All personal attacks aside, can anyone here honestly say that the makers of SATD and Hot Fuzz "look up" to the makers of Point Break and Bad Boys II? Gimme a break!

I think I did.

I've followed their careers for years, and I saw them talk in person for a Q&A at a Hot Fuzz at a screening in Atlanta, GA and also met them as well. I have every reason to believe that they do look up to filmmakers like that, since I've followed them for so long now. They don't look at films like that as masterpieces of cinema or anything like that, but instead they are fans of the films, and realize just how awesome they are (even if just for the stupidity of it all).

I don't see what's so hard about that to believe. If you ever saw Spaced you'd especially know what I mean. All you need to do is listen to them talk. They're fans of goofy stuff like that. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are more tributes than parodies or anything else like that.

I believe I heard one of the guys on NPR when the movie came out, and he was talking about when he was a kid, he remembered sitting in the theater and just having a chill go down his spine because he was so excited when Lethal Weapon or one of those was shown. IMO, like Spinal Tap, the best, sharpest parodies are made by people who are fans and have a genuine affection for the subject matter, and as such are completely familiar with all the subtle nuances and idiosyncracies.

Musta missed that one. Curses!

Have it your way but, to me, it's like the late Ingmar bergman saying he looks up to Roger Ebert for insights on what makes a good movie.

Yeah whatever helps you sleep at night.

!!!

I see nothing wrong with that. People get inspiration from anywhere. Just because someone doesn't make as clever and well thought out films doesn't mean they don't have an insight that one cannot appreciate.

I know Ingmar Bergman would often wax poetic about the intricacies of the script of Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens and then his eyes would start watering for no reason. Touching, really.

Bara .. is it lonely in your tower?

I just got through watching this for the first time, and I thought it was hilarious. I didn't think SotD was that funny, but this one I found myself laughing from start to finish. Maybe I should give SotD another chance.

It always cracks me up when I see someone who claims to be too "intellectual" to see certain movies. That is just flat-out conceited and ignorant. Sure there are some crappy zombie movies, but Romero's first two zombie movies are true classics. If you don't want to watch them just because they look like "stupid zombie" movies, then that is your own loss. You will miss out on a lot in life with an attitude like that. Life is too short to be a snob.

Epic movies are good, but they really don't have that much replay value. Watching Godfather four times a week would get boring as hell. However, I could watch a movie like Dumb & Dumber four times a week and never get bored.

Yeah I didn't care for Shaun of the Dead too much, but I loved Hot Fuzz. It was hilarious from start to end. The way some of the people died in this was so over the top that it was great!

I just saw this. I did LOL at several points, but overall I didn't like it as mcuh as SOTD. I know neither are to be taken seriously, but SOTD had a lot more laughs and interesting characters. I was never into any of the characters in Hot Fuzz, and I just don't think a lot of the jokes worked as well. Overall an okay movie, but not great IMO.

So, was Andy Warhol stupid for looking up at Campbell's? Was Robert Venturi an idiot for looking up to Vegas?

What's great (to me) about Bad Boys II is probably what makes a lot of people not like the movie: it's a potently distilled post-Bruckheimer action movie. If you didn't like the draught before, you won't like it as a spirit.

I disagree. Parody and satire are complex subjects. As the dying actor said: "Dying is easy. Comedy is difficult." Some very rare comedies (like Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers, 1940) manage to be both funny and scary-creepy. Some others, like the whole Abbott and Costello Meet Whomever series are only funny for their intended audience of 6-to-12 year olds by offering low slapstick humour and cheap thrills and being generally disrespectful to the genre they cannibalize. Other comedies, like Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Dracula: Dead and Loving It manage to bring sophisticated humour out of a genre that the writer knows intimately but that has turned creaky with time and overuse and needs a swift kick in the pants. We laugh because we once cared.

I think SOTD and Hot Fuzz are still different from all of those. The makers are certainly intimate with the films they spoof and use them for all they're worth. Whether or not they ever got their jollies from watching those films is open to debate. But the humour is certainly sophisticated and the premise more than superficially realistic. I think they don't appeal to the habitual public of the genres they spoof. As I said before, I never paid good money to see a zombie movie or a buddy-cop film but I thoroughly enjoyed those two films for what they are and I think that the filmmakers' fanbase is composed in large part of people like me, call them what you will... OK, snobs.

I consider the Godfather movies Mafia soap-operas with dismemberments. On the other hand Dumb and Dumber and Idiocracy are among my favourite films.

First off, it is not open for debate whether or not the filmmakers love the movies they're making fun of, because they flat out talk about how much they love them! And I think their movies are equally appealing to film snobs and non-snobs alike.

Read this hilarious interview with Wright, Pegg, and Frost (for a English magazine) and tell me they don't love these movies. Not everything has to be satirical, sometimes you need some mindless entertainment to get through life. I always watched Saved By the Bell after finals, brain shut off and I decompressed. I can go on a Klosterman sized rant about the show, but I genuinely like it. During his interviews for 'Kill Bill' Tarantino explained that KB was his attempt at doing an action film, which he feels is one of the hardest Genres to do...I think there's truth to that.

http://www.empireonline.com/features/hotfuzz/

"Last action question: what is it about action that inspires homage and comedy?
Simon Pegg: I think because the genre in itself is very overblown and it doesn't take that much to push it into the comic realm. Even though with Hot Fuzz we don't, as with shaun of the dead, parody it as such as just mix it with comedy, which is a different thing. I'm sure Hot Fuzz will be called a spoof action film. It's not, it is an action film. It just happens to be funny as well.
Edgar Wright: It's a similar thing with Shaun. The main comedy and the reason we made it in the first place is the juxtaposition of this overblown carnage happening in the UK, full stop. That's what attracts us to the material. Wouldn't it be great if dot dot dot?
Simon Pegg: it's good to remind people how good those films are. Genre films and films that aren't that cerebral are often underrated as pieces of art and a lot of them are valid as such. With the possible exception of Hero And The Terror..."

I finally saw this and I have to admit I was disappointed. I'm a huge fan of SotD, and I thought the trailers for this one were hilarious. But other than those moments I just thought there were a lot of moments that made me smile but not many more big laughs. And the story just didn't grab me. I guess I just thought the characters were underdeveloped, and more of caricatures in a way, whereas in SotD I really felt an affinity to the characters.

I have an off-topic (and hopefully not illegal) question... I eventually plan on getting the R2 version for my region-free player (as I've done with the Spaced 3-disc and the Shaun of the Dead 2 disc) but in the mean time, is there anywhere I could find the audio of the R2 cast commentary for Hot Fuzz in CD or MP3 format?

It's referenced so much in Simon and Edgar's commentary track on the R1 release that I'm dying to hear it, if for no other reason than Timothy Dalton's awesomeness.


-Doc

I know the HD DVD carries all the commentaries and the HD DVD has a DVD-only side, but I'm not sure if the commentaries are on both sides or just the HD DVD side or just the DVD side.

Aw man, and I swore I'd not upgrade until one of the formats won the war...


-Doc

Felt the same way. This was one of the more entertaining movies I've seen this year.