Hot Fuzz

A lot of people would kill to make just one brilliant film that stands up to repeat viewings as well as Hot Fuzz. Edgar Wright made three between 2004 and 2010. All three are critically bulletproof, and if you disagree, you are incorrect.

My wife is English, so this film speaks to her in a way that most Americans don't understand. By that I mean that she was the only person in the theater who was laughing when the model village appeared, or when the Anglo slang term "nob" appeared on the swear box, or when the key code for the police evidence room was "999" (Britain's 911), or when the hedgehog randomly appears in the riot room — I could go on and on.

Hot Fuzz is a distinctly English film that parodies great American action films such as Lethal Weapon, Point Break, and many more. But they don't restrict the nods to American action movies. Check out this list for more references and this one for subtle stuff that's sure to geek you out — if you're a geek, anyway.

How about the swear box at the Sandford Police Station? All of the swears have symbols in strategic places, so as not to offend with the actual word — except the last word, the one at the bottom, the mighty C-word. I'd type that word here, but this is a family blog sometimes.

Timothy Dalton, the great British actor who once played James Bond for two 007 films, shows up here to chew every bit of scenery around him. He's like a buzz saw — a buzz saw who wants ice cream.

Dalton isn't the only great British actor who appears as a citizen of Sandford. There's Edward Woodward, for a start, along with at least a dozen others in the cast, along with a slew of cameos — the best being this one.

Hot Fuzz is one of only a handful of films that my wife and I can watch over and over together. We never get tired of this film. Since seeing this one in the theater with my buddy Brian and laughing our arrrrses off, we've probably added another 20 viewings.

I aspire to write a film as densely packed with established details and genuine, rewarding payoffs. For every little detail you get in the early going, that same detail appears in some way toward the end, playing a vital role in wrapping up the story. A great screenplay does that.

Hot Fuzz is a rare film, indeed. I'm happy to have the 3-disc edition featured above, as well as the Blu-Ray, which would render the DVD redundant if I didn't enjoy having both so much.

Film informs a lot of what I want to do when I visit places. For example, when I visited Los Angeles for the first time in 2000, I mostly just wanted to go to a Ralph's as a nod to The Big Lebowski. In the case of Hot Fuzz, I just wanted a Cornetto once I got to England in 2008:

Tasty, indeed.