As a rule the British police force, and its police officers, tend to feature more often as the stars of television rather than the stars of films.
Think of 'The Bill', 'Morse', 'A Touch of Frost', 'Taggart' and even as far back as 'Juliet Bravo', British cops have often been stars of the small screen. But you might struggle to name four or five cinema movies where the British 'Bobby' held the leading role.
Over in the US it's different, and for as long as I can remember there were famous characters on both the small and the big screen who were cops. From 'Dirty Harry' to 'Lethal Weapon' and from 'Beverly Hills Cop' to 'Bad Boys' Hollywood just loves their cop movies and their police officer lead characters.
A new British movie seeks to redress this trans-atlantic imbalance relating to British cop movies, albeit in a total 'tongue (firmly) in cheek' way.
'Hot Fuzz' stars British actor Simon Pegg and comes from the people who brought us 'Shaun of the Dead' - a funny parody of the zombie movies.
By any account this is a big, brash, 'in your face' movie that aims to be as funny as it is silly with a lot more action than any of us could hope for in something that looks a bit like an extended episode of 'The Bill'.
Simon Pegg, who also has a writing credit on this Edgar Wright directed picture, has already proved he has quite a penchant for comedy and here not only has he some funny lines and funny set pieces but you almost laugh looking at him - and that's not just a nice way of saying he's funny (peculiar) looking.
Pegg stars as Nicholas Angel, a London police officer who works harder than the rest of the force and has one of the highest arrest counts on the force. He's good so, as you might expect, nobody likes him and his work rate is starting to make everyone else look very bad, and downright lazy.
The powers that be decide that (as a reward!) they are going to re-assign him to a quieter, almost crime free village in the country called Sandford where he can 'cool his heels' for a little while after almost single-handedly sorting out the greater London area.
In Sandford he is partnered with Danny Butterman (played by Nick Frost), a keen if slightly under experienced officer who thinks Angel is the business and follows him about like a lapdog hoping some of his big city action experience will rub off on him.
But it's not long before some grisly things start happened in sleepy Sandford and aren't they lucky that officer Angel is about to investigate them - and to kick some ass, if required.
Before long the action - a mixture of comic book and actual movie action - gets going and with the comedy still there 'Hot Fuzz' provides some big laughs and is very entertaining. Obviously, as this comes from the creators of the aforementioned 'Shaun of the Dead' those who enjoyed that movie will really like what 'Hot Fuzz' has to offer.
Make no mistake; this is big and stupid but it also is a lot of fun and with a host of well-known faces playing small parts throughout this film could never be accused of being boring.
One imagines the target audience for this film would range from adolescents (the film has a 15 certificate for violence and bad language) up to big kids of all ages.
Anyone looking for some serious, high brow entertainment need not apply. But fans of the big blockbuster Hollywood action film might find this rather good fun - if not a little bit irreverent.
