Blu-ray Movie Reviews

London police officer Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is too good for his own good. His arrest record is tops in the department, which makes everyone else look bad, so his supervisor arranges a promotion and he's transferred to Sanford, a small, quiet town in the country. The crime rate is very low, but something is amiss because there are so many fatal accidents, so Nicholas and his bumbling new partner Danny (Nick Frost) are on the case.

I generally lose interest in spoof films by the 20-minute mark, but this tale from Edgar Write and Simon Pegg is hilarious. Spoofing the buddy-cop films of the past 20 years, particularly Point Break and Bad Boys, the pair recreate many of the scenes from these memorable movies using the same camera angles and specific character movements. My only complaint is with the 2-hour runtime, which slows the pacing somewhat, but this is minor in the greater scheme of things.

Hot Fuzz has the distinction of being one of the best—if not the best—HD DVD ever released, and it is equally good on Blu-ray. The VC-1 encode excels in detail and color saturation, and it exhibits rock-solid black levels. Edge enhancement never rears its ugly head, and interior and exterior shots are both jaw-dropping in their clarity.

From the opening scene, prepare your audio senses for a frontal assault that rarely lets up throughout the film. Given the genre it's spoofing, would you expect anything else? Imaging is excellent throughout, with every speaker getting an intense workout—especially the subwoofer. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack exhibits first-rate dynamics, intelligible dialog (with heavy British accents), and superior frequency response.

The disc includes five separate feature-length commentaries that include many of the cast, the creators, and even one with Quentin Tarantino. U-Control interactive supplements include a "Fuzz-O-Meter" trivia track and "Storyboards," which shows how scenes make it from paper to screen. Other traditional bonus features include outtakes, deleted scenes, eight behind-the-scenes featurettes, a closer look at the special effects, 22 video blogs, and a making-of feature—all in standard-definition.

Like the HD DVD before it, this is a fantastic disc when you take everything into account. The movie is a lot of fun, the supplements will keep fans busy for many hours (or days), and the presentation is perfect. Highly recommended.

Release Date: September 22, 2009
Studio: Universal

Movie: 8/10
Picture: 10/10
Sound: 10/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics