Edgar Wright directs Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Timothy Dalton in this buddy cop action comedy spoof where a by-the-book supercop is sent to a quiet rural village with a deadly secret.

Does for Lethal Weapon what Shaun of the Dead did for Dawn of the Dead. But you already know that! Just a barrage of relentless jokes for the first hour. Some very smart, some very silly. Embraces the Airplane / Naked Gun philosophy that the more straight faced the traditional actors play their part the better the hyped up parody works. Now the movie gets a little lost in the woods for twenty trudging minutes when Wright spends just a little too long unravelling the conspiracy. He does at least do this in what is traditionally seen as the downtime in a feature length comedy. No matter how good the joke there’s a point around an hour where the audience needs to catch their breath. So its a relief that when the big action finale erupts, it isn’t only a slam bang homage to John Woo, Michael Bay and Tony Scott but it has some of the most exquisite and patient callbacks ever achieved on celluloid. I’m not fanatical about Pegg and Frost’s schtick but this certainly is their crowning achievement, the peak of an enviable comedy run.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/