First, a quick question; did you see and enjoy Shaun of the Dead? If the answer is yes, then you can quite happily skip the rest of the review and go out and buy some tickets if you are in the UK, or book advanced ones in the US. You will love Hot Fuzz and possibly have to contain dangerously close to splitting sides. The plot and context may not be the same but the humour is awfully similar. If, however, the answer is no, then read on.

Simon Pegg is Nicholas Angel, a lean, mean, crime-fighting machine. He lives and breaths ‘the Force’, his hobbies are even all geared to the end of pushing him to the very limits and perfecting his physical and mental powers. Of course, this less than impresses his girlfriend (Cate Blanchett), who comes a distant third in his life behind his Japanese peace lily (yes, it does get used for violent purposes later on in the movie). She makes a brief appearance which signals the early death of romantic cliché in the film. It is less than inspiring to his colleagues and superiors too, his 400% arrest record putting the whole of the Met to shame. They conspire to transfer him to sleepy Sandford as a desk Sergeant.

Leaving London’s bright lights behind, Angel sinks further and further into despair as his mobile signal slowly fades. Upon arrival in Sandford he immediately makes an impression, arresting a cabal of underage drinkers and unwittingly arresting his soon-to-be-partner, PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), for drinking and driving. His first day at work sees Angel bear the brunt of local hostility from the motley crew that are now his new colleagues. After some ‘routine’ rural police work, swan-chasing and rounding up some unlicensed firearms, a ‘collision’ that decapitates a local thespian and his mistress soon leads Angel to suspect that there is a lot more to Sandford than meets the eye.

Sandford is a giant rural stereotype. Its welcome sign proclaims that "everybody cares" but just in case, everybody carries guns. Everybody speaks funny and rolls their Rs horribly. A night out always starts at your front door and ends down the local pub. Its inhabitants are similarly stereotypical, we have the local loose woman, PC Doris Thatcher (Olivia Colman), the shady businessman, Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton), the genial reverend Philip Shooter (Paul Freeman) and so on and so on.