Action-comedies can be wildly entertaining. Combining action-packed spectacle with rib-tickling humor is, in theory, the ideal formula for blockbuster success. The problem is that very few action-comedies exemplify the best of both genres, veering more toward one genre than the other. Paul Feig’s Spy is a great comedy, but its action is pretty bland. James Mangold’s Knight and Day has some exciting action sequences, but most of its jokes fall flat.
Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz, a buddy cop homage that marked the second installment in the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, is a prime example of an action-comedy that fires on all cylinders. It would satisfy an action movie fan who isn’t interested in comedy or a comedy buff who couldn’t care less about shootouts and car chases.
Action: Kinetic Action
Edgar Wright would later solidify his reputation as a great action director with Baby Driver, his first straight action film, but there was plenty of well-crafted action in Hot Fuzz years before that.
Thanks to Wright’s signature kinetic filmmaking style, action scenes like the pub shootout and Nicholas’ fight with Michael in the frozen food aisle really pop.
Comedy: Endlessly Quotable Dialogue
Quotable dialogue is the mark of a great comedy, and Hot Fuzz is one of the most quotable comedies ever made, along with Airplane!, The Big Lebowski, and Blazing Saddles.
There are countless memorable lines in Hot Fuzz: “You’re a doctor, deal with it,” “This sh*t just got real,” “Nobody tells me nuthin’,” “You’re off the f*cking chain,” “You ain’t seen Bad Boys II?”
Action: Uncompromising Violence
There are a couple of great action movies rated PG-13, but the really great ones don’t have to compromise their violence. Movies like The Night Comes for Us and Brawl in Cell Block 99 pack a gruesome punch because they don’t sanitize any of their violent scenes.
In Hot Fuzz, the violence is decidedly uncompromising. It sometimes borders on horror. The gore is dialed up to cartoonish levels, which serves the comedy and provides a lot of fun.
Comedy: Rapid Joke Rate
While a movie with three jokes and a great story is better than a movie with thousands of jokes and no story, the best comedies tend to have a rapid joke rate — Anchorman, The Naked Gun, Monty Python and the Holy Grail — firing gags at the audience left and right.
Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s script for Hot Fuzz is packed with as many jokes as would fit on each page. And unlike a lot of joke-heavy comedies, they all land.
Action: Variety Of Action Sequences
Some action movies focus on a particular type of action. The Raid is more focused on hand-to-hand combat, whereas the Transporter franchise tends more toward car-based action.
But a lot of the best actioners have a variety of action sequences to keep things fresh and exciting. Hot Fuzz is a prime example of this, featuring car chases, foot chases, fistfights, shootouts, explosions — just about every type of action sequence one could imagine.
Comedy: Simon Pegg & Nick Frost Are A Comedic Pairing For The Ages
The movies of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy aren’t linked by any connective plot tissue or shared characters. They’re three genre riffs directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Pegg and Frost’s real-life friendship has always informed their on-screen chemistry.
It doesn’t matter how great two actors are; it’s impossible to fake the kind of chemistry shared by Pegg and Frost. They’re a comedic pairing for the ages.
Action: Realistic Portrayal Of Law Enforcement
While they were writing Hot Fuzz, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg interviewed countless real police officers for research. As a result, the movie has a much more realistic portrayal of law enforcement than the average action movie.
From Nicholas’ use of his notebook to the montage of bagging and storing and logging all the farmer’s guns in the evidence locker to the squad filling out a bunch of paperwork after the big action-packed finale, Hot Fuzz explores a lot of aspects of law enforcement that are often ignored by action cinema.
Comedy: The Cinematography And Editing Serve The Jokes
Edgar Wright has often named the Coen brothers’ slapstick comedy Raising Arizona as the movie that taught him that cinematography and editing can inform the humor of a movie as much as the writing and performances. In Hot Fuzz (and all of Wright’s films), the way the scenes are lit and the way the camera moves and the cuts between shots all serve the jokes.
When the light catches the underage drinker’s braces, a bright white light shines in Nicholas’ face, blinding him. When a half-asleep Nicholas wakes up to an emergency phone call and says, “Decaffeinated?,” the movie cuts to two severed heads sitting on broken glass in the middle of the road.
Action: Heroes The Audience Roots For
For an action movie to work, it needs a hero that the audience can root for. This hero can either be a relatable everyman, like John McClane, or a hypercompetent superman, like John Wick.
Nicholas and Danny are a buddy cop pairing the audience can root for. Nicholas has a dash of the Rambo superhuman in his ultra-capable policing, but he also has relatable flaws like workaholism. Danny veers more toward an everyman, while his naivety makes him endearing.
Comedy: All The Jokes Serve The Plot Or Inform The Characters (And Sometimes Both At Once)
A serviceable comedy will tell a neat three-act story with clear-cut character arcs and hopefully provide a couple of laughs along the way. But truly great comedies use the jokes to serve the plot and round out the characters.
That’s the case with Hot Fuzz. Nicholas kicking all the underage drinkers out of the pub, for example, tells the audience a lot about his character as well as being hilarious.
