Saw this last night at a special screening followed by a Q&A with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. I liked "Shaun of the Dead" but wasn't a huge fan but I liked what I'd heard about "Hot Fuzz". I still wasn't prepared to be quite as blown away by it as I was.
This film works both as an out-and-out comedy but also as a high paced action film and also manages to showcase the directing talents of Edgar Wright and the acting of Simon Pegg (who can really *act*) The first half is a gentle build up but is generally and genuinely amusing, but once we put the pedal to the floor for the second half the pace is relentless.
The plot is substantial enough but isn't really what we've all come to see - it's about the snappy dialogue and the gags. To describe it as a spoof is unfair - they just corrupt the genre a little and turn up the comedy.
Great fun from start to finish.
Hot Fuzz
Basic Instinct
The 90's was a decade that was blessed with many great movies, yet there are none greater than that of Basic Instinct. It is a truly great film. With Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone heading a wonderful cast, this was one of the great thriller movies I can remember watching. It had everything a movie could want, a bit of mystery, sex, intrigue and murder. There will need to be a pretty good movie to replace this classic from the top as one of the greatest all-time thrillers.
Nick Curran is a disgraced San Francisco police detective who helps investigate the murder of a prominent city official. Curran has a history of alcoholism and drug abuse although he is clean now. Catherine Tramell, the chief suspect, a spoiled rich girl with a background in psychology is toying with Curran's mind. When Curran is taken off the case, he enters into a dangerous relationship with Tramell, which could have bad implications. Soon everyone Curran comes into contact with turns into a suspect.
Undoubtedly, this movie is most famous for it's high level sex scenes that it contains. While I did enjoy them, they are overrated just a fraction. I must admit Sharon Stone has an incredible body and she certainly knows all the moves. These scenes also turned Michael Douglas into a sex manic of sorts and partially ruined his first marriage to Diandra Luker. Yet they create quite a mood for this film and are the main reason why it was the success it was.
The cast was great in this too. Michael Douglas is a Hollywood legend and this film only made him even more popular. His role as a the down and out cop was great. Douglas has some great films to his credit. These include Romancing the Stone, Fatal Attraction (not to similar to Basic Instinct), A Perfect Murder, and of recent Traffic (alongside his second wife Catherine Zeta Jones) and Don't say a word. Then what do you say about Sharon Stone? Before this film she was virtually an unknown, then she stormed on to our screens, without letting audiences take a breathe. Her film credits include The quick and the dead, Total Recall and The Specialist.
Other cast members include Jeanne Tripplehorn, who played Curran's ex-wife and Psychologist Dr Elizabeth Garner. Her role made me feel very anxious to realise what was going to happen. The sex scene involving her was a little hard to take. Then you have the good guy of the film, Gus, played by George Dzundza, but the way we see him go is also too much to handle. One other actress I did recognise, was Leilani Saralle, who played one of Catherine Tramell's gay lover's, Roxy.
Basic Instinct had a very good director, that being Paul Verhoven. He made this film extremely well and any other director might have got it wrong. He has made some other good films including Robo Cop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall. He did do one big flop, that being Showgirls. He commented on that film by saying `I think it was bad too'. I am sorry Paul, but you were right. Basic Intinct's script was pretty good in how it left you dangling. It was like you were in a big game of cat and mouse. I can understand that some people might not like it for that reason, but I thought it was good. The movie also had a great musical score attached to it, giving the movie a chilling feel to it.
So, all in all Basic Instinct is a film that I will always remember. It was so controversial that where I come from, I remember people needed to show there ID to get into the local cinemas, because of its sexual and violent content. I don't blame the cinemas for doing so, because it is not suitable for young eyes to see. If you want to watch a great thriller, then sit down and watch Basic Instinct. Trust me its ‘nice'!
Pushing Daisies
I guess stealing from yourself is not as bad as stealing from someone else, but it does tend to keep you in the same rut. The creator of "Pushing Daisies", Bryan Fuller, simply recycled his premise from "Dead Like Me", even having the characters headquartered out in a waffle (pie) house. The only substantial changes are a surreal production design and an "Ameilie" type storytelling technique; presumably to give the thing a more absurdest feel. CW Television has also stolen Fuller's DLM idea for a spectacularly bad show called "Reaper", which premiered this fall.
I instantly disliked this show despite a very favorable bias. My biggest question is how much better I would have liked it had I not been a fan of "Dead Like Me"? I think that I would have probably liked it a bit better but not enough to become a regular viewer or fear its early cancellation. My other question is how anyone can consider this even remotely original, given its obvious rip-off status? Since everything is relative maybe those making the originality claim have spent the past two years on a steady diet of "Hannah Montana" or "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody".
So why can't I recommend it to fans of "Dead Like Me", or even to fans of "Tru Calling"? Mostly because it somehow fails to capture the humanity elements of Fuller's earlier show (which is available on DVD if you are interested). "Dead Like Me" balanced its supernatural premise with a very clever coming of age story. It had its absurdest elements but they were offset by a realistic production design; which kept it grounded. The strength of "Dead Like Me" was its foundation of normalcy, despite the supernatural elements the characters behaved in ways that viewers instantly identified with. "Pushing Daisies" is more like "Austin Powers", you might find it funny at times but there is never a strong connection with the characters.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
