This movie is a British parody of American cop/buddy/action thrillers. That’s an easily parodied genre, but the dry British humor makes this surprisingly quirky and interesting.

Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the most outstanding police officer in London. So outstanding, in fact, that his fellow officers worry that he is making them look bad, and arrange for him to be transferred to a sleepy little village that has not reported a murder in 20 years. Nick is, of course, incredibly straight-laced and marks his first night in town by arresting about a quarter of the population for various alcohol-related offenses. Clearly somebody is going to have to make some adjustments.

Nick finds himself partnered with PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), a dopey local cop who was one of the drunks he arrested on his first night in town. The first part of the movie, in which he deals with with the various colorful local characters, appears to be a typical quirky British character-based comedy.

But things rapidly turn darker when the village is hit by a series of gruesome murders, which the local police are woefully ill-equipped to deal with. They keep insisting that each death must be the result of some improbable accident. Will Nick’s big-city police skills be enough to save the day?