Hot Fuzz

[Pip Madeley]

I was lucky enough to have gone to see an exclusive preview of this brand new film from Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright (of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead) this evening at the Printworks here in Manchester, and it was great!

I'd describe it as 'Quentin Tarantino meets Midsomer Murders' - a comedy-drama with some big cameos and guest stars (Timothy Dalton! Edward Woodward! Bill Nighy!) as well as British comedy faces (Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, Stephen Merchant, Kevin Eldon, Alice Lowe, Bill Bailey, Olivia Colman, Adam Buxton etc). It moves at a leisurely pace (the film clocks in at around two hours), but when the action sequences finally arrive, they're well worth it - absolutely fantastic, and very well directed. Pegg, Frost and Wright introduced the film, and then came back for a Q&A session after, though sadly I couldn't hang about to meet them after.

Well worth seeing when it hits cinemas next Friday - if you liked Shaun of the Dead, you'll love Hot Fuzz!

(and I could swear Pegg nicked ideas from K9 & Company! watch it and you'll see what I mean!)

[Dave Tudor]

I'm definitely going to see this when it comes out. I missed 'Shaun Of The Dead' at the cinema, but loved it when I eventually saw it on DVD, so I'm going to make an effort to catch 'Hot Fuzz'.

[Trudi G]

Edgar Wright

I've met him! He took this pic of us at the Boosh aftershow party!

[Paul Monk]

Its a little known fact that the doctor character played by Reece Shearsmith in the 2nd series of League of Gentlemen (the one that tries to break the news of a man's illness by referring to films) is meant to be Edgar Wright. And he also appears as a lab assistant in Look Around You!

Anyway I can't wait to see Hot Fuzz but its highly unlikely that I'll be able to see it at the cinema. But it'll be great simply based on the monkey gag in the trailer.

[Pip Madeley]

One of the things Edgar said was that he prefers doing the films to TV - although Spaced has a cult following, and is much loved, he thinks its very ephemeral compared to a big film which makes more of an impact. He was very disappointed that Spaced got showed late on Channel 4, and only repeated once - reminds me of Darkplace which got much the same treatment.

[Anthony Williams]

I'm hoping to see this in the cinema when it's released

Ant x

[Dave Lewis]

Everything that Simon Pegg and Ed Wright do is genius.

Everything except Man Stroke Woman that Nick Frost does is genius.

[Dave Tudor]

Everything that Simon Pegg and Ed Wright do is genius.

Everything except Man Stroke Woman that Nick Frost does is genius.

Can I just correct you on that last point, Dave?

Everything except Hyperdrive that Nick Frost does is genius.

There, that's better.

[Paul Monk]

Hyperdrive AND Man Stroke Woman.

[Pip Madeley]

Leave MSW alone, it's better than most recent comedy - just look at Tittybangbang/3-Non-Blondes/Little Miss Jocelyn/Benidorm/After You're Gone!

[Paul Monk]

I liked most of the first series of Man Stroke Woman but this series just seems so much worse.

[Pip Madeley]

Funny, I thought the opposite

[SiHart]

It was just brilliant! Very, very funny- the laughs just kept coming. The casting was superb and we enjoyed it enomously.

Si xx

[Dirk Gently]

I might be going to see this. Angela laughed at the trailer on TV the other night. That's always a good start.






P.S, I quite like Hyperdrive.

[Trudi G]

I liked most of the first series of Man Stroke Woman but this series just seems so much worse.

I thought the same thing!

[Dave Tudor]

My brother and I went to see it last night, and we thought it was great - loved every minute of it, and despite running to two hours exactly (apparently they wanted to make a film which was exactly two hours long! ) I didn't feel that it sagged at all, being tightly plotted, with the laughs coming thick and fast.

Despite the (often very) strong language and the (often very graphic) violence, it had more than a hint of those great British comedy films of old, with a touch of spaghetti western - Pip's description 'Quentin Tarantino meets Midsomer Murders' is spot-on, although in truth, I'd say it probably owes more to Sam Peckinpah than Tarantino, the 'western-in-an-English-village' storyline lifted straight from 'Straw Dogs'.

The performances are great, with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost forming a great comic duo, while the supporting cast have a whale of a time, Timothy Dalton in particular almost stealing the show with a wonderfully slimy turn.

A hugely enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours, I'd even go so far as to say that 'Hot Fuzz' is even better than the brilliant 'Shaun Of The Dead' - which I re-watched straight after.

PS I'm still quite enjoying 'Man Stroke Woman'.

[Paul Monk]

I saw it last week and loved it. But it was slightly too long and could easily have lost about 30 minutes.
Incidental things I liked were, the Cornetto reference, the appearance of the Shaun of the Dead dvd, the hinted at homo-erotic relationship between Pegg and Frost's character, Bill Bailey's character's alternating between reading Iain Banks books and Iain M Banks books.

[Rob McCow]

Bill Bailey's character's alternating between reading Iain Banks books and Iain M Banks books.

Ooo - that's cool. And I missed it first time!

Exactly WHICH thirty minutes could it have lost, Mr.Monk?

[Paul Monk]

I don't know excatly. It just felt too long.

[Dirk Gently]

Well Simon Pegg said in an interview that he & Frost believe that 2 hours is the perfect length for a film & I believe this is almost exactly 2 hours.

[Paul Monk]

It was 2 hours, which was still too long. So Pegg and Frost are wrong