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I do think it's better than Shaun, possibly for the simple reason that Pegg and Frost are acting in this, and playing different characters to the laid-back Spacedesque characters they were playing last time.
Call me a pedantic old sausage, but I'd argue that Mike in Spaced and Ed in Shaun Of The Dead are pretty different characters. They're both on the portly side and have Essex accents, but that's about it. Ed's an uncouth layabout who likes beer and PS2 and Mike's an often highly motivated TA soldier who likes to get out of the house, preferably with guns and stuff.
The relationships between Shaun and Ed and between Tim and Mike are arguably similar, so I can understand the point, but still ... I won't have one of my favourite TV programmes misrepresented, dash it all!
There's more emotion in this one because they aren't playing laid-back people.
Without wishing to pick on you, I simply must protest! Hot Fuzz made me cry with laughter, I grant you, but SOTD actually had me all upset and lip-wobbly on at least two separate occasions - (SHAUN SPOILERS!) when Shaun's stepdad died and when Shaun killed his mum.
To be fair, though, I don't particularly remember getting upset or lip-wobbly when I first saw Shaun so maybe repeated viewings (many, many repeated viewings) have helped bring these emotional layers to the surface. I've only seen da Fuzz the once.
Buuuut ... I don't want to get all bogged down with comparing the two (although much of my post probably suggests the opposite, mwuh-huh-hah!), or at least not until I've given Hot Fuzz a few more cracks of the DVD whip. It's an absolutely cracking film, funny and clever from beginning to end, functioning well as both comedy and action movie.
I do find myself hoping, though, that the 'team' make good on a promise I recall Simon Pegg making in an interview recently that the next movie wouldn't be a pastiche/spoof/homage/whateveryouwanttocallit. Not because I'm tired of the motif, but because they've been there, done it and got a number of t-shirts (portly-XL for me, please). |
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