If "Lethal Weapon" taught us anything, it's that there's never a more appropriate time to toss off a witty aside than when things are about to get hairy.
If "Point Break" taught us anything, it's that, hey, sometimes friendship is more important than firepower.
And if "Hot Fuzz" will teach us anything, it's that there's a lot to be learned from "Lethal Weapon" and "Point Break.
"
"I've always been a big fan of cop movies," said "Hot Fuzz" director Edgar Wright, speaking from the San Francisco Ritz- Carlton while on tour to promote his movie. "I find them fascinating."
Fitting, then, that movies like the Gibson-Glover, Reeves-Swayze vehicles are the bulletproof template for "Hot Fuzz" -- smell-a-rat plot, impossible gunfights, wisecracking partners and all.
It's 100 percent pure adrenaline!
It's the second collaboration for Wright, Pegg and Frost, whose 2004 cult hit "Shaun of the Dead" gave us not only a slice of satirical gold, but a new genre in the form of the Rom-Zom-Com. Which everyone knows is shorthand for Romantic Zombie Comedy.
Wright and Pegg came up with the idea for their new movie based entirely on the joke that British cops very rarely carry guns, and would certainly not fire a semiautomatic weapon into a room full of scofflaws whilst the force of their gunfire causes their fabulous mullets to blow in the breeze just so.
Wouldn't it be funny, they surmised, if these two British cops went all crazy like Swayze?
Little hand says it's time to rock 'n' roll!
"(Cop movies) are like an alien prospect," Wright said. "Doing a British cop film is a genre that just doesn't fit."
Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the best cop in London.
So good, in fact, that he's making his fellow officers look bad. So what's in store for this dour-faced sergeant-at-arms? Promotion?
Park bench dedication? Office cake?
Nope.
Angel gets shunted off to sleepy little Sandford, the safest town in England.
Life sure has a sick sense of humor, doesn't it?!
But things in Sandford may not be as sleepy as they seem. There are nefarious things afoot. Angel is sure of it.
And with the more-hindrance-than-help help of bumbling partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), he's determined to figure it out.
It's peace through superior firepower!
Unlike the mean, lean enforcers of the law portrayed in the movie, the local British bobby is really more of a headmaster figure, said Pegg.
"They might know your parents," he explained as being the officer's most crime-crushing threat. "And for young people, that's probably worse than custodial punishment."
Though the genre of excess and the big-budget blow-ups were new to the two writers, they said the pressure of a "Shaun" follow-up didn't plague them.
"It's pressure, but it's good pressure," Wright said. "I don't think anyone's ever sat back on their laurels and said 'Oh, we did one good film. That's us, then.
' "
As writers, the two reveled in being able to get away with what they call "popcorn logic." It's that last 30 minutes of any action movie worth its spit when "that notion of probability, continuity and possibility start going out the window and things get stitched together with an altogether flimsier logic," said Pegg. "It's never having to reload your gun, or the fact that you can fly off a thousand rounds at each other and never hit home.
"
Because we are going to get bloody on this one, Rog!
And with a hit movie already under their belts, the two were able to cast a who's-who of British stars to fill out Sandford's ranks, with a roster of such venerable thespians as Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent and Paddy Considine.
"It was good to have sort of a calling card," Pegg said.
"(Otherwise) they would quite rightly be like 'Who the hell are they?' Being the guys who did 'Shaun of the Dead' was a way in for us."
Because fear causes hesitation and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true!
In the end, the three would like their film to have the same effect on people as the other seminal films of our time did on them.
"When I came out of watching 'Rocky' as a kid, I punched my brother in the gut," said Frost.
"When I saw 'Superman,' I wanted to take off," added Pegg.
"After 'Silence of the Lambs,' I wanted to make a suit out of people's skin," Wright offered.
Remarks like that are not going to get you invited to Christmas dinner!
But they might be willing to settle for moviegoers letting friendship win out over firepower in their lives forever more.
It is, after all, what Keanu would do.
Enough of a cop-flick junkie to get the quotes? If not, here's the key, in order of appearance.
Read it. Love it. Own it.
Roach, "Point Break"
Martin Riggs, "Lethal Weapon"
Bohdi, "Point Break"
- The Bee's Lisa Heyamoto can be reached at or (916) 321-1261.
The parody references many Hollywood action flicks.
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