Hot Fuzz in the City: A Review by Wendy Lady

The early morning cold air nipped through my Marvel Zombies hoodie as I walked calmly, but steadily, through the dingy empty streets of Seattle. Listening to my MP3 player, I reminisced to The Breeders, Last Splash. The classic Kim Deal bass line of Cannonball kept the anticipation heightened in my soul and my pace quick. Nostalgic feelings of when I was a teenager popped into my head listening to this same album on cassette tape on my Walkman, getting my young heart excited about what was around the corner. How times had changed since I was that age, yet I was still the same giddy young girl this particular morning…I was going to meet Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, the creators of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and show them my tattoo, a tribute to Shaun.

I had gotten my Shaun of the Dead tattoo for 2 reasons. The first being that I love zombies and the second that Shaun of the Dead, to me, is the sum of all zombie movies rolled into one. A fan of anything zombie, I appreciate brains in movies. Not only was Shaun a hats-off and an eating of the brains of all zombie movies, it poignantly pinpointed the one zombie that we so overlook when going into a zombie flick…ourselves. Shaun is that part of me that I fight to move forward and experience life. Shaun is a reminder to survive….at a bar…having a package of peanuts to pass the time. By coincidence, I’d be meeting the fellas at the Pyramid Ale House that morning.

Having beer at 6 in the morning was a first. Well, it was a first when I hadn’t spent a night of binge drinking from sunset to sunrise. Our local rock radio station had managed to get the boys to stop off for the Mariners opening day broadcast to promote Hot Fuzz. I had heard of this from my tattooist, Michelle’s fiancé who stopped by whilst I was getting the finishing color in my tattoo. Excited to show the trio the finished masterpiece, I had to find out who, what, when, where and why? 6 in the f’ing morning? In Seattle? You realize this means I have to take an hour long ferry from my little town of Bremerton, at 4:30am.

Gawd it was worth it.

I arrived at exactly 6am and was introduced on the radio before the entourage arrived. I had contacted the radio DJ to get the final details and to share why I was showing up. He was probably the only geek there with as big a mouth as myself. His excitement got me going and we made several innuendos about Nick Frost not being on my body. It trailed over into the conversation when the boys showed up.

When they arrived it was fandemonium! They asked me if Ed was on my arm as well and I said it wasn’t big enough. Nick replied with “You could have me tattooed all over your body�?. My smart mouth reply, “That’s funny, we were just saying how good you would look on my ass!�? With an admiring look on his face he responded, “I would look great on your arse.�? The rest of the interview was fantastic. Our radio DJ was able to geek out and asks the questions that a good interview consists of.

The publicist recognized me from San Diego Comic Con. I had showed her the beginnings of my tattoo last summer, but missed Edgar and Nick by 5 minutes. There was no way that I would find them in the huge double football stadium sized convention and I had to leave that Sunday morning before their panel. She so graciously invited me to the Hot Fuzztival screening later that evening. I was put on a fancy schmancy VIP list even. Got to sit in the center of the theatre and everything. I felt swanky.

Before Hot Fuzz, we had a special screening of Steve McQueen in Bullitt introduced by Edgar Wright. I felt honored to be watching it with such a movie buff like he. There were a few snickers from the audience at some of the dated acting by the extras and some of the long static sequences of inanimate objects such as telefaxes and paperwork. But for the most part, I enjoyed watching the amazing legendary Mustang chase scene on the big screen. It was most certainly inspiration for the final chase scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Deathproof. When car fanatics go to heaven, they are playing out this scene going over the hills on the streets of San Francisco.

WARNING: MILD SPOILERS

You think you can’t get any better than Shaun of the Dead? Well, you pretty much can’t. Hot Fuzz is just as amazing, but in new territory by an excellent director who pays attention to details and writers who have beat dialogue writing into their brain matter and spoke out slices of fried gold.

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg have done something different with parody. The classic parodies such as Airplane, Top Secret and Hot Shots are great examples of successful reverence. Something happened along the way with parody script writing. Parodies no longer held their own. Movies such as Epic Movie and Date Movie ended up boring audiences because the joke got old. The joke being, “Let’s poke fun at anything in popular culture because people are familiar with it�?. Snore, fall over, and hit your head on the radiator. Instead, with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, you get a handshake to the great film genres, actors, directors and movie lines of the past. Parody becomes homage.

Hot Fuzz is homage to buddy cop movies, action sequences and explosions. The best part is there’s actually a story and plot involved in this movie. Nicholas Angel is a top cop, always on duty, not playing around with the law…and the rest of his team at the station can’t stand it because it makes them all look bad. The comedic irony of sending a top cop to police a small town that seems void of violent crimes is probably the best predicament I’ve heard in script writing.Modern script writing tells us to take our hero and thrust him into a situation he is uncomfortable with so his character can undergo a transformation. Tootsie is a prime example of this. Michael Dorsey becomes Dorothy Michaels in order to gain employment in the acting industry because he has become “difficult to work with�?.Bear with me…one thing I find missing from movie reviews is evidence to support why a movie is so great and why great art on film needs to be recognized.

Nicholas Angel is trapped in this little hub of a town, and it becomes apparent that there’s not much for him to do but radar speeders and profile the local townsfolk. If you are paying attention at this point, you will note the writing style of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Everything is carefully placed and said with a very specific purpose. Keep your eye out for hidden meaning even with the most mundane of conversations. As with Shaun of the Dead, you will watch the movie over and over again and find something new each time.

A series of suspicious tragedies arises in the town. Accidental deaths are high, but crime is down and the nature of Nicholas Angel is forcing him to be on the beat 24/7. Pairing Angel with an anxious for action but slow on the draw counterpart, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) was a stroke of genius because he curves the straight edge of Angel and this allows him to rethink the course of his straight and narrow life. Butterman is Angel’s Oscar Madison to his Felix Unger. The relationship between the two ends up being the savior for Nicholas Angel in this film, literally.

If I were to reveal much more to you, as the audience, I would spoil the many surprises of the movie. Leaving the theatre.

The night air was chilly as it was that morning, a smile on my face and my hands empty, no autograph, no picture with the stars. I didn’t want that. To me, that was what had changed since I was a teen. In my earlier years, I needed proof that around that corner, I had met the cream of the crop. All I need now is experience. The memories are still fresh in my brain as are the taste of that 6am beer, the smell of the early spring air and the ambient laughter of the audience. I am aiming for the head. I am not a zombie. Would anybody like a peanut?

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Wendy Lady is a graphic artist and painter from the Seattle area. Her artwork theme is nerdy pin-up girls and she considers herself a Pop Culture Savant. She is the website designer for THE first fansite for Robot Chicken, www.iheartrobotchicken.com. She skates for the local Roller Derby and her derby name is Nerd Rage #42. You can visit her personal webpage, or drop her a line at her MySpace page.