April 19, 2007 - Hot Fuzz, the new flick from Shaun of the Dead team Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, hits theaters this weekend. As most of you already know, it's a British-style police action-comedy -- a hilarious riff on the buddy cop movie.

genre to which it pays homage. Here's our Top 10 Buddy Cop Movies..

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Okay, so there were lots of other movies we could have stuck in the number 10 spot. In fact, there were several films that barely missed making our list that are far superior to Collision Course.

(Alien Nation, anyone?) But Pat Morita deserves special recognition merely for existing! What the heck is this movie?

Well, it's a 1989 action-comedy that teams Morita's Tokyo-based cop with Leno's Detroit policeman on a mission to recover a Japanese turbocharger. They were doing the culture clash buddy cop thing before it was cool. Sure, it's horrendous, but there's a thin line between love and hate.

And we love It's 1988. You're Tom Hanks. You just became a huge star after Big, a smash hit.

You're positioned to take Hollywood by storm. What do you do? You follow up with a buddy cop comedy that pairs you with a crime-solving dog.

It's box office gold, right? Yes, Turner Hooch is unequivocally the best buddy cop-dog movie ever made. (Meaning that it's leaps and bounds better than Jim Belushi's K-9.

) And who didn't cry at the end? Seriously. Tears.

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In our humble opinion, the scruffy cop/smooth cop subgenre trumps the buddy cop-dog subgenre every time.

That's why Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell's 1989 action-comedy Tango Cash slides in at number 8. The film sees the two thesps starring as successful L.A.

narcotics cops who can't stand each other because of their different styles. Stallone's Tango has it all together, while Russell's Cash is a messy bachelor. But, you guessed it, the pair must overcome their differences to bring down crimelord Yves Perret.

Bonus: Perret is played by Jack Palance.
7. In the Heat of the Night
They call him Mister Tibbs!

You might not immediately think of In the Heat of the Night as a buddy cop movie, but it's just that. Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger star in this 1967 classic based on the John Ball novel. Philadelphia, Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), who is mistakenly apprehended by Sparta, and showing his prejudice does Gillespie realize his error and free the man.

Tibbs wants nothing more than to leave town, but an influential citizen becomes investigation. And would you believe that the two men actually come to respect each other as they're forced to work together to solve the crime? Buddy cop racial reconciliation!

Without this would we even have 48 Hrs., Lethal Weapon or..

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