4. Hot Fuzz (2007)
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
Director(s): Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright is a phenomenal director, using every trick and tool at his disposal to elicit the audience’s response. His last two films, Last Night in Soho and Baby Driver, demonstrate Wright’s wide range; he can direct sweet and understated drama, high-octane car chases, and suspenseful horror, usually in close proximity to one another. But whatever he does next, he might never top the Cornetto trilogy: Shaun of the Dead, followed by Hot Fuzz, followed by The World’s End.
Of the three of them, Hot Fuzz is the best. It is funny–so funny–and every joke is a reference or a callback to a prior joke or a prior event. The movie demands multiple viewings to catch them all. And some of the best jokes are non-verbal. There are self-aware sight gags, especially during the action scenes, that reference Bad Boys II, Point Break, Lethal Weapon, and more.
