HOT FUZZ: The Post Mortem, Let's pick some nits Options

[monkeyman]

NOTE FROM CHAPMAN BAXTER: Following a suggestion made by Dax Trajero, we have decided to create a central thread for detailed critical discussion of Hot Fuzz - tell us what in particular you thought worked about it and what you thought didn't. I've started off the thread with posts taken from a couple of other threads.

I found the humour and plot (holes aside) to be brilliant. A lot of Self referencing, a lot of blatant comedy and some casual asides (the SPit roast reference had me laughing very loud all on my own in the cinema).

However, the editing of many of the action scenes annoyed the hell out of me, the cuts were too quite and/or too zoomed in and there was far too much shakey cam. It made (for me at least) a lot of the scenes lose their punch and awesomeness as it became such a mess trying to see what was going on.

Was still great though.

This post has been edited by Chapman Baxter: Feb 22 2007, 08:09 PM

[dandan]

However, the editing of many of the action scenes annoyed the hell out of me, the cuts were too quite and/or too zoomed in and there was far too much shakey cam. It made (for me at least) a lot of the scenes lose their punch and awesomeness as it became such a mess trying to see what was going on.

shakey camera, fast edits, lots of sweeping pans: the last refuge for people who cannot choreograph or edit action sequences and want to disguise the fact. it didn't quite reach the point where it pissed me off, as it was expected, but i know exactly where you're coming from.

as for the spit roast joke, i think that seemed to go over a lot of people's heads when i saw it too. still, it made me chuckle...

[maian]

as for the spit roast joke, i think that seemed to go over a lot of people's heads when i saw it too. still, it made me chuckle...

I didn't get that at all. It now seems really obvious, but at the time I was working along the lines of ''pig, pork, pig?''

[Dorf]

However, the editing of many of the action scenes annoyed the hell out of me, the cuts were too quite and/or too zoomed in and there was far too much shakey cam. It made (for me at least) a lot of the scenes lose their punch and awesomeness as it became such a mess trying to see what was going on.

That got me a little to, I remember in one fight/tooling up sequence wondering if there should have been an epilepsy warning because there were so many cuts and close-ups (although had put it down to being too close to the screen until you now mentioned it to). It could have been a deliberate homage to other action films which do the same kind of thing, or as dandan says perhaps they just felt it necessary as none of them are really action specialists.

[monkeyman]

Ah well Im glad it wasnt just me being weird and there are others who felt that the cuts were a bit fast in places.
I imagine it won't be as bad watching it on DVD but in the cinema it was fairly difficult to follow everything that was going on.

[sleeping_pirate]

I was thinking just how fantastic the editing was, I loved the whole look of the film. I honestly can't find a bad point about the whole film, I was completely blown away by it. So much so that I'm seeing it again tomorrow!

[enemysprout]

Damn it! This is a film with 5 star moments but over edited to the point of exhaustion. SOTD felt like a film that could have fit a little more in but this is a film that needed to slow it down. Anyone with any inclination to see this should, but it's flawed. The characters need room to breathe and they just don't get it. That said, I don't laugh a lot at cinema, and that alone could earn this that extra star. ...

This post has been edited by enemysprout: Feb 18 2007, 02:47 AM

[Wife Of Rolex]

Apparently, in more than one venue, people have been seen walking out. What's that about? When I saw it last week there were people still coming in half and hour into the film.

There seems to be an ever increasing divide of opinion on Hot Fuzz - and a fairly stark one too. It's only been out 5 days! Well, better to be fought about than forgotten.

I'll be seeing it yet again at some point this week, particularly to get a proper look at Bill's book (there's a double meaning with it which I've just read about and it's bloody clever). Though, I think I'll have to take something to protect my ears from now on (not just for Hot Fuzz, but any time I go to the cinema now. My local's sound system is ear busting). They're still feeling the effects from last wednesday.


Wife Of Rolex

[Ghost_862]

Just returned from my first viewing. Sometimes the editing seemed a little gratuitous and there were times when I felt like I was missing cool stuff because the editing was so choppy. I felt rather disoriented at times.

That said, overall I loved it Will go see it again tomorrow, I imagine.

[Dax Trajero]

Apparently, in more than one venue, people have been seen walking out.    What's that about?

I suppose its the gore scenes - I know the people I took along were taken aback by it. On the ride home they told me they weren't expecting such gratuitous scenes based on what the trailer had portrayed. The went expecting one type of movie but got something slightly different. In these days were everyone is seemingly de-sensitised to all the violence around, there's still people who reel in horror at some of it, judging by my friend's reactions.

I'd have to agree with Ghost about the editing - it felt a little overdone, along with the shakey-cam during the fight sequences. I'm sure there's a better way to describe this, but I found my mind being jarred from the fantasty world of hot fuzz, back into reality - the flow started to stutter with each camera shot changing so rapidly. I found myself consciously aware of each change of shot, instead of being soaked up in the action.

I bloody love Edgar's work, I really do, but something felt amiss during these fight sequences - one that springs to mind is the fight scene in Nicholas Angel's b&b room.

At this point, I'd like to just re-affirm I LOVED THE MOVIE !!! The pro's far out-weighed the con's. Edgar's a genius and if I remember, HE even doffed his cap to successful action screne director's during one of the blogs I think.

This post has been edited by Dax Trajero: Feb 18 2007, 07:55 PM

[melzilla]

Damn it! This is a film with 5 star moments but over edited to the point of exhaustion. SOTD felt like a film that could have fit a little more in but this is a film that needed to slow it down. Anyone with any inclination to see this should, but it's flawed. The characters need room to breathe and they just don't get it. That said, I don't laugh a lot at cinema, and that alone could earn this that extra star. ...

I understand what some people are saying about some of the editing and scenes being fast and disorientating, but don't people think that this reflects the genre being parodied here. I think the over-editing and super-speed of some scenes are exactly what is funny about (and typically found in) many a Hollywood action movie, reflecting the ridiculously "over the top" nature of this genre. Although it is deifinitely exaggerated a little for comedy effect, this shows the guys love for these movies and their attention to detail in order to make this a relentlessly "high-octane" action movie. The fact that its so fast moving completely draws you in..its impossible to take in every little cut or edit, but that doesn't matter, you're definitely along for the ride!

[curtinparloe]

I like the "over-editing", as parody/homage it works very well, disconcerting as it is. It's like the toilet sequence in Shaun writ large, and that's surely the point . In my dissertation I wrote that to succeed outside Hollywood, an action film needs to hyperbolise a particular facet. While British action films tend to be comedies,

..the action of a Hong Kong movie is extremely overstated, in keeping with the traditions of Hong Kong circus and martial arts, but played seriously it lends the preposterous a sense of truthfulness. This action in extremis helps to set it apart from its more moderate Hollywood counterpart:
“Any account of the Hong Kong action style must start with the sheer audacity of hundreds of stunts, all outlandish by Hollywood canons of plausibility…But this is not the whole story. Starting from astonishing movements of the body, filmmakers amplify them through the materials of cinema – movement, cutting, image composition, color[sic] and sound.”
(Bordwell, 2000, p220)

Hot Fuzz has done this with the editing rather than the comedy - it's certainly no spoof.

[melzilla]

*double high-fives curtinparloe in over-dramatic action movie manner*

[enemysprout]

The editing issue is a tricky one, as the parody element does of course mean that they are trying to make a point with the editing. But I think they over egged the pudding on this one.

If you take it just as a comedy, it's fantasticly funny, and in way that should be enough as it is, but as an action movie, I found my first viewing (and there will be many) didn't give me a chance to see what was going on. It was like, stop editing so I can watch the film.

And that's the whole issue for me, the script is ace, it's just a little too stylised visually (something that I sometimes found with Spaced).

To be honest though, I'm judging this by unfairly high standards, and I think more viewings may be very kind to it. i could end up eating my words.

[Jubei]

I can 100% see the problem that people have with the editing. 2 things annoyed me. The constant use of the hand on door know, open locker, pull out jacket, close locker, police siren type bits. It could have been done a bit less. Just cause it's a homage to general action movie styles doesn't necassarily make it improve the movie. The other thing I didn't like was the repeated mug-shot scenes. That also started to feel a bit over-used by the end of the film. However, I couldn't imagine walking out mid-way through. It was still a hilarious movie that was thoroughly enjoyable.