craigmcn

From the creators of Shaun of the Dead comes a cop movie. Fun. Except not as funny as I’d expected. Simon Pegg is a solid straight man to Nick Frost‘s comic relief, but Frost’s character in this movie is more of a lovable lug than a comic character. As well, the movie has a much more serious feel than SOTD. If the intent was humour, it falls a little short. The subject matter starts out pretty funny: gung-ho, supercop gets promoted to sergeant in a sleepy, little, crime-free village and is partnered with a simple, small-town cop obsessed with police action movies (à la Point Break and Bad Boys 2). But once the reason for the apparent lack of crime is revealed, it’s actually pretty disturbing and creepy. Then things get out of hand (again, à la Bad Boys 2).

I liked the movie. It was fun. The references to other big, police action movies was pretty funny. The relationship between Pegg and Frost is fun and made comically tender. However, development was pretty thin for almost all the supporting characters, making it difficult to make the leap needed to solve the mystery.

8 out of 10 saltines. Lots of good, British fun, but a little too much humourless and gratuitous violence for my taste.