I have to confess that I'm typically not a big fan of comedies. I know that's akin to proclaiming, "I don't like fun!" but many of the comedy films I've seen through the years have done well if they can get a single laugh from me. I outgrew all the toilet humor that seems to dominate much of the comedy landscape these days, and I think the parodies like the "Scary Movie" series are just plain lazy. It takes no creativity at all to take a joke that we're all tired of (Tom Cruise jumping on a couch or any "Brokeback Mountain" reference) and place it in a film with no context to the surrounding scenes. It's like these filmmakers aren't worried about telling a story at all, they just want to get to the next Bush-is-stupid joke. Comedy is about timing and delivery, not someone drinking urine by mistake. Having said all that, when a movie like Hot Fuzz comes along, it reminds me how difficult comedy is to do and how well it can work when done correctly. "Hot Fuzz" skewers the buddy-cop genre from a place of love rather than filling up on current events jokes and Jay Leno monologue that will ultimately make the movie unwatchable in two years.

"Hot Fuzz" is the follow-up from the team responsible for "Shaun of the Dead"; namely director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It tells the story of Nicholas Angel (Pegg) who is London's preeminent crime fighting machine. With an arrest record greatly exceeding every other cop in London, the brass opts to send Angel away to the quaint little town of Sandford where, hopefully, his efforts will not make the rest of them look so bad in comparison. In Sandford, where the biggest concern is winning the Village of the Year award and chasing off The Living Statue, people start dying terrible, grisly deaths only to be ruled as accidents by the local police. It's up to Nick Angel and his new partner Danny Butterman (Frost) to catch the murderer and unravel the conspiracy.

Simon Pegg (center) and Nick Frost (right) of "Shaun of the Dead" fame return in Edgar Wright's action movie spoof "Hot Fuzz."

"Hot Fuzz" opens at a breakneck speed with the exploits of Pegg's Angel portrayed through a quick-cut montage of action clichés. It steers clear of outright mockery, but the references to American action movies are all there albeit subtle. I expected Angel to be shamed or disgraced in some way allowing him the path of redemption through his actions in Sandford (a la a Shane Black script), but "Hot Fuzz" takes a much more clever approach to its parody. In one scene where Angel and Butterman discover a weapons cache in an old man's shed complete with a World War II depth charge, an explosion feels imminent and that feeling of familiarity starts to creep up. Instead of beating us over the head with the Lethal Weapon reference, Edgar Wright chooses instead to play the story against type and just use the music from the trailer for "Lethal Weapon 3" as a subtle nod to the audience. Where a ham-fisted director would have a white guy and a black guy dressed as Riggs and Murtaugh running away from an explosion with a cat, "Hot Fuzz" preys on the pop-culture subconscious. You'll recognize the music, but you won't know from where. That's what Hot Fuzz does so well. It reminds you of the movies through editing, musical cues, dialogue, or direction but not all at the same time. The jokes feel like that quiet elbow-nudge from a friend rather than a desperate blow to the head from a screaming stranger. "Get it?! It's Die Hard! Get it?! See the tank top and the bare feet?! See, he's alone against bad guys with bare feet!!"

The humor in "Hot Fuzz" comes quickly, but doesn't require any knowledge of the inspiration. You don't have to be an action film aficionado to enjoy it because the scenes are funny in their own right. The context of the action movie clichés frames it all in a familiar setting. Some of the humor borders on Monty Python (especially some of the more violent killings) but they aren't quite as absurd about it. One aspect of the film I did enjoy was the running gag about the character names. It's common in action films for the names of the characters to say something about them in a completely obvious way, and in "Hot Fuzz" this is especially true. The lady who runs the flower shop is named Leslie Tiller, the reporter is named Tim Messenger, the pretentious actor is named Martin Blower, and other characters such as Rev. Phillip Shooter, James Reaper, George Merchant, and Tom Weaver all appear in the film. Many of the people in the village are played by action film alumni like Stuart Wilson ("No Escape," "Lethal Weapon 3"), Paul Freeman (Belloq from "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), and the former James Bond himself, Timothy Dalton. Dalton chews up so much scenery that it makes me think he would have made a much better Bond villain than he did the agent himself.

For a film parodying action movies, there's surprisingly little action until the third act. Fortunately that's when the gloves come off and you're treated to quite the spectacle. It's gun-toting slow-mo and Michael Bay hero shots at its best. There's a lot to enjoy in "Hot Fuzz" and you won't need your Dennis Miller quick-reference guide by your side to do it. Keep an eye out for some terrific cameos by Oscar winners Cate Blanchett as a C.S.I. wearing a full hazmat suit and Peter Jackson as a knife-wielding Santa. This movie was fun from start to finish, and American comedies would do well to take a page from it.

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