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I am interested in examining modern British cinema, especially the growing popularity of British films within the global film market. International audiences have developed a great appetite for British cinema. By becoming more global, British features have become a strong economical product. I’m convinced that as the number of British films grows, so will their popularity. Let’s not forget that friends such as Seth Green, Matthew Perry, or even American prime-time comedy series Friends have played a significant role in its rise.
Bushra Ahmed, director of Modern British Cinema, holds a strong conviction that the British film industry reached global popularity in 1999 with the release of Notting Hill starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts and various art films.
Since then, their value has soared and for some reason, this film appears to feature a popular television actor in every supporting role. Hot Fuzz takes on a new film genre, well actually two, and throws in gags. This is the genre of crime and cops. For some people, there might have been more potential and artistic originality in the zombies, but in my opinion, the Wright/Pegg/Frost team compensates for it with an overwhelming amount of uncontrollable joy, a very funny and, unexpectedly, quite subtle understanding of how different British crime and American crime are, and constant big laughs.
Pegg portrays Sgt Nicholas Angel, a highly driven and skilled London police officer who has to move to the quaint town of Sandford located in Gloucestershire. Here the city cop finds himself at a loss for his bearings amongst the country bumpkins, especially his partner, PC Danny Butterman, who is the complete opposite of a police officer. He is role played by Nick Frost and is a rotund easy going policeman who is eyes wide with anticipation on the rough and tough London cop world. He inquires if Angel has ever shot a gun while performing a somersault or if there’s any substance in the claim that if you shoot a designated spot in the brain the head will explode.
This perfectly manicured community appears to be quite the tight knit community as they all seem to know and love each other. Timothy Daltonam, an effete solicitor, possesses the sinister touch of a supermarket mogul. And what do they call you, Inspector Butterman? Why are you not screening your calls? Seeing what the poor Danny’s dad, Jim Broadbent is up to? Most of these police officers are also not deterrent and are blissfully ignorant of the law, which seems to have been outsourced to the Neighbourhood Watch Association. Life goes on until the day villagers get too engrossed in the Village best possession competition, to a manic degree, where it is inferred that one lady smacked a drive in the Cherry Datsun into a ravine just because she lost. But, the still bigger question is what does Conflict Angel fail to understand, which caused him to remain oblivious to those hidden mysteries in the village?
He loves Point Break and Bad Boys II, touted as an example of tragic homoeroticism devoid of women, which Danny Thorne enjoys even more (excellently, that is how he refers to the second rather vulgar one). The individual possess a healthy collection of such DVDs, all of which are his treasured possessions, and shares a love of stunningly comfortable American-style cop films with Lock’n’Load.
The irony here is that he is completely unaware that he is trapped in a completely different type of crime genre; poor Danny, without his knowledge, exists within an English Gothic filmic horror mashup similar to Straw Dogs or The Wicker Man where he is Edward Woodward who is the this baffled policeman of this. Though, he is playing the neighbourhood-watch henchman in this one.
While the American movies portray a vigorous and violently masculine force that s equal and just defeating evil, these British films show in a more satirical and bleak way evil winning over brave good. In movies like Lethal Weapon or Die Hard for example, there is no such thing as this “society” even a maladaptive one except the society of cops in the precinct. But in the creepy English model, there is society, which surrounds and besieges the police. That is why Danny and Nicholas ultimately take a healthy unthinking American answer for an English village green the use of blank ammunition, with which they blow apart the pettiness of xenophobic.
There are a lot of cinematic allusions. The most obscure is probably the moment when an Inspector Butterman with excessive self-conceit refers to the underage drinkers as ‘the younglings’ which is obviously a reference to Lucas’ Revenge of the Sith. There are humorous events all through, particularly the wretched Sandford coppers, one example being Bailey’s gloomy custody sergeant who sits and reads nothing but Iain Banks novels. Hot Fuzz is already an hour too long and easily has three endings (Tolkien fans will instantly understand this allusion), and yes, it is chock full of film reference but it is equally British TV Programs such as The Vicar of Dibley or Life on Mars which fuel the content. For that matter, there were parts where it seemed to me that Pegg and Frost were considering themselves as action stars for real. But the jokes are relentless, and the duo really make an excellent comedy double act: Pegg’s face is almost always, sometimes too, over the top, too, too knowing preemptively of the complications and ironies of each moment. Frost is slightly more naive, smoother, and more expansive, gushing out unintentional self embarrassment every time he opens his mouth. They do another one successful one
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