Hot Fuzz (DVD)

While Hot Fuzz isn't a horror movie, a review of it still belongs here at HDC because not only has the co-writer/director of the film, Edgar Wright, built an undying legion of loyal fright flick fans with his 2004 zombie-genre spoof Shaun of the Dead, he's a diehard aficionado of terror tales himself. And as such, he can't help sneaking a few (OK, several) grisly deaths into his love letter to the cop/action genre, 2007's Hot Fuzz.

The story follows Shaun returnees Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as mismatched beat bobbies, Sgt. Nicolas Angel and PC Danny Butterman, respectively. The idyllic village where they work hides a dark secret beneath its quaint exterior, so before long… it's time for the bad boys to break out the lethal weapons.

As the story unfolds, offering much wry, as well as overt, humor along the way, fans of everything from The Omen to blatant beheadings (and both!) will be beside themselves — as will those who appreciate a cohesive narrative (unlike most spoofs, Hot Fuzz takes its own storyline at least somewhat seriously).

Read Horror.com's theatrical release review of Hot Fuzz here. and... Watch an on-camera interview with the talent here.

The widescreen, single-disk DVD contains many extras.

Outtakes:

The usual, the best of which offers Frost's variations on the great "Have you ever…?" dialogue scene.

Deleted Scenes With Commentary:

Yarp. That's what they are.

The Man Who Would Be Fuzz:

Pegg and Frost act out a scene in character as Sean Connery and Michael Caine arguing about coffee vs. tea.

Fuzz-O-Meter:

This a textual augmentation that runs along with the film, sort of like pop-up videos. Only they don't pop up, and this isn't a video. However, the facts are fast and furious; everything from a notation on how many sirens (and what kind) where used in the opening sequence, to the names of the shooting locations are noted. We also learn that an actual photo of the young Frost was incorporated into a prop portrait of the Butterman family, what that Latin phrase on the town's sign really says, and so on.

Danny's Notebook:

A facetious flipbook depicting a gory car accident.

The Fuzzball Rally:

This riotous montage of moments from the boys' nationwide U.S. press tour starts in New York City, winds up in Los Angeles (with Pegg in bright, skintight designer briefs proclaiming, "Hollywood won't change us!"), then comes full circle again (with Kevin Smith moderating a Q&A special screening for… "VIPs. And fans. And the public.").

The Fuzzball Rally is by far my favorite featurette. It's a light and humorous look at what happens when three gifted funnymen tour 10 cities, but it's also a lesson in what it really takes to promote a movie day by day — a kick for us to watch them goofing around everywhere from the steps of The Exorcist house in D.C. to the first police precinct in N.Y., but you do get a glimpse of just how grueling the schedule is and how monotonous the same old questions can become.

The trio participate in everything from TV shows, to radio, to press junkets, to public Q&As, to phone interviews, and after awhile (this was filmed on the heels of their European and Pacific Rim press tour) they get downright silly. When Frost starts flushing his birthday cakes down the toilet, when Wright gets down to his skivvies during a phone interview, and when Pegg tongue-kisses his own action figure… you know the boys are pretty punchy!

Hot Funk:

The "mother hubbard" of all extras, this one illustrates how the naughty words in the movie are looped for general audiences. "Fudge off" and get into some "proper action and silt".

Commentary:

I understand there are already four commentaries on the British edition of the Hot Fuzz DVD (I sense some U.S. "special editions" in the future…), but here we've got just one.

It's an important one though, as it features the two screenwriters (Wright and Pegg), director (Wright), and lead actor (Pegg). This is one jam-packed yak track — as Wright says, just a couple of minutes into the talk, "I'm getting an embolism already!" Crammed with stories on the front-loaded cameos (Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchette, Steve Coogan, et al), insights on the so-called hidden homages, and much, much more, this is one commentary even casual fans won't want to skip.

If you have an HD DVD combo format player, you get all the goodies that are on the U.K. version:

• Audio commentary with writer-star Pegg and writer-director Wright
• Audio commentary with 'the real fuzz'
• Audio commentary with 'Sandford Village People'
• Audio commentary featuring 'Sandford police'
• 22 deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Pegg and Wright
• The Making Of Hot Fuzz documentary
• 13 video blogs
• 8 behind-the-scenes featurettes
• Plot holes - explained and storyboarded
• Special Effects: Before & After - 6 demos
• Dead Right short film with optional commentary and 'Making Of' featurette
• Outtakes reel
• The Man Who Would Be Fuzz skit
• Hot Funk - The edited TV version
• Fuzz-o-meter trivia track
• Storyboards
• Flick Book Animation: The Other Side
• Photo and poster galleries
• Theatrical Trailers & TV Spots

Sounds better than "two blokes and a fuck load of cutlery", doesn't it?

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson

Watch our exclusive NEW interview with Wright & Frost all about this DVD