Going Off the Parody Rails
There are a lot of ways for movie parodies to go wrong. Not funny enough, not on-target enough, not creative enough, not enough story to last for 90 minutes, the characters aren't real so we get bored of them fast. Or, sometimes, the whole thing just feels like it's trying too hard.
This is not a post about those things. This is a very specific qualm with Hot Fuzz.
I really liked Hot Fuzz. Its pedigree was amazing-- the creators of Shaun of the Dead, taking on cop/action flicks? How could that not be fun?
And it is fun. Except when the movie overstays its welcome and forgets its genre.
Now, I know some of you are starting to think I'm a bit of a fuddy-duddy. "Anything longer than 100 minutes is just too darn long! I missed Jeopardy! for this?!" Honest, if a movie earns its length, I'm totally there.
But Hot Fuzz is a fun, light, cop-movie parody with a 3rd act that is, I swear, 40 minutes long. There's a moment when our guys realize who's behind the deaths in the town, and then there's seriously about another 40 minutes of action. It's action with gags, and a few cute moments of redemption, but ultimately it lasts wayyyy longer than necessary.
The real, deep-down problem is, a parody can't be so in love with the thing it's parodying that it stops being a parody and turns into homage. It just doesn't work.
Why? 'Cause I came to laugh. I did not go see Hot Fuzz for car-chase action.
Imagine if Airplane! had ended with 40 minutes of high-stakes disaster-movie moments, with some gags thrown in.
Enough said?
This is not a post about those things. This is a very specific qualm with Hot Fuzz.
I really liked Hot Fuzz. Its pedigree was amazing-- the creators of Shaun of the Dead, taking on cop/action flicks? How could that not be fun?
And it is fun. Except when the movie overstays its welcome and forgets its genre.
Now, I know some of you are starting to think I'm a bit of a fuddy-duddy. "Anything longer than 100 minutes is just too darn long! I missed Jeopardy! for this?!" Honest, if a movie earns its length, I'm totally there.
But Hot Fuzz is a fun, light, cop-movie parody with a 3rd act that is, I swear, 40 minutes long. There's a moment when our guys realize who's behind the deaths in the town, and then there's seriously about another 40 minutes of action. It's action with gags, and a few cute moments of redemption, but ultimately it lasts wayyyy longer than necessary.
The real, deep-down problem is, a parody can't be so in love with the thing it's parodying that it stops being a parody and turns into homage. It just doesn't work.
Why? 'Cause I came to laugh. I did not go see Hot Fuzz for car-chase action.
Imagine if Airplane! had ended with 40 minutes of high-stakes disaster-movie moments, with some gags thrown in.
Enough said?
Labels: convention, genre, parody
posted by Jennica at 2:54 p.m.
4 Comments:
That's the style they're going for, though. "Shaun" does exactly the same thing. Yeah, there are laughs in the final third, but there are some really wrenching zombie moments too (the gun-pointing scene with Shaun's Mom, for example.) Both films slip into homage in the final third, but "Shaun" worked better than the "HF" (no argument there.) Where did HF's homage go off the rails when the zombie one worked? I'll have to see "HF" again...
To be fair, the first 40 minutes of Hot Fuzz would also feel out-of-place in Airplane, so I don't think I'd count it as the same genre. I think it establishes early on that it's straddling the line between parody and homage.
People may have been over-praising these guys because parody movies lately have been more like Scary Movie than Airplane.
Wow! Quick on the draw, we are!
Look, I just throw shit out there and see what sticks, you know?
Admittedly, Shaun & Fuzz are a different take on parody. I'm not even sure what to compare them to. They're definitely straddling the parody/homage line. I guess, for me, Fuzz crossed the line when it decided the actual action (much too long) was more important than the laughs/the characters. Maybe it all comes down to balance-- which Shaun negotiated well.
I've heard other people cite that the strength of Hot Fuzz and Shaun is that they love and understand the genre, so it just surprised me to hear a criticism that they take that too far.
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