Movie #8 - Hot Fuzz

I can't believe I haven't seen Hot Fuzz before now.  In fact, at the end of the movie, I asked my brother why he hadn't made me watch it sooner.  "I don't know... I didn't think it was your sort of movie - it's quite a bloke sort of movie".  Well, yes.  But I grew up with 3 brothers.  I'm not the oldest.  Therefore, I grew up watching bloke movies.

Thankfully, I was warned about the violence to the hand at the start.  There is enough warning before all the murders (sorry, murrrderrrrs) that if you're squeamish you have plenty of warning of impending blood and gore.  And essentially, this is a crime movie.  I love watching and reading crime.

There was the added delight of seeing so many familiar British acting faces.  The early scenes were dominated by my squeals of "ooh, it's that stripper guy!!!" (well, not really - the body double for the naked scenes, as seen in Love Actually), "that's Bridget Jones' dad!" and "oh, him!".  Plus, it's really funny.  Nicholas Angel is so black and white, but those in Sandford are wonderfully obtuse - until they surprise you by being brilliantly observant about something.  Little wonder why the last guy had a nervous breakdown.  Unfortunately, there was no option for subtitles, so I didn't quite grasp all the dialogue of northern England when they were not right in front of the camera.  Fortunately, I watched it with someone who has seen this a lot, and has a really good memory for words.

Once you get to the bottom of why all these murrrderrrrs are occurring, it gets quite deep.  Spoiler alert: people who are not conforming to the village's style are getting whacked by those in the Neighbourhood Watch Association.  Gated communities, strict body corporate laws and Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey all spring to mind.  (Incidentally, the Jasper Fforde connection leads me to his Jane Eyre books.  Timothy Dalton plays a villager here, and was also Rochester in the early 80s BBC tv series of Jane Eyre, which I saw from the living room doorway when I was meant to be asleep and had horrific nightmares because of it).  So at first it might seem totally fine to ask everyone to keep their lawns neatly trimmed and their houses in the same rustic style as the village, but how far do you go to keep everyone playing by the same rules?  Once you have that Best Village award it must be hard to contemplate not being the Best Village.  And yes, dealing with the problem-makers early on prevents dealing with them again and again.  But a conformist village is a boring village, and there is always something going on.