The Shaun Of The Dead team reconvene in another exercise in fan boy genre pastiche. And they seem to have recruited most of the working actors in Britain along the way.

But who can blame the likes of Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine, Edward Woodward, Billie Whitelaw and Anne Reid (last seen grappling with Daniel Craig in The Mother) for jumping at the chance of working with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg? A slot in their expanding repertory group is probably almost as coveted as that Holy Grail for Brit thesps - a Harry Potter role.

But while the Potter series is a cash cow for any actor lucky enough to make the grade, the lure here is the profligate generosity of the script – Pegg and Wright dispense lines crafted from purest comedy gold amongst the cast like sweets. Even the briefest cameo appearance gets a laugh, although Pegg himself plays it ramrod straight for the first half of the film at least.

BACKGROUND

• Hot Fuzz

• Hot Fuzz - Sunday Times review

• Hot Fuzz blows the barn doors off

• Shaun of the Dead

Meet the flying squad

Kevin Maher takes a spin with the stars of police comedy Hot Fuzz

Related Internet Links

• 2007 London Film Festival coverage

• Times Online Film Trailers

The target of Pegg and Wright’s affectionate movie-nerd attentions this time is the cop flick, but the preferred technique – transposing Hollywood genre conventions to a uniquely British setting – remains the same as that of their first film.

Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a ruthlessly efficient and infuriatingly by-the-book police officer who annoys his London colleagues so much that they promote him. The catch is that his new post is in the crime-free chocolate box village of Sandford.

Angel finds himself paired up with bumbling inept PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) and forced to investigate unlawful hedge clipping incidents. Worst of all, he’s expected to liaise with the local Neighbourhood Watch.

But a series of freak accidents leads Angel to suspect that beneath the picture postcard exterior smoulders a hotbed of violent crime.

The blokish glee in the hilariously over-the-top final shootout perhaps explains why it goes on rather longer than it needs to. But the laughs don’t let up until the final explosion has been detonated.

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