Hot Fuzz was one of my favorite if not my most favorite release on the late and lamented HD DVD format. Besides being a hilarious film, it featured excellent video and audio presentations. It was one of the films that I looked forward to seeing on Blu-ray to see if the increased storage capacity and higher bit rate of Blu-ray could improve on the already outstanding audio and video presentations on the HD DVD. Well, Hot Fuzz is finally making its debut on Blu-ray and I was anxious to put the disc through its paces. Was it worth the wait? Yes indeed it was.

Film

Hot Fuzz is an over the top and at times absolutely hilarious homage to the buddy cop film film genre such as Bad Boys and Point Break, both of which are featured in the film. It is brought to you by the same duo that brought us the spectacularly funny send off on the zombie movie genre, Shawn of the Dead.

Hot Fuzz stars Simon Pegg (the co-screen writer along with director Edgar Wright) as Nicholas Angel, an aggressive Metropolitan police officer in London who is transferred to Sandford, a small apparently bucolic town south of London which has repeatedly won a prestigious town of the year award. Nicholas was promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Sandford as he was making his fellow officers and superiors on the force look bad due to his outstanding performance in comparison to theirs and it was thought that they could make all their lives easier by simply promoting him and transferring Nicholas out of town. To say that Sergeant Angel is meticulous in his attention to detail would be an understatement.

While not yet on his first day on duty in Sandford, he is already filling up the jail with juvenile delinquents, drunk drivers as well as clearing out the local pub of underaged drinkers. He soon befriends his partner, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost who also starred in Shawn of the Dead with Simon Pegg), who happens to be the son of the police commissioner in Sandford. However, a series of rather gruesome deaths occur shortly after Sergeant Angel’s arrival in town that Nicholas suspects were not accidental deaths but homicides, perpetrated by some of the most respected residents of the town.

If you are not familiar with the film, I really don’t want to spoil the film for you by giving away more of the plot. I will say however, that the action sequence that takes up the last 15 minutes of the film is one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in an action film and even after repeated screenings of the film, still has me howling out loud. In addition to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the film also stars Timothy Daulton and Jim Broadbent. The film also contains two uncredited cameos by Peter Jackson and Kate Blanchet. See if you can spot them!. Hot Fuzz is a fantastically funny film and as far as I am concerned, is a must own for any film fan. Very highly recommended.

Video

The HD DVD release of Hot Fuzz had incredible picture quality. After comparing the Blu-ray and HD DVD, I can state that both appeared equal to me in terms of video performance. The picture quality on this Blu-ray release is simply outstanding. The film features a very bright and detailed image with deep and rich blacks and incredible levels of detail and clarity. I don’t think I have seen a film on either Blu-ray or HD DVD that exceeds the level of clarity on this release. The film delivers a truly three dimensional looking image with great depth. Color reproduction is outstanding, with bright and bold primary colors, spot on fleshtones and in particular, beautifully rendered shades of green. I also really loved the way the cinematographer captured sunlight in this film. Simply outstanding. I am sure that there may be a spot here and there that I could quibble with about this encode, but those quibbles would be truly minor and result in nothing but excessive nitpicking on my part as the image rendered on this release is truly outstanding and fully worthy of a full 5 star rating.

Audio

While the HD DVD release of the film featured an excellent audio track, it did feature a lossy Dolby Digital Plus track and not a lossless track such as Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio. I was always interested to see whether the inclusion of a lossless encode would further improve upon the already outstanding lossy track featured on the HD DVD. I can definitively state that the DTS HD Master Audio track included with the Blu-ray release does indeed improve on the outstanding lossy encode and takes the audio presentation to another level. If you liked the audio on the HD DVD release, you will LOVE the lossless encode included with the Blu-ray. The DTS HD Master Audio encode features over the top dynamics, with rich, full and powerful bass that really grabs your attention. The battle sequence at the end of the film is really an off the charts aural bombardment of sound.

The surrounds are used very aggressively and create a totally immersive and captivating sound field that is really a thrill to experience in the home. The dialogue track is also beautifully recorded and well placed in the mix, never getting drowned in the mix, no matter how loud the action in the film may get. The overall fidelity of the film’s audio track is outstanding as well with excellent transparency and imaging to boot and a great sense of depth both from side to side and front to back in your room. The placement of the sound effects within the sound field is perfect as well. In fact, the word that comes to mind first in describing the audio on this release is perfect. It is that good! This is one film that must be experience at reference audio levels.

Special Features

Hot Fuzz on Blu-ray is packed with many extras, many of which were included on the HD DVD release. The extras include many short deleted scenes with optional director’s commentary as well as several outtakes. Also included is a featurette The Fuzzball Rally: Uncut, which follows Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and writer and director Edgar Wright on their US press tour for the film.

Also included is a short featurette The Man Who Would Be Fuzz featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost performing their lines as Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

We also get a feature set entitled The Evidence Room featuring Conclusive: We Made Hot Fuzz, Speculative: Video Blogs taking you behind the scenes during the making of the film, Forensic: detailing the special effects used in the film and Hearsay with plot holes and comparisons to other films.

Also featured are five featured audio commentaries with various members of the cast and crew in various combination’s and Hot Funk, featuring a montage of clips using the “clean” dialogue from the TV and airline version of the film as well as Danny’s Notebook: The Other Side, trailers for the film, an easter egg video clip and additional video blogs consisting of iTunes podcasts and VW Blogs.

The release is BD-Live enabled and also features Universal’ U-Control where you can access the storyboard for the film while the film is playing as well as the Fuzz-O-Meter which enables you to access a special trivia track for a running recount of little known facts about the film and the cast. There is a ton of stuff included here to keep fans of the film occupied for a couple of hours at least.

Final Thoughts

Hot Fuzz is one great and enjoyable film and features reference level audio and video presentations. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that I highly recommend this release.