead? Well the plot premise for Hot Fuzz hardly leaps out as something to grab the attention span of many, but they have crafted a tremendously funny film that winks at the action genre with genuine love and admiration. Simon Pegg and his trusty sidekick, Nick Frost, clearly have an earthbound appeal that many (even outside of Britain) can warm too, not pretty or over svelt, these guys are fans of movies making movies purely for the fans, and it shows. Neither Pegg or Frost try to steal scenes from each other, both men after over a decade of working together are clearly comfortable with their coupling and thus manage to fine tune their working chemistry. Once Angel (Pegg) lands at Sandford Village we are introduced to a ream of British Village stereotypes (archetypes actually), all characters ripe for hilarious scenarios that our fish out water (big city cop) Sergeant struggles to comprehend. We observe as he is dumb struck at the ineptitude of the Village Police Force (erm service actually) and is then forced to work alongside dough eyed Constable Butterman (a film stealing Frost). Angel's exasperation at where he finds himself is mirthful joy to us the viewers. The dialogue is priceless, one liners and hat tipping nods to the action genre come thick and fast, in fact you can watch Hot Fuzz repeatedly and play spot the homage each time. I mean come on people, we got both James Bond (a delicious turn from Timothy Dalton) and Belloq in here strutting their stuff. The action set pieces are not found wanting either, director Wright having the time of his life with the crash bang wallop that flows in the final third. The test of a great comedy is how it stands up to repeat viewings, to me Hot Fuzz delivers no matter how many times it is viewed. For even when you know what is coming up next, the smile on your face is already there before the event, wonderful, wonderful film made by guys who love movies as much as ourselves. 10/10

A victim of his own meticulous success, “Angel” (Simon Pegg) is promoted to sergeant but relocated from the metropolis to a remote rural constabulary where he anticipates that nothing much will go wrong under the watchful eye of “Insp. Butterman” (Jim Broadbent). Less than impressed with this enforced relocation, he arrives in a town where everyone already knows who he is and where the pub with fellow cop, the younger ”Butterman” (Nick Frost), where he downs some orange juice before bed in his hotel room is his only real diversion. One night, though, the pair are to be representatives of the police at a local am-dram effort where the two stars are obviously more than just “colleagues”. Next morning, though, they are not even that when their decapitated bodies are found next to their car following what the pretty hapless CID think is just an accident. “Angel” thinks otherwise, though, and as he starts to investigate he starts to smell a rat. Well, quite a few rats, as it happens the body count starts to quite spectacularly mount up and things become quite hairy for him and his pal as this sleepy town becomes more like “Sleepy Hollow”. Might the suave local supermarket manager (Timothy Dalton) be behind it? Or the pub owner (Peter Wright)? Maybe it’s his landlady (Billie Whitelaw) or even the vicar (Paul Freeman)? With no absence of suspects, can they get to the bottom of this murderous mystery? It isn’t that far removed from “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), this film, only there aren’t any zombies marauding about for them to shoot. There is still plenty to aim at as this takes a fun pot-shot at all things rural from old grudges to planning applications, land deals and there’s even a bit of cultism thrown in for good measure. It’s the chemistry between Pegg and Frost that holds this together well as they deliver a pithy and amiable script whilst the rest of the cast do their best to deliver the sort of villagers that Agatha Christie would have relished in creating. It does take it’s time to end, but for most of it’s two hours it moves along quickly and entertainingly.