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Shiv 
"What a Wonderful World"
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 Posted - 02/22/2007 : 00:00:45
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| Simon Pegg is funny even if he just stands there - but he can also act. He was in Mission Impossible III for about 5 seconds. He (almost) made the film worthwhile! |
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Paddy C 
"Does not compute! Lame!"
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Posted - 02/23/2007 : 14:00:32
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quote:
Originally posted by Shiv
Simon Pegg is funny even if he just stands there - but he can also act. He was in Mission Impossible III for about 5 seconds. He (almost) made the film worthwhile!
Couldn't agree more. Really enjoyed hot fuzz, I love comedies that get funnier the longer they have to settle. I keep thinking of little moments from it and laughing  
And Mampers, I liked the review, keep it up mate!
I've given it a go as well, see what you think. |
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demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 02/24/2007 : 22:36:29
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Welllll.... (spoilers)
OK, how's this for a bizarre double header; my girlfriend and I took on "Hot Fuzz" and then "Letters from Iwo Jima" the other night. One was violent, noisy, bloody and explosive the other was a war movie. Maybe there's a tenuous connection there after all.
I don't think "Fuzz" was anywhere near as brilliant as "Shaun" - not even close! - and I've been trying to work out since what it was that left me chuckling rather than laughing. Not to mention wincing at how unbelievably loud it was.
Partly I think Pegg does losers brilliantly - he's not an especially good looking bloke, and he's not a sex symbol, so playing the quirky loser/nerd like Tim from "Spaced" and Shaun he'd cornered the market at being a bit rubbish, and loveable, and winning through anyway. I found Nicholas Angel impossibly dull because he was so great at being a cop. Yes, yes, it's all about him finding his emotions and "letting go", but I didn't know why I was supposed to care. Again (and again, and again) Nick Frost steals the movie by doing his thing - he's a big baby and says stupid things.
Shaun is such a tightly written movie - it had to be, it had a small budget and a lot riding on it - this one felt bloated in comparison as some of the Hollywood epics it's spoofing. And I think I laughed out loud twice - one of those times in a very clever riff on the fence jumping moment from "Shaun". Most of the writing was actually not so clever - in fact it was very predictable - laughs set up half an hour before doesn't disguise the fact that you still know the punchline when it comes, just you'd forgotten about it. Personally I don't find the west country stereotype funny in the slightest, so the monosyllabic trolley giant or indecipherable country bumpkins barely amused.
On a personal level I love horror films, and a well judged horror comedy is going to appeal. I lost my taste for brainless action films in my student days and now the thought seeing a Michael Bay high concept movie sets my teeth on edge - the comedy all but gives gives up in this film to try and convincingly pull off an action denouement and I found that pretty boring. Once the image of twee middle Englanders pulling out sawn offs got repeated for the tenth time it seriously lost its power. |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 08/23/2007 : 23:01:00
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Hokay, now I'll start the DVD round on this film.
Saw it last weekend. Hilarious, please do see it, but not QUITE as funny to me as was SHAUN. There's something slightly off-base about a British cast aping Bruckheimer/Rudin actioners from the word go, but when it's overlaid atop the equally-cliched "rustic English village" setting, the gag loses steam as it crosses the Pond. Yes, it's funny that the big shootout at the end has little old ladies and clergy in it and takes place on the village green, the supermarket, and -- "What're you thinking?" "The pub!" -- the pub. The creators are very clever, and I was delighted to see some of my comic faves flitting by: Merchant, Freeman, Whitelaw [yes, I know she's "serious," even without her literary lights, but did you catch her in START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME?], Nighy, Jackson!, etc. It just didn't hit the sweet spot for me that SHAUN did so mercilessly. Plus, as in SHAUN, you have to be willing to submit to the gross-out [although I must admit that these were mostly funny].
On the five-star fwfr scale, four -- 'cause even though it's about :30 too long, it's true: you do threaten to wet your pants occasionally. However, many more of the surfeit of belly laughs should come from Brits [and ex-pats]. |
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Downtown 
"Welcome back, Billy Buck"
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Posted - 08/24/2007 : 14:32:41
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This one finally came up in the Netflix queue, and boy were we all disappointed. Hot Fuzz actually reminded me a lot of MIB 2: very well produced, well directed, well acted, with an interesting plot...but it's just not funny. Where are the jokes or gags? This film had its moments, little bits of dialog or even just facial expressions in reaction to certain incidents that were very funny, but most of it was just so...HEAVY.
This is no Shaun of the Dead. That movie wasn't just pure satire...it was also a great zombie movie in its own right. But it managed to do that without really taking itself too seriously. Hot Fuzz DEFINITELY takes itself too seriously. I think Simon, Nick, and Edgar got a little too carried away with making "a cop movie" and forgot their roots a little bit.
Everyone else here seemed to think it was hilarious. Did my roommates and I see a different movie from everyone else? Did we get the director's cut or something? The funniest part of the whole DVD (aside from the "jumping over the fence" scene that I'd already seen in the trailers) was in the special features: seeing how badly certain scenes were cleaned up for television. |
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rabid kazook 
"Pushing the antelope"
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Posted - 08/24/2007 : 15:14:34
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'Felt roughly the same way. Hot Fuzz was yet another action movie parody but inside a zannier packaging, yet still a selfserving parody, that I didn't want much of.
I liked much more the small references to Chuck Norris and to movies like Extreme Prejudice (shelf at the gas station shop), than the overbearing parodying of the annoying Bad Boys 2, Matrix Reloaded or for the worse matter the good movies like Lethal Weapon.
Shaun just felt much more refreshing and is still much refreshing on repeat viewings. |
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bife
"Winners never quit ... fwfr ... "
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Posted - 08/24/2007 : 16:35:12
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I am amazed this film has picked up as much praise in this fourum as it has - like DT and kazook, I just didn't find it funny.
Expectations clealy play a part - I expected Shaun of the Dead to be drivel, and it probably ranks in my Top 20 all time films. So maybe I was disappointed with Hot Fuzz more because of what I was expecting than because of what i got.
But i just didn't get it. A couple of smiles in the first half hour, and wishing for it to end for the rest |
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Downtown
"Welcome back, Billy Buck"
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Posted - 08/24/2007 : 17:01:13
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| Well, all three of us are NOT English. Maybe that has something to do with it, there could have been gags that we didn't even notice because they were very subtle cultural references. |
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bife
"Winners never quit ... fwfr ... "
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Posted - 08/24/2007 : 17:48:50
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quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
Well, all three of us are NOT English. Maybe that has something to do with it, there could have been gags that we didn't even notice because they were very subtle cultural references.
Actually - I am 
Haven't lived much in england over the past 10 years or so, but still very english at heart |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 08/24/2007 : 22:12:50
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I did laugh. But it just wasn't anywhere near the triumph that SHAUN was. It was as if everyone had been deliberately miscast in a horrible movie; I know that was the point, but for me, that was also the effect.
Yet, the "fromage" from CHINATOWN was appreciated. |
Edited by - randall on 08/25/2007 00:43:22 |
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Hot Fuzz
