Hot Fuzz is the story of Sergeant Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), hardboiled super-cop. Intimidated by his arrest record, his cameo-appearance superior officers (Martin Freeman, Steven Coogan, and Bill Nighy) transfer him from the busy streets of London to the sleepy village of Sandford to keep him out of the way and balance the books, because, to be honest, he's making the rest of them look bad. A big cop in a small town, Angel sees murders and conspiracies where the cameo cast of cops and locals see accidents, but, with the help of his partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), it's not long before he discovers that not everything in Sandford is quite what it seems.

Sound clichéd? Good. That's the point. Once settled in Sandford, Hot Fuzz becomes a vehicle designed to send up every action film that has ever taken itself even slightly seriously from Police Story to Point Break, and it does this brilliantly by simply taking everything from these films and pushing them that bit further, making them appear both ridiculous and awesome at the same time. The characters are massively exaggerated (especially Pegg's super-cop and Timothy Dalton's fantastically over-the-top super-villain). The action sequences are outrageous, exciting, and feature a surprising degree of rough justice, perhaps most notably in the form of an old woman getting karate-kicked in the face (or maybe a pub landlord getting his head bear-trapped…). The dialogue ranges from obvious parody ("Did you tell him to cool off?") to clever Pegg-Frost exchanges, and even the music is perfectly balanced between action-scene rock songs and mock-epic slow guitar pieces.

However, that's not to say that Hot Fuzz is non-stop comic action. The first half an hour or so seems a little slow, but there's no reason to worry; the cast are simply setting up jokes to be knocked down later on, and it is definitely worth the brief wait for the well-paced comic-action masterpiece that's lying just around the corner. As with Shaun of the Dead, the people behind Hot Fuzz are affectionately poking fun at a genre that they clearly love, creating a film that embraces its genre's inherent ridiculousness, and is all the better for it.

London Police Constable Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is a try-hard. He's too good at his job making everybody else look bad. He gets promoted and transferred out into the country. He starts his new job by arresting his new partner Danny (Nick Frost), the son of chief inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent). Sandford, Gloucestershire seems to be a sleepy little town until a series of murders occurs. Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton) owns the local supermarket.

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg mine the plentiful material from cop dramas to bring a dryly funny satirical take on the genre. This has Edgar's quick edit style. Pegg and Frost continue their great chemistry with Edgar for almost a decade. It also serves as a fun whodunnit mystery. It's choked full of big British stars doing cameos. The last act does get overwhelmed with gun action and the guys struggle to maintain the comedy. They took the Bad Boys and Point Break motif too seriously. Overall, this may not be a comedy for everybody but it's a comedy for me.

After Shaun of the Dead, this second pairing of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost was very high on my wanted list, and it didn't disappoint in the least.

Hot Fuzz is crammed full of excellent characters, ranging from the eccentric to the diabolical, and every one gets at least one laugh during the course of the movie and most of them get many more. I don't mean to suggest that this film is wall to wall gags; in fact it is far from it, instead it is just very clever and often very subtle humour that runs continuously throughout the film.

Another pleasant surprise was the wonderfully impressive murder scenes, which were pretty gruesome and definitely stood out from the general vibe of the film, which made them far more involving. As well as the comedy and the murders, there is also a genuine sense of mystery surrounding these events and it definitely makes for compulsive viewing.

Just in case all that wasn't enough to satisfy you, there is a very action packed and explosive end sequence that is so out of place and ludicrous it works like a charm, and simply caps the film off in style superbly.

For me this film was every bit as good as Shaun of the Dead, and its definitely one of the best comedies ever made.

9/10