Here come the Fuzz

If you still have a chance to see 'Hot Fuzz', go see it. Of all the movies I have seen recently, this has to be my favorite by a mile.


(Okay, granted, I haven't really seen that many movies recently. :) But still, I am highly recommeding this film.)

This summer, we had four "part threes": 'Spider-man 3', 'Shrek 3', 'Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End', and 'Ocean's Thirteen'. Apparently all of them did quite well at the box-office. All of these movies are showing here now apart from Shrek 3, which will be shown here in August. I figure it's because they will be dubbing it in Swedish for the young kids who speak only Swedish.

I was hoping to get to watch all these movies coz I don't want to miss out on what are supposed to be some of the biggest films of the year. But 'Pirates...' and 'Ocean's...' both came out at a time when I started planning out-of-town trips - in the last three weekends, I have been to Copenhagen twice and to Amsterdam. And I also figured that I would rather save the money for my planned summer holiday in Europe (I am taking a week and a half off work in July to visit Iceland and Austria). Then I can just buy the DVD in Manila later (would cost the same as watching them here anyway.)

Hence, of these four movies, I only got to see Spider-man 3. And as easy to please as I am, I was quite disappointed in this third installment in the web-slinger big-screen series. I loved Spider-man when it came out, and Spider-man 2 did an amazing job on building on the storyline laid out in the first movie and taking it a step further. Unfortunately, Spider-man 3 seemed to take two steps back. Character development left much to be desired. I normally enjoy a movie when I can understand what motivates the characters and why they would choose to do certain things. Spider-man 3 failed in that respect. The inconsistency of the characters throughout this film left me confused and disbelieving. I guess part of it was that I had high expectations because I enjoyed the first 2 parts and also because there was so much potential with having Spider-man face the New Green Goblin, the Sandman, and Venom all in the same movie. I guess it was too much to ask for two new characters and the dynamic between two others all develop well within 2 hours. A waste of P700 if you ask me. I should have just waited for it to come out on HBO or AXN.

On the other hand, I would definitely recommend 'Hot Fuzz'. What the heck is this movie, you ask? It was actually created by the same team that gave us 'Shaun of the Dead'. 'Hot Fuzz' is about an over-achieving cop in London who is doing such a smashing job in London that this superiors, who feel that he is making the rest of the police service look inept, transfer him to a village in England that has the lowest crime rate in the country. Of course, when he gets there, strange things begin to unfold.

What's great about this movie, just like 'Shaun of the Dead', is that it is such a fresh, hilarious, and well-written comedy, and if you like Brit humor you will certainly enjoy this. I am thinking about some scenes in 'Hot Fuzz' as I write this blog and even now just the memory of those scenes is making me laugh. On top of this, unlike other similar flick, 'Hot Fuzz' actually pays homage to the genre (in this case, action movies) it is spoofing. To quote Simon Pegg, the co-writer and lead actor in the film, Hot Fuzz "lack(s) the sneer that a lot of parodies have that look down on their source material. Because we're looking up to it." The writers also know so much about the genre they are paying tribute to (check out the 'Cultural references' section in its wikipedia entry).

And as a final stroke of genius, 'Hot Fuzz' has such good character development that even if it is a spoof, it makes you care for the outcome of the lead characters. If you go see 'Scary movie' and the lead gets killed or mutilated, you laugh. But with 'Hot Fuzz' (as it was with 'Shaun of the Dead'), you would not want something bad to happen to the leads. You are emotionally invested in the characters, you root for them, and you want them to succeed and win out in the end. Try to see if it you can. I am certainly getting the DVD of this when it comes out!