>>PREVIEW
HOT FUZZ
STARRING Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Steve Coogan and Timothy Dalton
DIRECTED BY Edgar Wright
Opens Friday, April 20
Check listings
In its most sincere form, the zombie film is but a lumbering analogy of humanity’s own fears and shortcomings, a tool for social commentary ripe for subtext. The action flick, by its very nature, is far less sophisticated.
Which means fans of Shaun of the Dead will undoubtedly be disappointed with its followup film Hot Fuzz, because they are incapable of seeing it as a separate movie from a different genre. A shame, considering both films succeed equally in elevating their respective genres while simultaneously adding a fresh layer of self-aware, satire-free humour to the mix.
"These films are made very seriously and we like to say that you could take all of the jokes out of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and they would still work as a zombie film and an action film – the comedy is like an extra layer on top of them."
This, according to Nick Frost, one-half of the lethargic duo who won our hearts with their easy portrayal of an unyielding friendship in Shaun (the other half being co-writer/actor Simon Pegg). The chemistry they exuded in that film, and again in Hot Fuzz, is something the viewer can genuinely revel in and is testament to the fact that they are real-life best friends. I say as much to Frost, but he interjects.
"Best friends, as a term, seems to undercut what Simon and I are, what our relationship is. It’s kind of more than that I think." There’s an undercurrent of sincerity in his voice as he continues on about his 15-year friendship. "When we’re working I know what he’s gonna say, I know how he’s gonna say it and he knows what I’m gonna say. Every single movement of Simon’s I’ve seen a million times before. And there’s also a tremendous warmth and a love there between the two of us, and I guess that’s what people see and respond so favourably to."
And what better genre to exploit this chemistry with then the buddy-cop action film?
Fuzz sees Simon and Nick as police partners in a small English village where the biggest excitement is a serial runaway swan. The first half of the pic is deliberately paced and more closely resembles a British crime drama, but about halfway through the film everything explodes.
"We hit the Michael Bay button," laughs Frost, referring to one of Hollywood’s most prodigious providers of wanton mayhem. "The main joke is you take something very, very British and then wrap it around something very, very, very American and that in itself is quite funny – to see this Bruckheimer-style film going off in this tiny village."
He’s got that right. And while the film has no shortage of laugh-out-loud moments and cinematic references (including an ironic nod to Straw Dogs) to keep viewers pleasantly glued, it’s best appreciated after the credits finally roll, in its entirety, as a film greater than the sum of its parts.
Unlike the Hollywood films it emulates, Hot Fuzz (and Shaun before it) is a labour of love, the product of a close-knit group of friends whose loyalty to one another helps keep them grounded in the face of increasing success.
"I think it’s easy for people who are 21 years old, who make a couple of good films and everyone in the world says ‘you’re amazing, you’re brilliant’ to believe that and then start acting like assholes," says Frost who, at 35, had no inkling to act prior to teaming up with Pegg for Spaced back in ’99 while still a waiter at a "shit" Mexican restaurant.
"The people who have been with us and are with us now, are the same people who’ve been with us for 10 years. Nothing has changed for us, but it seems everything is changing around us. Touch wood, we’ll never lose that kind of wonder. I think it would be a horrible tragedy and an injustice if we did."
So long as they stay out of Hollywood, one can only hope. Which begs the question – where would Nick Frost be right now if he were a born and bred Yank?
"Maybe I’d be in some kind of terrible shack, making my own Nazi crank." |
Copyright ©2007 FFWD. All rights reserved.