Why I Saw This Movie
After I saw and enjoyed World's End, I had several people tell me that this was the superior movie by the same team. (This movie, together with World's End, and Shaun of the Dead make up what is referred to as the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (W)--this was the only movie from that trilogy I had yet to see.)
The Review
I'm going to part company with many of my friends, and argue that World's End, was actually the superior comedy. Nevertheless, some great moments here. The same quirky comedy is on full display. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are once again great working with each other. And although the film wasn't quite as funny as the other two films in the trilogy, it was very clever how seemingly throw away lines and scenes from early in the film would always come back later.
Links
The avclub review highlights the film's strengths: Once Frost starts talking about all the cool shit people traditionally do in action movies, it's inevitable that everything he's gushing about will pop up in the film's climax, but there's enormous fun in seeing how Pegg and the boys get there.
Also, for a good run down of a lot of the film's more subtle jokes (many of which I confess to missing on first viewing) here is Nostalgia Critic: What You Never Knew About Hot Fuzz
Why I Saw This Movie/
My History with this Movie/***Spoiler Warning****:
I saw and enjoyed Shaun of the Deadyears ago.I had heard from some people that this movie
was from the same team that did Shaun of
the Dead, and I also had this film highly recommended by some friends.That was the only information I went into
this film with, and so the various plot twists took me completely by surprise—which
is the best way to view this movie, by the way, so if you haven’t seen it yet,
don’t read this review any further.
The Review
Admittedly, this film just
retreads the same premise from Shaun of
the Dead (a comedy about people being more concerned about their petty
personal problems than about the zombie apocalypse), and just replaces “body
snatchers” for “zombies”.But I loved Shaun of the Dead and had more than
enough goodwill left in the tank to enjoy this film as well.The film can be hilarious, but also very
clever—for example the way the back story is integrated into the film. It does
a good job of integrating completely normal relatable human problems (mid-life
crisis) with science fiction absurdity.
Yet another film that came out while I was in Japan, so I missed a lot of the buzz surrounding it. (Sorry if I'm beginning to sound like a broken record on that point).
As with a lot of sleeper hits from back home, I heard about this mainly from word of mouth. I started to hear a lot of references to this film before I really knew what it was. And eventually some of my friends in Japan got ahold of a pirated version, and watched it one night. I wasn't there, but they told me about it afterwards. (They all recommended it very highly to me.)
I, however, was a little bit confused. "Wait, it's a zombie movie, but a comedy? Haven't we already done that with 'Shaun of the Dead'? Is this just a rip-off of that?"
No one was really able to give me a straight answer on that one. Yes, kind of, but the tone of the two films is a lot different, was the general consensus.
After seeing this film so highly praised on this amateur review video (link here) I decided to check it out.
I was, unfortunately, largely disappointed with this. Maybe it had just been built up too much for me. I don't know.
It's been a few years since I've seen "Shaun of the Dead", so I'm slightly worried about relying on my memory for this one. But from what I remember, it was a completely irreverent comedy. More or less everything was played for a laugh, including the scenes with the Zombies themselves. You had the two guys arguing over what records to throw as the Zombies bared down on them. And you had Ed, the friend who refused to take the whole Zombie invasion seriously.
This movie, on the other hand, reminded me a lot more of a typical teen movie, only with Zombies added. (Perhaps I'm just noticing the difference between an American comedy and a British comedy).
It had a lot of humorous parts, sure. The opening narration, when Columbus was explaining his rules, was pretty funny. And they way those rules kept popping up on screen at appropriate moments throughout the movie was also pretty funny.
And some of the conversations the characters would have also got me chuckling.
But my big problem with this movie is that, like a typical teen movie, they tried to make me care too much about the characters. And this is where I had a lot of problems.
Most of the things the characters did in this movie made no sense. And I could have put up with that if the movie had been just one cheap excuse for a laugh (a la "Shaun of the Dead"). But when the movie is trying too hard to make me care about these characters, then it really bugs how stupid those girls were. And how they kept getting in trouble by doing stupid things, and then having to be rescued.
(In that respect, they were not so much real characters so much as plot devices. Which again, I could have put up with if this movie were all about cheap laughs. But we were also supposed to care about the relationships these characters had with each other, and that I just couldn't do).
To sum up: don't get me wrong, this movie had its moments. And I think I would have been a lot more impressed if this had been the first time someone had ever gotten the idea of playing a zombie Apocalypse for laughs.
But because "Shaun of the Dead" already used that idea (and only a few years ago), this movie struck me as largely unimpressive.
