The Director's Chair Network

Episode three of All the Right Mov(i)es, hosted by Trucker Andy with guest Cayley from Once Over With Cayley, dives into the filmography of Edgar Wright, focusing on his early work Spaced and the iconic Hot Fuzz. The discussion highlights Wright’s unique directorial style, marked by quick edits, pop culture references, and running gags like the fence jump and Cornetto trilogy. They explore how Spaced draws inspiration from British comedy and independent filmmakers like Kevin Smith, while Hot Fuzz serves as a love letter to action movies, spoofing tropes from Point Break and Bad Boys 2 with sharp humor and over-the-top violence. The episode emphasizes Wright’s deep love for cinema, his collaborative chemistry with Simon Pegg, and the evolution of his storytelling, making Hot Fuzz a standout for its polished execution and genre-blending brilliance.

Creators and Guests

Host
Trucker Andy
Guest
Cayley Landsburg

What is The Director's Chair Network?

Join Ryan and many featured guests and other hosts as they break down and review a variety of directors and their films!
So far, this podcast has featured films from Edward Zwick, John Hughes, Brian De Palma, and Michael Mann.
Soon, we will feature Edgar Wright, Sam Peckinpah, Paul Verhoeven, and David Fincher!

0:10
That's right. You've pressed play on episode three of All the Right Moves, a
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director's chair limited series about the filmography of Edgar Wright. I'm your host, Trucker Andy, and with me, of
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course, I couldn't talk movies without my resident movie expert. It's the one and only Kaylee from Onceover. Kaylee,
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welcome to the show, Kaylee. Thank you so much for having me. I am so dang excited. All right, now do like a
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wipe with a little noise that's happening. Yeah.
1:00
The more that I get into this and the more I rewatch the movies, the more I
1:05
appreciate Edgar Wright and especially these older ones, Hot Fuzz and Shawn of the Dead.
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And it reminds me of why I decided to do this because it's it's all fantastic.
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What what's your uh initial opinion or how did you discover Edgar Wright? What
1:28
are your first memories of let's say Shaun of the Dead or Spaced?
1:33
Yeah, my my first introduction to Edgar Wright was actually through Spaced. Um I I saw it and I loved like the goofy
1:42
weird sitcoms. That was always a big thing for me. Yeah. And it it did the goofy weird sitcom in
1:48
such an intelligent way. It almost had like the Faulty Towers sort of feel
1:54
where it's like nothing really is happening. This shouldn't be so great. And yet, for some reason, it is so so
2:00
great. And then Shaun of the Dead came out and it didn't even occur to me that it could
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possibly be the same guy who had done Space. Like, I didn't have enough knowledge. Now, looking back at
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both of those things, I'm like, "Oh, this is obviously both Edgar, right?" Like you can say his calling cards are
2:18
all over both of these things. Yeah. Um but I just didn't have enough knowledge to be able to associate those
2:25
two things with being one and the same. Even though it was Simon Peg in both things. Even though it was Simon Peg, I just
2:31
assumed that that was like Simon Peg's style. Like I was so naive that I didn't realize that it might have been a
2:36
director's style that I just thought it was an actor style. I do think not until
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much later though, but I think they were very much connected at the hip and yes,
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working together and creating the this content that has a specific voice. Uh,
2:56
and credit to Simon Peg as it is to Edgar, right? Even though as you know later on when we get into the movies
3:02
that Simon Peg is not in, then that will kind of set Edgar apart from Simon. But
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at this stage in the game, they're it's they're a duo, I would say.
3:13
Yeah. You can you can see that they are muses of each other. You can see that they feed off of each other. They figure
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out how to make one thing work. Like they're working on a scene together and
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you can tell, you can almost see how both of their brains are working on that scene. And the fact that it works so
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perfectly is, I agree with you, a credit to both of them. And I know we talked at
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the top like before we hit record about talking about space second, but I just feel like we need to talk about it first
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because you brought you brought up um Faulty Towers and as I've done these
3:47
other previous two episodes without you, so you're not aware. We have been talking about like Little Britain and um
3:57
Monty Python and all these things that kind of inform the voice of Space. And
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when I watched episodes five and six as we're going through the series and we're we're going through the movie catalog in
4:09
order, I could I brought up the inspiration that Edgar and Simon were
4:16
finding in directors like Robert Rodriguez who was creating movies uh in
4:23
you know independent film making as well as Kevin Smith and
4:31
episode five start. It goes to black and white. It's a VO. It's there's so much
4:37
stuff that happens in episode five is directly
4:42
just being clerks all the way down to the dialogue about Star Wars. Brian, did you notice everything that
4:48
transpired in those three films and I mean everything can be attributed to the actors of one very minor character.
4:53
Who? The gunner on the Star Destroyer at the beginning of the first film. How come? Well, Mhm. Because if the
5:00
gunner had shot the pod that C3P were in, they wouldn't have got to Tatooine. They wouldn't have met Luke. Luke wouldn't have met Ben. They wouldn't have met Han and Chewy. They wouldn't
5:06
have rescued Princess Leah. None of it would have happened theory.
5:11
And so, it's it's you could really tell because we we chronologically pointed
5:17
out that Clerks and Mrats came out in 95 and 96 respectively, I think, and then
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Space came out in 989. So I am speculating and I think that I'm
5:30
right based on episode 5 that he was seeing what Kevin Smith was doing with
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independent film making and writing and was inspired by that and almost paid homage to it with episode five here.
5:45
You know something that I really love and respect about Edgar Wright is that you can tell how much he loves film. He
5:51
makes movie references to absolutely everything. He makes movie references to himself. Um, you know, this is this is
5:59
something that this is clearly a passion project for him. And you can see that even in his early works with things like
6:05
Space, you can see that um he actually released I I can't think of the name of it right now, but what Hot Fuzz was
6:11
based on was a movie that he had made when he was 18 or 19 years old. Um, and and you can see it even in that
6:19
movie, which is available on one of like the special edition DVDs. Oh, okay. Because
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this is that's what he loved. He loved making he loved making reference to movies that he loved because he just
6:31
loves film. And that's so exciting to me. And actually, one of my most exciting memories um I
6:37
think I've told you this story before, but I'm 99% positive that I told you the wrong person in it. And I've been
6:43
thinking more and more about it. I'm just a dummy. Um, I went and saw the movie The Great Escape at uh the New
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Beverly in LA, which is the movie theater that's owned by Tarantino. And Edgar Wright was just there watching
6:56
the movie. And to me, that is exactly what makes
7:03
him such a good filmmaker. It's the same reason that people respect Tarantino's film making. These are people who love
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movies so much, so deeply that they understand the tropes and they understand how to play with the tropes.
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And you can see that knowledge in spaced. There's moments in space. I I was talking about like um the the idea
7:24
that everything is so well planned, especially between Wright and and Peg. But like there's this moment in one of
7:31
the episodes that we were watching where Simon Peg like goes and like imitates the artwork that's on the wall. And it's
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like just this beautiful moment of like what a goofy thing to do with your body. And yet I know you guys were just like
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that's what we do. We imitate. We create in the same way that we are watching and
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enjoying and we're being voyers and now we're being creators. Yeah. And I love that.
7:56
Yes. And you're right about it's something that came up in a previous
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episode about their love of video games, their love of movies. Yes.
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And just the fandom as a personality. And that's on display when they're at
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the comic book store in episode five. It's why I I insist that Edgar is a fan
8:20
of Kevin Smith. Even though the other thing I'm going to say is that while I
8:25
bring up Robert Rodriguez and I bring up Kevin Smith, I feel like those guys have made giant turds of Spy Kids and Shark
8:34
Boy and you know all the garbage that Kevin Smith, Jersey girl and
8:41
all right, we can't be friends anymore if you're making fun of Spy Kids because Spy Kids is actually really [ __ ] good, Andy.
8:46
And you're wrong about that. I'm fighting with you. We're fighting now. Go, you rewatch it and tell me.
8:51
I will absolutely do. I have a signed Spy Kids poster on the other side of this wall. I love Spy Kids, dude. That
8:58
movie rules. There's There's things to like. It's actually probably my favorite Robert Rodriguez movie. That might
9:04
legitimately be my favorite Robert Rodriguez movie. You don't respect me at all anymore, and I hate you for that.
9:10
Hey, I if we just agreed on everything, it would be a boring podcast. But and I
9:15
like there's a lot of uh Robert Rodriguez content that I do like. I do like Planet Terror and that you're
9:22
right. All right. I'm just saying it's a fun movie and but uh Shark Boy and Lava
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Girl is trash and that's trash. Sin City 1 is good. Sin City 2 sucks. It's like
9:34
it's give or take as opposed to Edgar who has drawn all this good inspiration from these two guys that
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we're talking about and out outdone them like in a far better way almost
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categorically across the board. So I just wanted to bring that up because it was something that was dawning on me
9:52
while I was watching Space. It's just like oh this is Clerks but he's way better than Kevin Smith. Oh he's kind of
9:59
like doing what Robert Rodriguez did but way better. So
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he clearly has a very deep understanding of not only film making but of the world and that is that's what makes a good
10:11
filmmaker. Yeah. And just to kind of sum up as we move through the the topic of space.
10:18
This was the part two of Daisy getting the dog. It was a little I was [ __ ] on Daisy's plot lines in general in the
10:25
last episode and this one was a little more fun. and she was a little more uh you know front and center in the episode
10:32
and all of the bits with her kind of really liking the dog and yeah the dog
10:38
gets kidnapped and uh and it's a well done episode as opposed to we're doing
10:43
these episodes two at a time and the next one I I was very glad that you were
10:48
here for these episodes because just based on you know your opinion about
10:54
everything we just talked about five but then we get into six and Mr. T comes up
11:00
and I know I know this is gonna come out later but a team is heavily referencing
11:05
this and that came up on WATP recently and also you get I was crying.
11:10
Yeah. Yeah, I know. But then you also get to see uh Brian paint with his [ __ ] and I'm sure that was your favorite part
11:16
of the episode. My favorite part
11:22
by not actually placing my brush on the canvas. Right.
11:27
Are you losing my penis? Finally. Do you want to see it?
11:32
No, I'm just about to have the tea. Yeah. But by and large, I felt like this
11:38
episode 6 is more I guess I what I'm learning about Spaced is that I don't
11:44
like Brian centric episodes. The episode three with the art uh installation at
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Volva. Uh I didn't like that one. And this one was Brian forward and I didn't like this one. So, it's just my opinion
11:58
about the series. So, uh these are my takeway. Yeah. But,
12:04
um still a pretty fun episode. There's a lot of things. The relationship between Tim and Daisy kind of is becoming more
12:13
uh in the forefront of the series in a will they won't they kind of thing. What did you mean when you said Daisy's
12:19
not liner? I never said that. No, you did. You did. Uh he said a YouTube and you said no, no, Daisy's not lighter. That's what you said. I just wonder what you meant. Yeah, I just
12:25
meant I just meant you not like that. I just I don't see you in that way. Whereas the first couple weren't it was
12:31
alluding to it, but it wasn't really a thing. And now it's kind of becoming more of a thing. I feel like the series
12:37
is finding more of a voice with episode 5 and their relationship with episode.
12:44
You inspired me to rewatch a whole bunch of the series. So, I am uh through
12:49
season one now. And I will say that I do think that the episode episodes five and six, I think that they um what was
12:57
really interesting was that is where I kind of started liking the character of Daisy and you started alluding to that
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as well where you're like I didn't really get her maybe entirely. This is where I think that she comes into her
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own and I think that she becomes a little bit goofier here and I love that. I don't usually like a
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female lead, but she's so good and she's so silly and she knows when to like gut punch you and
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I I I love it. Yeah. I was giving her props to to the tune of Caitlyn Olsen and uh Always
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Sunny and Zoe Des Chanel and New Girl. She's kind of this quirky, dorky uh personality
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that doesn't have to rely on her looks to be entertaining on a show. and th that reminded me of those two examples.
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So, um, yeah, a little more a little more endearing version of Daisy as we
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get into five and six, but I think and I I the only reason I wanted to talk about
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this also at the top in episode five, we do get a cut and paste a there's a
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couple of cut and paste moments that Edgar likes to do with space that he did
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it in Shaun of the Dead and he's he's done it in hot fuzz too as Well, with um
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when they're at the police station, they do the the raid and then they're in the police station and they're all laughing
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all this together.
14:27
And that comes up in a couple of times in Hot Fuzzy.
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So I was like, "Oh, he's just, you know, re retreading." And what we were talking about in um Shauna of the Dead is that
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Edgar loves a running gag. He loves um to
14:52
do like a a spin. Especially Shaun of the Dead. It's just like we're going to show you something and then we're going to show you the same thing, but with
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this twist. And even just from film to film, he has running gags. The fence
15:03
bit. We'll get to the fence bit, too. It's just like he loves running gags so much that he's doing it movie to movie,
15:09
not just from the beginning of the movie to the end of the movie from totally from his television series to multiple
15:15
different movies. It's Yeah. I mean, his connection his connection in a trilogy is basically the
15:21
fence gag and the cornetto ice cream. Like that's that's his running gag to
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make this a trilogy. I was surprised on this rewatch of Spaced. So, watching Spaced simultaneously with re-watching
15:33
Hot Fuzz, I remembered all the running gags. I remembered the Edgar Wright tropes, but I did not realize how much
15:39
he was still doing the same editing style when he was doing Spaced as he is in his movies, in his film career. And
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it's that it's like that super quick wipe across the screen with like a little sound effect as it's happening.
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And I love that so much. He does it so successfully. Usually that's like a hack
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thing to do, but there's something about how Edgar Wright employs it that makes it hilarious every single time that it
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happens. And it happens probably 40 times during Hot Fuzz, if not more. And
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and I had forgot how much that happened in Spaced Like I had entirely wiped that from my me I had entirely I'm sorry. I
16:41
had entirely wiped that from my memory. It it was it but that was such a
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pleasure to see that that was always his style, you know, and that's that's been really enjoyable
16:54
to as we watch Space and and rewatch the movies and realize the evolution and
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things that have evolved and become better, but also things that are evergreen and staples that he if it
17:09
ain't broke, don't fix it kind of things that another director that we've brought up is Sam Ramy. And if that's the same
17:16
kind of thing, you can see things that Remy did in Evil Dead that he was still
17:23
doing in um Doctor Strange 2. You know, it's like, oh, it's obviously a Remy
17:29
film because it's the the firsterson shot or you just like a lot of the
17:36
tropes. This isn't a podcast about Sam Ramy, but I could I probably could do another a whole another series about
17:42
him. Um, but and Edgar's the same way. He does he references Evil Dead. He
17:47
references you these things that he loves and you could see how they informed what he's doing to this day.
17:54
So, um, it's fun to go back to his earlier work. Oh. Oh, the other thing
18:01
that you mentioned that I didn't want to forget to bring up that he did a short film that was reminis that was basically
18:09
a new and improved Hot Fuzz or you know the the roots of Hot Fuzz. And when I did the first episode with Ryan about
18:16
Fistful of Fingers, we said, why wouldn't he take this and give it the
18:22
Evil Dead to Evil Dead 2 treatment and make basically, you know, his own his
18:27
Blazing Saddles or we even brought up Hundreds of Beavers. It's like Fistful of Fingers wants to be Blazing Saddles
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and it I just think that he romanticizes
18:40
making that movie and maybe would want to do it only do it properly. So to hear
18:47
that he had this police this short film police centric movie or in whatever a
18:54
special feature and then went on to make hot fuzz that kind of confirms that uh
19:00
he does think about his early work that way. Yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. I that's like that's a
19:07
very again it's very romantic. It's it's uh I love it. I I think that that that's
19:13
what makes him so great. Yeah. Yeah, but let's get into Hot Fuzz.
19:18
And of course, it's Simon Peg and Nick Frost teamed up again. And this is
19:25
Everybody was anxiously awaiting this because Shaun of the Dead was such a
19:31
smash hit. And you can see what an
19:36
impact it had on the on pop culture by very early on in the movie the this
19:44
cameos galore showing up to to get on the Edgar Wright train because he's such
19:51
a sensation based on the popularity of Shaun of the Dead. Right. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And and I'm gonna
19:58
just shoot my load here. I think that this is a movie that is 50 times better
20:03
than Shawn of the Dead. I think that this is him this I guess it is kind of the Evil Dead Evil Dead 2 situation
20:09
here. This is to me him saying let me do this but do it better and slightly
20:15
different. And I I could not possibly create a better buddy action comedy
20:22
horror by what other genres? There's like a thousand other genres that go into this thing. There's kaiju stuff
20:28
happening at the end. I knew that you were going to bring that up. Every single thing about this movie is
20:33
so perfect. I think this is a nearperfect movie. And again, I know that I am saying that right out the gate
20:39
here. That does not mean that I don't have tons of more opinions to support that. It is it is so exciting to me to
20:46
have seen him do something as mindboggling as Shaun of the Dead and then to follow
20:52
it up with this which is more polished and to me more interesting and and
20:58
beautiful and succinct and thoughtful. This is the best ever movie about the
21:05
detriments of taking work too seriously. Yeah, and that's [ __ ] cool. Like I love
21:12
that. Yeah, that that's a good point. And I I
21:18
guess I want to ask when the last time you watched Shaun of the Dead was.
21:24
Um within the last year, so it not super recent. And I will be I'll be the first to admit
21:30
that I regularly forget how much I like or hate something. Um and I regularly forget all of the
21:36
information. Like I I intake things. I process them for a couple of days and then they're gone out of my memory. So I
21:41
will be the first to admit I could be wrong about this. I did not watch these movies back toback like you likely have.
21:47
Mhm. My That's okay. My entire recollection
21:52
of seeing these movies close together at different times in my life is that I much prefer Hot Fuss.
21:59
And that's fine. People also have said when we think about the catalog as a
22:06
whole, um, Nelly, my guest on Shawn of the Dead, also said that Hot Fuzz was her
22:12
favorite. I've made no bones about the fact that Scott Pilgrim is my favorite. But what I will say, just that what you
22:19
don't know is like you have not seen our conversation about Shauna of the Dead and all of my opinion about that. This
22:25
episode isn't about Shawn of the Dead, but I would encourage you to when that does come out to watch that because I
22:31
have very strong opinions about what makes that movie so special. So, if you
22:36
are picking up this series with Hot Fuzz because you like Hot Fuzz and you haven't watched Shawn of the Dead yet,
22:42
gentle listener, go listen to the Hot Fuzz one because it there is a lot to
22:47
unpack with that one when I watched it with a critical eye. But I want to get into hot fuzz because you do get great
22:54
character advancement. This isn't just Simon and Nick just being the same guys
23:00
in a different movie the way that a lot of whatever Adam Sandler and Tom Cruz.
23:05
It's always just Adam Well, Adam Sandler does characters, but I'm just saying it's not just them being Shawn and Ed
23:11
from Shawn of the Dead in a different movie. This is a different character. This is self-s serious Nick Angel from
23:18
Simon Peg and a more doofy like less
23:24
naive. Yeah. Ed is Ed and Shawn is really like gruff and lazy whereas Danny Butterman
23:31
in Hot Fuzz is more naive and gentle and
23:37
doofy. So, these guys are both doing something different and they're both doing it great and it's great to see
23:43
them back together. From there, it you it dovetales right into cameo after
23:50
cameo after cameo. All Brits, you know, murderers row of British cameos with
23:56
Bill Nye. He's back, Steve Kugan shows up, Martin Freeman has a slightly bigger
24:02
role than he did in Shawn. Like when they said Sean Martin Freeman had a cameo and Shawn I was like I don't remember that at all. And then he's like
24:10
blink and you miss it cameo from Martin Freeman. So you get these these big
24:15
three right at the front. But I don't know if you caught this or if you know this already in the resume builder when
24:23
he gets stabbed by Santa Claus. Do you know that? I know who it is. Oh I know who it is. It's it's my boy Peter Jackson.
24:30
Yeah. Peter Jackson as Father Christmas. Uh, fantastic cameo. And then you get
24:36
Kate Blanchett as the uh, forensics. Everybody's in masks. You wouldn't even
24:42
know it was her unless somebody Same with Peter Jackson. Obviously, we did the same kind of uh, because everybody
24:47
loved this so much. You wanted to know everything about it. So, they have all these great cameos right at the top. But
24:53
that's exactly what you were talking about is that at this point um not only was Edgar Wright making a love letter to
25:00
cinema when he was making movies, but everybody else was so in love with him because of the success of Shaun of the
25:05
Dead. So here you have Peter Jackson and Kate Blanchett saying, "I don't even give a [ __ ] if you show my face. I just
25:11
want to be a part of your movie." Yeah. Like that's amazing. Yeah. When when's the last time anybody
25:18
had a a premiere on the scene that was so beloved?
25:23
And yet people are just like falling all over themselves to be a part of what he was doing next. So it's definitely
25:30
upgraded. The budget's upgraded. The talent is upgraded and they we we don't really recap plots.
25:38
We we are talking about this assuming that you've seen the movie, but he's so Nick Angel is so good at his job that
25:46
he's making all the cops look bad. So like it reminded me of Sleepy Hollow and
25:51
uh when Johnny Depp Johnny Johnny Depp's Kabad crane gets shipped to uh Sleepy
25:56
Hollow because he's too good as or they're annoyed that he's taking his job so seriously.
26:01
Stand down. I stand up for sense and justice. Like you said, this is a
26:07
workaholics's uh parable. Yeah. So, I actually have an interesting
26:13
comparison to another movie that I think is kind of crazy, but I couldn't not stop thinking about it this whole
26:18
rewatch. Um, I am pretty sure that this movie
26:24
that Hot Fuzz is just the exact same thing as Leon the Professional.
26:30
Okay, so here's my argument. Let me let me go through my argument. So, first of all,
26:35
there's a clear reference to Leon the Professional because um Nicholas's character, Nicholas Angel, he is
26:41
constantly carrying around this plant. Especially in the beginning of the movie, he has this love affair with the Yes. He has the love affair with the
26:47
plant and that is a direct reference to Leon the Professional. We all know that. Mhm. But I think that in addition to
26:54
that, in Leon the Professional, we have this hitman who his whole life is his work and he's just striving to be good
27:01
at it. And he has an an emotional connection with somebody who wants to be
27:08
like him in Leon the Professional. It's Natalie Portman's character. And here we have Nick Frost's character kind of like
27:14
looking up to the the um very successful, cold, efficient, calculated
27:22
person who has detached so much from normal life that they are only a professional.
27:28
And I could not stop seeing that this entire time that I was watching this movie.
27:34
Especially the the romantic subtext that we'll get into that is uh uncomfortable
27:39
in both of those films. very uncomfortable. I really think that
27:45
is what I and I had never seen that ever before. Possibly because I I only just
27:50
recently saw Leon the Professional um for the first time like within the last 5 years. So I probably have only seen
27:55
Hot Fuzz maybe once since I saw that movie until this rewatch. Um I just
28:01
couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't, you know, and there were more and more references the
28:08
more that I looked at it. And it it's that again to me that's what makes Edgar
28:14
Wright so interesting because here he is saying I want to make this movie I or
28:22
even like you said the episode of Spaced that is a clear reference to Clerks.
28:27
Yeah. I love this thing. I loved this thing so much. This thing was so great. I just want to do my little version of it. And
28:34
I'm going to do it in a buddy cop movie format. And I'm and I am going to make light of
28:42
Michael Bay and make light of a lot of other maybe corny action tropes, but in
28:50
a self referential love letter kind of
28:55
uh om to things. When you told me I have a plethora and I just would like to know
29:00
if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora and find
29:08
out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora. town
29:16
called out the intro and Shaun of the Dead as they do like a rhythmic kind of
29:22
beat forbeat sort of choreography that goes on to be ex extrapolated out to
29:29
Baby Driver and then we get this quaint town and there's connective tissue to
29:36
World's End with it's another they're they're doing they're all these sleepy villages and It resonates with people
29:44
that are like Nelly was saying that she really enjoys Hot Fuzz because she lives
29:50
in a town like that and I was saying I enjoy Scott Pilgrim because I am a bass
29:55
playing video game dork. So like if it speaks to you, it's going to be your
30:01
heart. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to enjoy these more. So uh for people to say which
30:07
which movie is their favorite, it's it's all fair game. So, I don't mind if you want to say that you like this over
30:14
Shaun of the Dead. Um, and I I enjoy this, too. I'll probably I like action movies just as much as I like horror
30:20
movies. So, for him to say, "I want to spoof a horror movie," and then turn around and say, "I want to spoof action movies,
30:27
I'll watch it all day." Yarp. Yeah, I was going to say that's probably
30:34
the bigger most quotable thing from this movie. the way that I I said in Sean
30:41
exacerbate like not since plethora in three amigos. You told me I have a plethora and I just
30:48
would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has
30:54
a plethora and find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a
31:00
plethora. has a word entered the lexicon like exacerbated in Shaun of the Dead
31:07
and then the most memorable thing in Hot Fuzz would be the YARP for that's
31:12
basically the smurf smurf. I'm smurfing your smurf cuz you smurf so hard kind of
31:18
yarp catchall word for any situation. I still laugh every single time. I love
31:26
narp so much. Sergeant Angel's been taken care of. Yarp.
31:31
He's not going to get back up again.
31:37
Narp. It's so stupid. Narp. Like, it's so
31:42
good. It's so silly. It's great. And that character is great. We get a lot of awesome personalities.
31:50
And I think I know why maybe you kind of like this one more because when it
31:56
starts to be revealed, the the villain of the plot seems like
32:07
what I already know about things that you enjoy, but the people watching this might not know are these kind of like
32:15
doomsday cult uh entities that are pulling strings
32:23
behind the scenes. I I know that Ari is uh somebody that you enjoy and this uh
32:31
round table of people reminded me of Midsummer reminded me of
32:38
um hereditary and a lot of the later paranormal activities with like just
32:44
these um oult organizations that are
32:50
That's that's really interesting because I never actually made that connection, but I think that you're on to something here. The other aspect of the villain uh
32:59
that I really really love about in this movie is that I really enjoy
33:06
the fact that the whole town is evil. Like, I like the idea that there's not
33:12
one bad guy. I like the idea I like there being one good guy and everybody else is kind of a bad guy. I think
33:19
that's really interesting. Here we are. We're our two buds. we're going to do everything together. We're going to be great. And it's us versus the world. And
33:28
I think that that's a really interesting way to create the plot of a movie because so frequently we as our li as
33:33
we're living our lives, we feel like it's us versus the world. We feel like everybody else is against us. And so it
33:39
kind of pulls on that sort of piece of your brain where you're like, is everybody plotting against me?
33:46
Are all these people like, has the PTA disbanded? I don't know. You know, it's it that is that is such a
33:53
cool way to do an evil subplot because this movie really does lead you down
33:58
some rabbit holes of oh, it's just this one person. Oh, this is what's going on.
34:04
And is it the biggest twist of all time? Absolutely not. But, um, it's still it
34:10
becomes that much more exciting because it's everyone, everyone is bad and everyone is old. Like the the the
34:17
gag of punching an old lady right in the face is pretty hilarious. And
34:24
he kicks her. Yeah. Jesus. Just all these old people going after you and him taking them on in a in a a
34:33
giant shootout. I thought that you were going to say a different reason that I loved this movie so much. So I think that a lot of people
34:39
when you're watching this movie a lot of characters are referred to by their last name and most of the last names of the
34:46
characters in this movie are um jobs. So, you know, like Wayne's, right? Um,
34:51
you know, the all of the stereotypical English last names where blacksmith,
34:57
whatever, you know, their the jobs that they um, but there were also a whole bunch of
35:03
last names like blower and cocker and I thought that you were going to pull on
35:08
that. I literally thought you were going to be like Kaye likes stupid last names that are all related to penises, but you went
35:15
for a much more intelligent thing. So, thank you for not um judging me on Piss Taker or whatever the hell that
35:21
character's name was. But we get like George Merchant who is the land developer and Messenger. Tim
35:28
Messenger is the reporter. So, you're right about that. And then you also get Skinner, the
35:33
Timothy Dalton, probably most recognizable villain. And it's nice to
35:39
see Timothy Dalton getting something that's not James Bond and kind of
35:44
showing up in something memorable, but then you see another cameo from Steven Merchant, which is fun to see. So, all
35:52
these big British heavy hitters uh again supporting young gun Edgar Wright.
36:00
Yeah. And so we do it it becomes apparent that the neighborhood watch is
36:08
there to keep the NWA I'm sorry the NWA let's just take
36:14
one moment to pause on the neighborhood watch association the NWA [ __ ] the
36:19
police. Yeah that's point it's so genius. Yeah,
36:25
it's a good gag. And they are they want to keep the town ideal idyllic. And you
36:32
have the the living stat they hate the living statue guy. They hate the little
36:37
kids that look like they're straight out of Attack the Block and uh another British movie that I love. So I love
36:44
seeing those kids um just taking the piss out of the old people and [ __ ]
36:49
up their program. And kind of early on we get the the vanilla cornetto gag.
36:58
You want anything from the shop? Cornetto, you got brain freeze.
37:04
No, I got brain wave. Get us back to the station now.
37:10
This one is probably the most on front street insertion of the cornetto. The
37:17
first Shawn of the Dead. It's like I don't know why people keyed in on it and it was kind of just like a funny thing
37:22
like why is he eating ice cream for breakfast and people brought it up and then he takes that feedback that people keyed
37:31
in on and really runs with it here but in an innocuous way but he's just
37:38
like oh you guys like that here's even more and then in World's End you're just kind of we'll talk about it later but
37:44
you're kind of waiting for it the whole time and it's kind walked past. Uh but
37:50
um this is the second installment of the Cornetto trilogy, the the vanilla component of the Neapolitan Cornetto
37:58
trilogy and it's perfect. So, let's talk more about what is
38:04
actually getting spoofed because I brought up Michael Bay, but then something that I feel like is
38:12
close to Edgar Wright's heart, which is also very close to my heart that informs
38:17
a lot of the dynamic between Nick and Danny, is Point Break.
38:25
Very Oh, absolutely. very much a love letter to Point Break
38:30
specifically and Bad Boys 2 and Bad Boys 2 to I hate Bad Boys 2, but I love Boys in
38:36
You're crazy. Bad Boys one is good. Bad Boys 2 is [ __ ] But don't listen anymore. Huie. Huie, stop.
38:43
Yeah, stop listening. He'll be on for World's End. Uh, Point Break is
38:49
something that is referenced in this so much, not just in the dialogue, but also
38:55
I will put Point Break, the foot chase in Point Break
39:00
is the best foot chase in all of cinema. What other movie do you have?
39:07
I don't throwing a pitbull at a guy. Yeah. Weaponizing a dog. And it's just it's so
39:14
[ __ ] good. It's It's just so good. And clearly Danny Butterman and Edgar
39:20
Wright think so too because they do they do a couple of different foot chases in this and they both reminded me of Point
39:25
Break. He shoots the gun in the air and yells,
39:37
you know, that's obviously Point Break. They watch it, they talk about it, and Point Break is a [ __ ] great movie.
39:42
It's a great movie. I absolutely love. So the way that we get the pointing the gun in the air and going, "Ah, is that
39:50
the entire time Danny is asking Nicholas, he's like, um, so you were like this big amazing cop in the big
39:57
city. Can you tell me about it? Have you ever done this? Have you ever done this?" And every single thing Nicholas
40:03
says, "No, I haven't ever done that." Um, like what are you crazy? Like cops don't really do that. Can you imagine
40:09
the paperwork we would have to do if we did things like shoot the guns in the air like that? Like that's crazy. And
40:15
every single thing that Danny asks Nicholas, have you done this? By the end of the movie, they do it right.
40:22
And that's so much fun. And again, that is that's the love letter. That's saying, "Hey, I'm aware that I'm making
40:28
these references. That's why we're all having fun together with them because this is a great movie and we want to
40:34
talk about this great movie." And I agree with you so much about the foot chases in this in this movie. I I agree
40:40
with you also about Point Break, but um in particular in Hot Fuzz, I love the
40:45
foot chase of the shoplifter. That's what I'm talking about. One of the side plots is that Nicholas
40:53
and Danny have been charged with finding a a rogue swan and they need to return
41:00
the swan to the owner. And in the middle of this crazy foot chase where they're
41:06
trying to find this shoplifter, they see he Nicholas sees the swan and he has the
41:12
moment of do I continue getting the shoplifter or do I save the thing that I'm supposed to be working on
41:27
and you can see his entire internal dialogue and it happens it's on the screen for one to two seconds, you can
41:34
literally feel him going, I know what my job is. My job is to get the swan. I don't care about my job because I care
41:39
more about the safety and well-being of the people. I'm going to get the shoplifter. And you can see all of those
41:45
things happening in these little quick cuts. It's so perfectly done. Yes. And they set it up in the beginning
41:52
as played for laughs. The whole point is that he is going to hate this because
41:58
he's taken out of the big city where he's making a difference and put into a sleepy town where nothing cool is ever
42:06
going to happen. And then it just evolves into probably the the biggest case of his life. And it starts out with
42:13
doing innocuous [ __ ] like trying to find a missing swan and then in the middle of it like you're talking about it's they
42:19
run past it just to remind you the swan's there and then at the end it becomes a a critical part of the
42:25
conclusion of the movie and like I said Edgar Wright just loves a running gag and you also brought up the paperwork
42:32
bit which is also hilarious where they make a montage out of doing the
42:38
paperwork like it's a like it's an action sequence and they do that at the beginning and end of the film as well.
42:44
We have to do a considerable amount of paperwork,
42:58
which is just book, you know, a good book end, a good running gag. Yeah.
43:04
Yeah. and genius. You got to think about the collaboration between Edgar and
43:10
Simon Peg when they're writing this. And that's why they're such a good duo and why the the chemistry of those two
43:17
together. I would really like to see maybe like a a latter day, you know, in
43:23
the future reeeeing of those two guys and what that might end up being. But
43:29
I don't know this at all. Did they have a falling out and that's why they don't work work together anymore? They just stopped working. I mean, it seems weird
43:36
to have had such a um a pivotal career as a duo
43:42
and then to fall off of that in the way that they had, you know, I mean, you mentioned Attack the Block earlier, you
43:47
know, even in things like that, like it it just feels weird that there was this kind of diversion even including Nick
43:52
Frost in that that this diversion of these three people when they were so successful. I think I think it's a
43:59
matter of being so successful that they they go on to be so in demand,
44:04
especially with Simon Peg being locked into Mission Impossible and how long
44:10
those productions are and it's just like I'm not available when you're available kind of thing. the same reason why
44:16
uh we talked about Edgar Wright not being able to follow through with being the director of Ant-Man and what a boon
44:24
what how that would have affected his career and would it have been good or bad for his career but you have to look
44:30
at Ant-Man basically as an Edgar Wright movie because he did so much pre-production work and when you watch
44:36
that you can feel it but then he was already committed to Baby Driver and it's like Well, our Paul
44:44
Rudd and Edgar's calendars don't align, so Edgar can't go on to actually direct
44:50
the film, but all of his uh fingerprints are all over it, you know?
44:55
Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah. And I feel like the the popularity of Shawn and Hot Fuzz just
45:04
took these guys. It it careers so big that it became hard for them to work
45:11
together. But like we were just saying, I would love to see them get back together. And I don't know if it's anything more than that. They're just
45:17
both so busy that they can't do it anymore. But you see, that's a really good point. You see something like um what was that
45:25
called? It was an alien movie that Simon and Nick
45:30
were both in, but Edgar didn't direct it. And it just didn't feel the same. It just was it didn't have the right
45:37
chemistry. I can't remember the name of it right now, but they find like a gray, you know? It's like, yeah, Sean, it's
45:43
like Shawn and Ed find a gray alien. I can't remember. It's like it's called like Ed or something like that. But
45:49
yeah, that that's a really good point. You know, again, I I think there's just so much chemistry in
45:54
what existed in these early days that it's almost near impossible. And perhaps part of the reason not working together
46:01
also might be a fear of not being able to recreate it. You know, if if they did put out a bad movie, it would bitter all
46:07
of our pallets on uh how wonderful all of this is, which is unfortunate. You know, we shouldn't go back and rewrite
46:13
history because of things like that, but sometimes we do. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. I don't think those that it's hard to say who we're just all
46:21
we could do is speculate, but we if you're watching this, we would like to see it. So, uh Edgar, call Simon. Uh put
46:27
your differences aside if that's what it is. But, uh, as they get into, let's
46:33
say, the second act, Nicholas Angel finally kind of starts to loosen up. They go out for a beer because they're
46:40
kind of unhappy with the the trajectory of their careers. And
46:47
Nicholas starts to relent to Danny's questions and why he's asking all these
46:56
questions based on his love of these movies. And it becomes like are these guys gonna [ __ ] Like they get drunk and
47:03
they go back to Danny's apartment and uh like you were talking about with the professional. It's it's like what what
47:11
why why are they doing this and it's all because they love he loves movies and action so
47:19
much. What what were your thoughts about watching that? Okay. So, I was going to actually say that's another relation to the
47:25
professional in the sense that the entire time um Nicholas is just drinking
47:31
cranberry juice and then finally this night that you're just describing right now, Danny convinces him to actually have a beer. They get totally drunk
47:37
together and it one of the things that I love about Hot Fuzz is that there is no love story.
47:45
There's no love story in this movie. This is one of the rare successful movies that has no female lead where
47:52
there is a love story. That being said, oh my god, this scene is [ __ ] gay.
47:57
I just want to be good at what I do. You are good at what you do.
48:04
You just got to learn to switch off that big old melan.
48:10
That's the whole problem. Danny,
48:15
I don't think I know how. Um, it is an and in a really beautiful way.
48:21
Yeah. In a really beautiful way because on the one hand, when you're just watching it and you're like, "Oh yeah,
48:26
these are two dudes just enjoying a movie." Um, on the other hand, you're like, "Oh my god, that's exactly what
48:33
guys do when they put the moves on me." is like they show me their movie collection and then they say, "Do you
48:38
want to watch Point Break or Bad Boys 2? Um, which one do you want to watch first?" And I'm like, "I guess Point
48:45
Break, you know, like can I just suck you off?" Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's that's very much how it feels is like I
48:55
um you know, in horror movies, we talk a lot about
49:01
our knives being phallic. Um, in this movie, our phallic weapon is our guns.
49:07
And you can see how much Danny loves that Winchester rifle that he's carrying
49:12
around. You can literally see it anytime he's holding it, anytime he's stroking it. I It is um there is very much some
49:20
subtext going on in this scene, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And it's it's not even it's more like
49:25
text. It's for text. It's like text text. And that I think that's playing into
49:31
vortex the late not foreskin it's vortex but it's commenting on the latent
49:37
homosexuality male fantasies of action movies and all of all of the big dick
49:44
energy that goes into a Michael Bay movie and it's like well what how gay are we going to make it? Are these guys
49:50
gonna actually [ __ ] or are they just gonna watch Bad Boys 2? So that's that's the bit and that's why that scene is so
49:58
brilliant. I always only watch Bad Boys 2. Just in case anybody was wondering, I just watch
50:03
Bad Boys 2. I don't [ __ ] That's the answer to that question. Yeah. Yeah. If she watches Bad Boys 2
50:10
with you, consider yourself uh laid. That's Yes. Yes. They get to the carnival scene where the
50:18
reporter gets killed. And this gave, as I'm watching this with a critical eye, I
50:25
know this came out before Grindhouse, but this reminded me so much of Eli
50:30
Roth's Thanksgiving trailer. And the the the graphic nature of that kill
50:37
specifically, because we we get the kills of the the theater people, get decapitated, and Ed, one of Edgar's
50:43
tropes is always over-the-top violence. There's always a gag where you're just like, "Oh my god, I can't believe that
50:50
person's head exploded like that." Or, you know, he always has some over-the-top graph comedically graphic
50:56
violent Yeah. Hell yeah. part which stick sticks with you. And
51:01
when the reporter's head gets the uh where the the steeple tip like through
51:08
his smashing his head
51:16
It just reminded me of the the fake Thanksgiving trailer that did go on to be a real movie.
51:25
But then Edgar also had don't in Grindhouse as well. So again, you see
51:32
all these guys that are basically in the same club. It's like the the Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino and Sam Ramy and
51:42
Edgar Wright and Kevin Smith and all these guys that are bootstrapping movies and into independent film and
51:49
referencing everything that they love in their own movies, whether it's through dialogue or imagery
51:56
and these guys are just, you know, they're cut from the same cloth is my point. Yeah, I completely agree. One of the
52:02
things that I really love that Edgar Wright does in this movie, and I can't think if he really I guess in Scott
52:07
Pilgrim he does this, is his reliance on music. Um, I think that he has such a
52:14
great idea of how to use music in order to really boost a film. And so, one of
52:19
the things that I love is how he how he uses songs when they relate to
52:25
kills. So, you mentioned the theater people getting killed and decapitated and then shortly after once the crime
52:32
scene is discovered of their bodies. Um, Skinner drives up and he's listening to
52:38
Dire Straits as Romeo and Juliet. News troubles fast. I love Romeo
52:45
saying. After that, the refrigerator salesman
52:51
gets blown up and so he was killed by his oven. And when Skinner pulls up there, he's listening to Arthur Brown's
52:57
Fire.
53:05
And I just love that. I think that's so clever and thoughtful. And it's these little things that make me um kind of
53:13
swoon over his graphic violence, over the grass graphic violence that Edgar Wright is showing me is I'm like, "Oh,
53:20
but loves sick Romeo." Like, I I'm I'm in. Like, I'm in. And then, oh, that's
53:26
somebody's head on a platter. And that's funny too that when you think
53:31
about how he has an an arc of references because they
53:38
bring up Sean in Shaun of the Dead Dire Straits when they're throwing the records. So he's talking about his record collection and he pulls out Dire
53:46
Straits and he says get rid of it. But then in this, you know, he secretly likes Dire Straits because he inserts
53:52
that track into this for that. Well, do you know do you know what other movie features that song very heavily?
54:00
Uh, is it Romeo and Juliet? No, it's EMP it's Empire Records. Oh, okay. Yeah, I like that. I like
54:07
Dyrus Straits. I mean, I do too. And that's one of their best songs and it's in Empire Records and I love that movie.
54:12
It's a great song. Ethan Embry for life, baby. Yeah. Okay, the other reference thing that I wanted to bring up and I don't
54:18
know that Edgar Wright is directly
54:24
referencing this film, but it's we are very close to the same age. I think I'm just like slightly younger. But when I
54:31
was growing up, they and the all the costumes for the Doomsday cult before you know that it's
54:37
a collective, you just think that it's a cowl. It's like it looks like the Scream
54:42
character, but you can't see the face. And it reminded me of a movie that I saw when I was a very young kid. And I did
54:48
go on to watch it again to I was just like, "Oh, I remember thinking it was such a fun movie." And then I rewatched it and I didn't like it. But it's Tim
54:55
Conway and Don Knots in the movie Private Eyes. Have you ever heard of this movie? I've never seen that. No, I don't think
55:01
I've even heard of it. It's It's a very old kind of like cornball like screw ball dete like
55:08
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson kind of spoof and there's a mad bomber killer running around that is wearing the cloak
55:16
and it's it's it's cool but it's not great. You know when you when you hear
55:21
Tim Conway and Don Knots and Detectives that's that's checking so many boxes for
55:28
me and then I bought it on Amazon and rewatched it and I was like this is kind of stupid and like
55:34
um I will I'll be honest I'm a giant wuss. I get super scared. Like I love horror
55:40
movies, but they scare the crap out of me. I I get scared by everything. I can't even watch Simpsons Treehouse of
55:46
Horrors without being terrified. I am a giant giant wuss. I can't watch anything
55:51
like that after, let's say, 5:00 p.m. If it is even threatening to get dark out, I can't watch it. I need to watch
55:58
something happy at night time. I like to watch all my horror stuff in the morning. That is just what my habit is
56:03
cuz I am a giant giant wuss. Um, but I remember when this movie came out, one
56:09
of the issues that I had with it was that I was expecting kind of a buddy
56:14
comedy, haha, silly, who done it sort of movie. And then I ended up getting
56:21
really scared from it. And I think a lot of that is the character design. A lot of it is the mystery. A lot of it is the
56:28
um again these could be real people who are just trying to preserve the integrity of their town or whatever the
56:35
heck they're doing. It almost felt this movie almost felt too real to me which is absurd. I sided with the cops and I
56:42
was terrified like a little baby of people in cloaks. Like that's silly and I shouldn't be afraid of those things
56:48
and that's not how I feel in real life about either of those things. Um but I it's I don't know there there's
56:54
something very spooky about it. very spooky. Yeah. A a a cult cultish behavior.
57:00
That's why it reminded me of Hereditary and Midsummer. And it remind And then the town that's just everybody's out to
57:06
get you reminded me not that I mean this came out far later like only last year, but Ballerina reminded me of this
57:14
because that's a a plot point of that film. So it is something that is
57:22
memorable for a viewer and that people insert into their films the way I write
57:28
it. But yes um and then it does go over the top at
57:34
the end intentionally like the the big shootout uh to a comedic degree. I love
57:42
it which is delightful. the woman on the bike with the two guns and all of the
57:48
all of the gags and even the explosions that you should have died but you
57:55
survive it and that's always so ridiculous in every action movie they explain it away and
58:02
well but also the gag the gag things with the explosions also because you
58:07
have the everybody's running out of the building because the bomb is about to explode and then it turns out that it's
58:13
Not
58:37
and so it doesn't explode. And so like and they're calling and they're like, "Oh yeah, it wasn't active." like um but
58:42
they all run and jump as if they do in every single action movie. So you get the setup for things like that and
58:47
that's why it becomes funny in the end. I think that if you didn't have the setup for things like that where okay
58:52
this is a gag, this is why it's funny, then I would have gotten very very annoyed by it. But instead I'm just
58:58
having a super fun time watching it. Yeah. And one of my favorite jokes in
59:04
the movie that happens during the big shootout is when the priest comes out and they have a tense conversation
59:12
before they have the shootout which reminded me of Cheich and Grind or uh and Machete. Uh another you reference to
59:20
Robert Rodriguez or actually I think that's Robert Rodriguez ripping off Edgar because this came out before that.
59:28
Yeah. But I it's a it's a common trope. But my favorite part is when the priest gets shot and he collapses and yell he
59:34
yells Jesus Christ when he gets shot. Jesus Christ.
59:40
I just thought that was so funny. And and then you you're just getting John
59:45
Woo reference after Michael Bay reference and all the absurd things and
59:51
all of the So I have some vague recollection. I might be wrong about this. Um, I'm sure
59:58
that people will correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I have some vague recollection that um, I read in some
1:00:04
interview or heard in some interview that when Edgar Wright and Simon Peg were writing this that they decided that
1:00:10
they were going to go through a list of um, I think it was Eert Eert had written
1:00:15
a list of all of the tropes in action movies and they went through that list and they
1:00:21
said we are going to include every single one of these things. And so it's even things like having like the darkly
1:00:27
lit, the dimly lit hotel room scene. Even things like that were like included in this um Eert list of of what action
1:00:37
tropes are. And so they included those things. And because of that, we got
1:00:43
those beautiful hotel room scenes or I guess whatever uh when he's when he's trying to get the
1:00:50
place to stay and and the the uh attendant is saying fascist because
1:00:56
she's working on a uh on a cross word puzzle and then he says hag because he's trying to help her with the crossword
1:01:03
puzzle. But really, we all know that they're just calling each other those things. Yeah. And they call it's get called back
1:01:10
in the shootout at the end. Yeah, that's awesome. And it does we do get
1:01:15
the seed planted for Baby Driver again. Often we haven't Shaun of the Dead
1:01:21
doesn't have an action-packed car chase. Fistful of Fingers doesn't, but this is where that seed gets planted that will
1:01:29
go on to be the roots for Baby Driver. the same way that the opening sequence
1:01:35
of Shauna of the Dead, what you were talking about with how music is important to Edgar and how he
1:01:43
uses it in this, how he uses it in Scott Pilgrim, how he uses it in Baby Driver.
1:01:49
So, um, these all these seeds get planted and they bloom into these other
1:01:54
bigger, better productions as his career evolves. So, and I I like I always pay
1:02:01
attention to music and films, but I also I don't think I think that you know what
1:02:07
I never thought about this before. I think that Edgar Wright ran walked um so that James Gunn could run when it
1:02:14
came to music. I think that I think that um James Gunn was probably more heavily inspired by
1:02:22
Edgar Wright than he was by people like Wes Anderson, who also uses music very, very well. But um I I am I've never
1:02:30
thought about this ever before. I I think that James Gunn must have been very heavily inspired by the use of of
1:02:37
pop songs um of popular songs within
1:02:43
movies like this. Sure. And but we all know that Tarantino takes his soundtracks very seriously. I
1:02:50
think it it's creative types worse are I'm not saying that one is I'm not
1:02:55
saying who's are better or worse. I'm just saying that because I know that James Gun is brought up through trauma
1:03:03
and I I want to talk offline about the new Toxic Avenger movie, but uh I know
1:03:09
that just directors wish they were rock stars, the
1:03:15
way comedians wish they were rock stars and rock stars wish they were comedians and movie directors. And I think it's
1:03:20
Oh, I thought you were going to say I thought you were going to say something very different about rock stars.
1:03:26
What were we? What did you think I was gonna say? Say, "And rock stars wish they were dead." And
1:03:32
and then I was like, "Oh my god, Andy, that's very dark." Yeah. I I just think they all are
1:03:38
enjoying the same types of media. And I I I wouldn't be surprised if James Gunn
1:03:46
was an Edgar Wright fan, but I do think that they were both growing up just
1:03:51
taking inspiration from the music that they liked and inserting it into their films that, you know, as much as they
1:03:58
can, but I do want to talk about the Kaiju fight scene with Timothy Dalton at the
1:04:06
end. It is amazing. It does one more reference to Godzilla, one more
1:04:14
uh reference to you whatever the the whole Japanese culture and that whole sequence
1:04:23
leading to an even arguably more graphic kill. Not, he
1:04:30
doesn't even die, but it's just so uncomfortable to watch when Timothy
1:04:36
Dalton collapses on the spire of the another another uh church spire uh
1:04:42
violent.
1:04:54
You know, the one guy gets his head crushed by one and then Timothy Dalton gets it through the chin and out his
1:05:00
mouth and everybody that sees that remembers that. There's you can't you
1:05:06
can't watch that and it not imprint on your memory the way that the
1:05:13
sequence in Shaun of the Dead with Queen and where to the again to even more Baby
1:05:19
Driver music stuff when they're beating up the zombie to having a good time. Uh
1:05:24
everybody remembers that. So that also happens in one of the Omen movies. I can't remember which but um a
1:05:31
similar concept happens in one of the Omen movies. And again, I think that's that that's that reference that we love
1:05:37
so much. You know, they they kill people to Queen in that in the Omen. Yeah, of course. Yes.
1:05:43
Yeah. And one of the other things that I want
1:05:48
to bring up that is similar to Shawn, which I think is more impactful in Shawn
1:05:54
uh that I didn't mention at the top of the show, but I think is done in a less successful way in Hot
1:06:03
Fuzz is the per the parent child
1:06:10
um fight the conflict or not not even confict And Sean, it's Shawn having to
1:06:15
kill his mom. And we talked about how dark that is and that people don't even
1:06:21
realize how that impacts them. After the movie is done and over, you remember the
1:06:27
zombie getting beat up to Queen. You remember the where they're walking through the the lot and imitating the
1:06:33
zombies. What you don't remember is how [ __ ] dark that is. And they try and
1:06:39
do that again with Danny and his dad when it comes out that the chief of police is Danny's father. I mean, you
1:06:45
know that, but he's part of the the cult that is killing everybody
1:06:51
and Danny has to confront his father and that leads to the point break reference
1:06:56
with the shooting in the air and it's and it's son fighting father or you know
1:07:02
dealing with uh your your parent child relationship in a serious way and it
1:07:08
does it does that in both films in a different way but I think it's just more impactful in Shawn on.
1:07:14
I think that I think you've completely hit the nail on the head here and I never thought about this before, but I
1:07:22
think that the failure and hot fuzz when it comes to that is that even though you are aware that Danny's father is the
1:07:30
police chief, there's almost no reference to it. Like they don't seem to have a loving relationship. Yeah. um at
1:07:36
the at the start of the movie and during this rewatch that I did, I had actually forgotten that they were father son. And
1:07:44
then as I'm watching, I wasn't thinking about it. Maybe I just wasn't paying
1:07:49
100% attention. I didn't realize until it was probably 45 minutes, maybe an hour into the movie that they were
1:07:55
father-son. So I didn't realize that they were father-son until just before they had that confrontation. So perhaps
1:08:02
the reason it doesn't feel as impactful is because their relationship was maybe a little bit more dry, a little bit more
1:08:07
stale, and therefore you're not even thinking about them as father-son. Yeah. It's a little more innocuous and
1:08:13
Yeah. Um and therefore a little less impactful. Yeah. Yeah.
1:08:19
But also just the same blueprint as Sean. And
1:08:26
I It's still done well. And like I I forgot to bring it up. You were talking about the the motives of the the NWA and
1:08:35
the indoctrination of like Danny being just kind of this is the way it is and I
1:08:40
didn't even realize anything was wrong because this is how it's always been and accidents happen, right? People aren't
1:08:47
getting murdered. It's just uh you know unfortunate events. But um yeah, it's
1:08:53
it's another theme of the film that is
1:09:00
there a lot of subtext that when you watch with a critical eye, you start to pick up on these things. It's and it
1:09:05
what it's what makes it worth rewatching. Like if you're watching this review because you just wanted to hear
1:09:11
our thoughts on it, you should go rewatch Hot Fuzz if you haven't seen it in a minute and pay pay a little more
1:09:16
attention to all the thought and care that Edgar and Simon put into writing
1:09:21
this because there is so much passion. There's so much passion and thought and
1:09:28
fandom of action movies and just the the
1:09:33
talent and and love of cinema that they pour into these movies, which is why I
1:09:39
wanted to do this and why I'm glad that you wanted to come on and talk about Hot Fuzz.
1:09:45
Oh my god, you could not have stopped me. Do you have Oh god. Do you have a final
1:09:52
thoughts about Hot Fuzz? Well, we missed one of the best things that we have to go back and talk about. Please.
1:09:58
The fence jumping. Oh, you're right. Yes, we we we touched on it. We touched on it, but I want to talk
1:10:04
about it more. I have to tell you, there is something so genius about an Edgar Wright and Simon Peg fence jumping
1:10:11
scene. Every single time I cackle I cackle at it, it's I know exactly what's
1:10:18
going to happen. Simon Peg is going to jump the fence with his legs kind of sideways, which is already a goofy
1:10:23
looking thing. What's the matter, Danny? You never taken a shortcut before.
1:10:39
He does this weird like he's like pole vaultting over the fences and it's so funny and I love it so much. And then I
1:10:45
know that somebody's going to bust through the fence.
1:10:57
And I know that that's what's going to happen. I still every single time somehow the comedic timing is always
1:11:03
just different enough in every single one of these movies that I I I like
1:11:10
drives me insane. I I think it's just the best. I just I think that that's so it's so notable to be able to use the
1:11:17
same gag again and again and have it be successful every time. Yeah. And how do you do that?
1:11:24
I don't know. But it's because you're a brilliant comedic mind and a brilliant writer. And this really is the one that
1:11:32
you could tell the budget's there. It's firing on all cylinders. It has all the tropes. It has the the violent gags. It
1:11:39
has the car chases. It has the music and the and the rhythmicos,
1:11:46
the cameos, the cornetto, the fence. It's just it has everything that will go
1:11:51
on to be the recipe for success that is almost every other Edgar Wright like
1:11:58
what you come to expect from Edgar Wright. And um yeah, this is one this one is one
1:12:04
of the one of the greats easily. And when I first conceived of doing this and
1:12:10
every single option of picking whatever movie that you want was on the table and
1:12:16
you were the first person that I asked, I said, "You have your pick of the litter. What do you want to talk about?"
1:12:21
You picked this because it's great. I did. I did. I love this movie and it's
1:12:27
a fun one to talk about. It is. Yeah. You know, I I love so many of Edgar Wright's movies for at varying levels
1:12:34
and for various reasons. I love so many of them. This to me, again, this is kind
1:12:40
of the cream of the crop. This is the height of his career for me. This is the movie that is both so succinct and so
1:12:49
funny and so long- winded and so it's it's almost a contradiction in and of itself. And again, it's this it's this
1:12:56
buddy cop kaiju horror, you know, it's just an
1:13:03
amalgamation of everything that is good in the world that is exciting in the world. Comedy. I didn't even say comedy
1:13:10
in there. It's it's all of those things in one. And boy, does that make it something
1:13:16
special, right? And it's because of the brilliance of the writing. We were talking a little bit about how
1:13:22
a lot of movies try and be Shaun of the Dead and they fail miserably because the writing isn't there.
1:13:29
So that and that's another key to success just the brilliant writing, the
1:13:35
brilliant comedy. And um that's why this is I'd rather watch this than Bad Boys
1:13:40
2. I'd rather watch this than just about any other action movie that's not point break. So
1:13:47
I I want I like to end the episodes by and
1:13:55
I know that you're not you're kind of a some go into movies cold kind of person. So you might it's okay to say that
1:14:02
you're but you might know about the referential material. What are your thoughts on the quickly approaching
1:14:08
Running Man that is going to be released on November 14th? So you are exactly correct. I know
1:14:16
nothing. Um I know absolutely nothing about what's happening. The only reason that I'm even aware that it's happening
1:14:22
is because you mentioned to me that it was happening. Um I will say that I am excited.
1:14:29
Well, let's talk about Have you seen the Schwarzenegger movie? Yes. Okay. Yes, I have. So,
1:14:35
what are your thoughts about that? Do you like it? I like it. It's fine. It's It's not It
1:14:40
doesn't stand out in my memory in any way. So again, I kind of have this memory when it comes to movies where I'm like
1:14:45
unless I really hated it or I really loved it, I don't have a ton of memories about it. Sure.
1:14:50
Um, so that's a movie that I saw over 10 years ago and I could not tell you
1:14:56
anything about it right now, which means it's someplace in the middle gray area for me. That's okay because I feel like
1:15:02
the new adaptation of it is going to be more
1:15:08
uh centric to the novel, the Stephen King, Richard Bachmann Yeah. uh version of the plot. So, I I even
1:15:18
don't know what to expect from this, but I don't want to talk since you don't
1:15:24
really know anything about it. And I think that maybe once it comes out, my intention is to have a lot of people
1:15:29
that participated in this series hopefully have a chance to see it and
1:15:34
then give me some thoughts about it once that comes out because this is all being released in culmination to the running
1:15:43
man premiering and we'll conclude with a conversation about the running man. So if you do have a chance to see it then
1:15:50
of course you will be invited back to talk about that. I would love that and I will be personally offended if you don't
1:15:56
invite me to see it with you. So, just keep that in mind. I know you don't like going to the theater, but
1:16:01
I'm getting a running man popcorn bucket and I'm going to eat out of it
1:16:06
out of Glen Powell's head. Yeah, that' be the best thing that you're going to make out with your popcorn bucket.
1:16:11
Oh, no. Like like you did with your like you did with your dune bucket.
1:16:17
I don't know what you're talking about. I would never do something like that. I know that the dune bucket looks like a popcornware. Yeah, I'm aware of the dune
1:16:24
bucket. Please, are you kidding me? I tried to spend a lot of money on getting one. It was the first time I ever cared about a pop It was the first time
1:16:30
anybody ever cared about a popcorn bucket. Come on. I've gone through three. I've I've filled up three already.
1:16:38
Kaylee, thank you so much for joining me here. Do you would you like to plug the plugs that you like to plug at this
1:16:44
point? I would like to plug the Dune popcorn bucket. Um, no. I uh you can find me on
1:16:50
Onceover with Kaylee C A Y L E Y on YouTube, on Patreon. You can also catch
1:16:56
me every Thursday night on the Shulie Network where we talk about lots of
1:17:01
weird stuff. Uh it's super fun and sometimes on Who Are These Podcasts? And um as frequently as I can, I love
1:17:08
working with Andy. I'm going to have him back over on Once Over with Kaylee pretty soon. We're going to be talking about some SNL movies. I'm going to
1:17:14
leave it up in the air which one we're talking about, but let me tell you, it's a good one. Yes. And the edge
1:17:20
files. Let's not forget that we do the edge files together. So plug. No, you
1:17:26
have so much going on there. You have too many plugs. But I I love them all. So thank you for joining me here. And if
1:17:33
you are thinking about missing next week's episode of All the Right Moves,
1:17:39
don't don't don't don't