The Voice

Issue date: 5/7/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Matt Nettheim Paddy Considine (top left), Simon Pegg (center), Nick Frost (top right), Olivia Colman (bottom right) and Rafe Spall (bottom left) co-star in the new action comedy 'Hot Fuzz.'

I was almost greatly disappointed by Hot Fuzz, the latest movie from British creators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), but my patience rewarded me with a fantastic final action sequence that borrows all those boring plot details from the early parts and ignites them like a nuclear bomb.

The movie begins in London with the story of police officer Nicholas Angel (Pegg), an overachiever who makes everyone else in his office look bad. Higher-ups in the administration "promote" him to an open sergeant position in the small, idyllic village of Sandford where nothing worse than innocent small-town hijinks occur.

The plot begins to unfurl slowly and uneventfully to an almost painful extent as the main character arrives in town while a cliché, formulaic "Scooby Doo" mystery starts to happen. Only the endearing character interactions, such as the ones between Angel and his partner the bumbling police chief's son (Nick Frost), kept me interested.

However, as they say in the action movies, it was all a set-up.

Once the mystery is uncovered and the true villain revealed, it's totally on. Next thing you know, the quirky residents of the British Mayberry are carrying enough firepower to take over a small country. Dozens of gunfights sprout on to the screen and every excuse for an explosion conceivable in a small town is exploited.

Hot Fuzz gives new legitimacy to the action/comedy. The intelligent plot delivers something sorely missed from the genre: good writing.

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