4 out of 5

Director: Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright is the mashup king. In America, we’re leaning into the Apatow school of the serious comedy for our genre mixings, but since his TV days, Wright has pushed the combo further and further, slapdash humor the over-riding player but actual story mixed in to boot. Shaun of the Dead surprised audiences by being a legit gory horror movie with the same mentality, and Hot Fuzz goes another layer by mixing in action flick. It’s amazing, it’s weird, and it’s a little long. Simon Pegg is a cop to good for the city, so he’s shipped out to a tiny English town where, natch, something strange is underfoot. But the town is so sleepy normal that no one really takes him seriously. Except bumbling partner Nick Frost. Wright and team insert every cop cliche possible, and push a beautifully complicated plot from each energetic scene to the next. However, this is Wright’s first attempt to feel over-stuffed – it’s bursting with ideas, and though it truly is expertly handled (every shot, every moment just feels well orchestrated), it becomes exhausting by the very end. That aside, it is still a style of movie you haven’t exactly seen before and probably won’t see again.