Hot Fuzz is the kind of movie that you didn’t know you wanted to see. The setup and plot are cliché-driven, yet writer/director team Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) give the film a decidedly British twist, which somehow makes it funnier.

Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is an all-star police officer in London. He’s so good, in fact, that he’s transferred to the tiny town of Sandford to keep him from showing up the rest of the London department. Sandford is, of course, not what it seems, and Angel must get to the bottom of a series of accidents/murders with the help of his simple-minded partner, Danny (Nick Frost).

Unfortunately, the film fails in a number of areas. It seems to slow to a crawl at some points, and much of the humor is specific to fans of Shaun and Pegg’s other projects. Despite this, the film makes good in its last half hour, which is innovative in its (very graphic) predictability. — Cristen Brinkerhoff, Muse Contributing Writer