Shaun Of The Dead Vs Hot Fuzz - Which Is Better?

7. Homages

Another tricky one, since pastiching genres is what both movies are built upon.

Shaun of the Dead pays a loving tribute to the work of George A. Romero, albeit with a very British spin on things. The zombies themselves look suitably creepy, and thankfully utilise slow-moving ones, and there are some great Easter eggs there too - most notably, Ed's line of "We're coming to get you, Barbara!" which puts a more hopeful spin on Night of the Living Dead's more sinister "They’re coming to get you, Barbara." We've also got the customary ridiculous attempts at killing zombies, and similarly the attempts to blend in and survive. It wears the Romero influences on its sleeve, with plenty of gore, action, and kills, but all wrapped-up in the comedic and romantic trappings.

Hot Fuzz is every bit as explicit in its genre homages, with the most obvious being Point Break and Bad Boys II, which are both directly mentioned in the movie itself. The film serves as both a pitch-perfect pastiche of the genre, but also fantastic example of the form itself, and what's most impressive is the way it signals the various buddy-cop movie cliches throughout the movie, and then proceed to nail all of them, from the explosion to the odd-couple pairing who bond, from firing your gun in the air and yelling 'aaaaaaaahhh' to the thrilling chase at the climax. It's the more insane, high-octane of the two, but when it comes to genre homaging, that's a good thing.

Winner: Hot Fuzz, just.