Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy

Rating: R for violent content, graphic images and language

Runtime: 121 minutes

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost from “Shaun of the Dead” fame are back in the action/buddy/comedy film “Hot Fuzz”. However, instead of trying to outwit the onslaught of zombies, the duo are fighting crime (or the lack thereof) in the sleepy English village, Sandford.

Pegg plays Sergeant Nicholas Angel, a member of the London police who is a force to be reckoned with. After doing his job a little too well and making his fellow police squad members look not so good, the “higher ups” decide that their only option is to transfer Nick where he won’t find trouble which is the picture perfect town of Sandford. Once there he is partnered with Danny Butterman (Frost), a bumbling cop who seems to be more obsessed with his favorite “buddy/cop” films like “Bad Boys” and “Point Break” than he is his job and who also happens to be the son of Sandford’s Inspector, Frank Butterman (Broadbent).

The slow pace of the town becomes maddening for Nick. Since he’s used to the big crime busts, Nick has to adjust to the seemingly crime free Sandford where the biggest news of the day is a runaway swan that’s on the loose or giving speeches to school aged children (which ends in Danny asking more questions about his job than the students)!

However, when several of the town’s most prominent citizens meet gruesome ends, Nick is sure that there’s more going on than meets the eye. His suspicions only increase when the deaths are quickly ruled as accidental and the investigations end. Nick soon becomes determined to unravel the mystery of the deaths and to find out the secret of what’s really happening in the sweet town of Sandford. Will Danny stay true to his “buddy” movie obsession and be there for Nick when he’s needed? What about the town’s infamous citizen Simon Skinner (Dalton)? You’ll have to watch “Hot Fuzz” to see what happens next!

“Hot Fuzz” reminded me of several different action movies with just a bit of horror thrown in for good measure. There’s the buddy/cop film such as “Bad Boys” and “Lethal Weapon”, the “shoot out” scene which oddly enough reminded me of “Desperado” and a touch of “Scream” with the cloaked murderer.

There were a few things I especially liked about the film. Through a few plot twists, “Hot Fuzz” showed just how complicated we assume things are, but in some cases the real truth is a lot simpler (and scarily convoluted, i.e. murdering someone because you didn’t like his or her performance in a play production). The other part that I liked, which was more subtle, was the soundtrack. It’s fun to listen to some of the songs that are used to tie in to certain scenes.

“Hot Fuzz” also has one of the best action sequences that I’ve seen in a movie in a while. During the last thirty to forty minutes of the movie, Nick along with help from Danny, wage a street fight against those controlling Sandford behind the scenes. It seems to pay homage to just about every climatic action scene that can be found in movies.

The only draw back to the film is that I thought the movie was just a little long in some parts. But, in the scheme of things, when everything is revealed, the movie probably needed that extra time to show what was happening in the town.

My Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars