I have to admit that I for one am not really a huge fan of British humour that has been transferred to the big screen. I often feel let down by British comedies as I feel that they tend to hold back somewhat compared to the Americans. A couple of years ago however, my opinion was given a large kick in the pants by the wonderfully witty and excellently made ‘Shaun of the dead’. So upon hearing that the very same team were behind the hugely successful ‘Hot Fuzz’ I simply had to check it out and see if they could replicate the no holds barred insanity of their previous effort.

My personal thoughts – After watching Shaun of the dead, I went into this film expecting it to be funny, a little outrageous and a fairly similar film to ‘Shaun’ but without the zombies. What I didn’t expect was this. Hot fuzz started off fairly slow and after the first twenty minutes or so I have to admit, I was a little disappointed, the humour was there but the story and events so far were a long way short of Shaun of the dead. After this though, my opinion was changed in a heartbeat as the story took a sinister turn and the humour and slapstick were quite literally shelled out by the bucket load. I suddenly found myself having to rewind certain parts as I had missed them whilst laughing out loud at some of the hilarious events taking place.

The movies score is also well put together combining modern pop culture songs and a soundtrack frame that simply does the film justice by not taking itself too seriously. The high noon spaghetti western score near the end is priceless.

DVD – The DVD is very well presented and jam packed with extras. The sound and picture quality are absolutely brilliant, a sharp and clear picture without so much as a blemish in sight and crisp, clear sound that is in my opinion at least, even better than you’d get in the cinema, a very professional package. This two disk set contains the film itself and four audio commentaries from the cast and crew to listen to whilst watching. I haven’t listened to all four of them but I did listen to the one with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and believe me, it is definitely worth listening to. They constantly bicker and argue over certain points of the film and it really is a laugh a minute. You are allowed to watch the movie in the normal format or in widescreen for those of you with a widescreen TV.
The bonus disk is absolutely packed to the rafters with extra content, more than enough for even the most demanding of movie buffs.

Overall – I have to say that as a film Hot Fuzz is an absolute gem, a slow and I think intentional first twenty minutes only serves to shock your senses when the slapstick, gore and fantastic death scenes are thrown mercilessly at the screen. I loved Shaun of the dead but this is in my eyes, far far better.
The movie on its own would have been worth the £13.99 I paid out for the two disk DVD from Sendit.com. Add to that however, the absolute plethora and wealth of DVD movie extras you are given and this box set becomes a total and utter steal. A must for any movie fan worth his salt. If you liked Shaun of the dead or TV’s Spaced then you’re going to love this. 10/10. P.S Amazon have recently dropped the price of this box set to £11.99 so it is now even more of a steal.