Last movie watched...

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Hot Fuzz

This was filmed in Wells, Somerset - just up the road from where I grew up. I know the small rural city like back of my hand - and as such the whole film has a strange dreamy unreality surrounding it. I also first saw the film in the Wells cinema in its first week there: the theatre was crammed with local biddies come to see their home on the silver screen. I can still remember their reactions when some of the more shocking gore occurs...

Aaannnyway - this and other contemporary anecdotes that I won't bore you with aside it's still difficult to see it subjectively. It's crammed with great character actors and familiar faces - it's funny enough and the bending winding plot is suitably absurd although it's about half-an-hour too long and doesn't quite hit the mark as effectively as Shaun did - wobbling all over the line between a silly parody and an actual action film. A few of the more well-worn tropes fall a bit flat but it's an enjoyable romp and - WTF WHY IS WELLS GETTING SHOT TO BITS?! ..still weird eight years on...

[Colin YNWA]

Hot Fuzz
..still weird eight years on...

That Hot Fuzz is 8 years old makes me want to weep.

[radiator]

Don't worry, it's only 7 years.

[Dark Jimbo]

Must make the effort to watch Hot Fuzz again - only seen it the once, and even then I missed the first half hour. Knowing me it'll be 2020 before I get around to seeing World's End!

[von Boom]

Agreed. Not quite as good as Shaun. I still enjoy it and it has a cameo from Iain M. Banks.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Don't worry, it's only 7 years.

Was filmed in '06 sir that is what I was referring to.


Also the Iain Banks thing I'd never spotted that:



Baileytwins each reading a different genre of Banks

[Professor Bear]

In my opinion it's bad form to slag off indy film-makers because they at least make the effort to get their creativity out there where it can be evaluated and judged, which is why I'm not proud that me and a mate laughed our balls off all the way through Eastern European post-apocalyptic short The Escort.
English is no-one's first language and acting is no-one's primary calling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmEqRj7j8O0 but I would be lying if I said it wasn't at least memorable and entertaining.  If you don't watch it, I will know and I will come through the internet like Lawnmower Man and kill you.

[Hawkmumbler]

Shaun - The most consistent
Hot Fuzz - The funniest one
The World End - The most well made

Just my teo pence.

[radiator]

The way I see it:

Shaun: lightning in a bottle. Perfect blending of genres. Tight as a drum. 5 stars.

Fuzz: Great movie, but a bit bloated and never really delivers as an action movie. Four stars.

End: a very accomplished, solid film, but overlong and less funny than the previous films. Three and a half stars.

[Theblazeuk]

Why don't you climb back into your rocket and **** off back to Legoland, you ****

I think End was definitely funny and had the most 'acting'. Shaun seemed a lot like a continuation of characters that would fit in Spaced, though Ed was more like Tim at his laziest than Mike. Hot Fuzz won me over on the premise of a British ridiculous 80s/90s action movie.

Attack The Block - on a related note, I rewatched this after finally watching some of the Adam and Joe show on 4oD. I only knew the disorganised duo from their 6Music show (Stephen?) though I wish I'd watched the A+J show in the 90s - just a bit past my bedtime though...  Anyway, the movie! Love it. Low-budget, funny and effective sci-fi fun that makes excellent use of its setting. In my head it sits somewhere in the same place as Dredd and The Raid. And I can never get the Basement Jaxx theme out of my head once it starts...

[I, Cosh]

Interesting contrast there blaze. For me, Attack the Block succeeds where Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fail in being a real blend of comedy and genre. Those two got a pass based on residual affection for Spaced and the cast but neither really delivers on either count.

[Keef Monkey]

Funnily enough the last movie I watched was The World's End, which I missed in cinemas.

I laughed a lot and am itching to see it again which is a good sign. My immediate feeling when it ended was that I'd enjoyed it more than Hot Fuzz and can see me re-watching it more than I did that film (my Shaun Of The Dead re-watches probably outnumber Hot Fuzz about 10 to 1). It didn't hit me as hard as Shaun did, but I think that's as much down to time and place as the quality of the films. I remember Shaun being a real moment, I was so happy to see it happening because I'd been watching and re-watching Spaced for years and it was glorious to see that humour up on a big screen and translating so well.

I don't think Hot Fuzz is bad at all, in fact I really, really like it. It just didn't stick with me the same way, not sure if the combination of genres just wasn't stitched together as fluidly, or if that particular genre combo just didn't speak to me as much. All brilliant films though. I'd like to rewatch all 3 soon.

[Theblazeuk]

Interesting contrast there blaze. For me, Attack the Block succeeds where Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fail in being a real blend of comedy and genre. Those two got a pass based on residual affection for Spaced and the cast but neither really delivers on either count.

I think Hot Fuzz, Shaun and World's End are more comedy than genre. That's not a bad thing in my book - whereas Attack the Block is a sci-fi movie that is just dead funny.

I was very interested to hear the Star Trek 3 rumours around Cornballs but couldn't make the connection between AtB and that kind of big space opera fluff.

[Hawkmumbler]

I seem to be the only person who prevers Hot Fuzz of the three then. 

Concluded the first disc of Jan Svankmajer shorts yesterday. A wonderful selection on charming, visceral, mischievous and wacko imagery and symbolism. High points where The Last Trick, Picnic for Weisnman, The Flat, Don Juan, and The Jabberwocky.

Now for disc two including the much anticipated and slightly reprehensible Food...

[radiator]

Hmm, though Shaun is first and foremost a comedy, it still packs a punch as a zombie film in its own right - the threat feels real (even if it is occasionally played for laughs), and I'd put it in the same category as An American Werewolf in London - a true blend of character-based horror and comedy.

Whereas Hot Fuzz feels to me more like a pastiche, bordering on spoof, of action movies, but is for most of its running time actually more like a Midsomer Murders send-up with a little bit of tame action right at the end, and what 'action' scenes there are, are pretty much played for laughs. The villains are mostly OAPs and as such aren't a real threat and it just isn't violent enough to work as a proper homage to 80s/90s buddy action movies in the way Shaun does of the Zombie genre.

Though End is more self-consciously mature I'd argue that the best performance of the three is Pegg in Shaun - the scene where he has to shoot his mother is really powerful and shows how good a dramatic actor he is.

If we're including Attack the Block, I'd probably say it's perhaps my second favourite of the four. Like Dredd it successfully channels that tight, contained Walter Hill/John Carpenter/early James Cameron vibe that just does it for me, and IMO it's a much tighter, punchier film than either Fuzz or End. A very underrated movie, one of my favourites of recent years, and a far superior example of Brit Sci Fi than Worlds End IMO.