Hot Fuzz

I love movies. I've always loved getting lost in movies. I watch my favorites over and over again, drifting away for a few months only to drift right on back when I need that special kick. Lately, though, I feel like all the movies I've gotten excited about have been pretty bad. Or I've loved them, and the people I've been with have hated them. (Raygan, I'm looking at you.)

Today I went to see Hot Fuzz. I went with my newish friend Steph, who I've worked with for about a year and a half in Development and have only recently become friends with. (She also owns the car that nearly hit me freshman year- but that's another story.) She's a film major and we had planned on going to see Grindhouse, but it being 3 hours long was a problem, so our mutual love for Simon Pegg propelled us into the Hampshire Mall Cinemark for the two hour, shoot-'em-up joyfest that is Hot Fuzz.

I recognized almost every actor in this film. Most of the older ones I didn't know (and this movie is surprisingly heavy on old people,) but everyone else? This is about how it went.

"Is that... hey, it's Martin Freeman! And Bill Nighy!"
"Oh, Jim Broadbent. Why are you so cool?"
"Hey! It's BILL BAILEY! Sing us a ballad, Bill!"
"Hey! It's that obnoxious Kid With Cellphone in Shop from Shaun of the Dead!"
"Hey! It's Magpie from Idiot's Lantern on Doctor Who!"
"Hey! It's TIMOTHY DALTON!!!!"

I'm actually surprised that no one hit me. Thing is, nobody could hear me, because we were all laughing too hard. Hot Fuzz is HILARIOUS, and as Steph rightly pointed out, it's not a spoof. Neither is Shaun, really- they're homages to the genre film without being stupid, like the Scary Movies. Moreover, the endless references/homages to buddy-cop bonanzas like Point Break　don't come off in a pretentious, Look-I've-Seen-This-Movie-And-I-Will-Prove-It-With-This-Gun kind of way. The references are subtle and flat out hilarious. And I will bet anyone not to laugh at Nick Frost's borderline-retarded punning, or the "Model Village" shootout at the end that had me literally doubled over, crying into the back of the seat in front of me, with abdominal pains because I was laughing so hard. I defy anyone not to laugh at a box-cutter wielding Timothy Dalton, or Simon Pegg trying to catch a swan. (Hell, Simon Pegg doing just about anything ends up being funny. I'd hate to see him try his hand at drama. It might not work out so well for him.)

All in all, an extremely enjoyable afternoon. The previews were fun, too. There's something called Run, Fatboy, Run starring Simon Pegg and that guy who played David in Shaun coming out, but on IMDB it says it's written by Michael Ian Black (eh, ok) and will be directed by David Schwimmer (oh, God.) Yes, that David Schwimmer. Unless there's another one. But it looked amusing, so I'll probably end up going. I felt dirty laughing at the preview for Delta Farce (starring Larry the Cable Guy) and I won't go see it, because the jokes got old by the end of the preview. It started on a high note (come on, dumbasses accidentally invading Mexico is pretty funny, when you think of it) and then it became pretty clear which direction it'd be going in (fag jokes and Mexican jokes, and more gay jokes to top it off.) So none of that for me. And then came the preview for Balls of Fury, what appears to be a kung-fu ping-pong epic, starring CHRISTOPHER WALKEN. And then, THEN! something called Death at a Funeral starring Matthew MacFayden (hot,) the girl who played Lizzie in Our Mutual Friend, Alan Tudyk (hot and ginger,) and the other half of the british actor population that weren't in Hot Fuzz.

So, yeah. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing tonight. Steph is having UMass boys over, which could be either really good or really awkward, and I'm not sure I'm equipped with enough alcohol for it to be good. I might just read a bunch of Middlemarch and try and get ahead before I have to film the Ridiculousness tomorrow. I can always decide to not be lame and go to the party later, right? Right. Off I go then.