Hot Fuzz is an amazing movie. It's easily one of the funniest films I've ever seen and also one of the cleverest. In the new 3-disk collector's edition), director Edgar Wright invites fellow director, friend, and fellow action movie buff Quentin Tarantino to do a commentary. What follows is a tour de force of movie and television geekery from both directors. In the course of their commentary—which almost never actually comments on the scenes they are watching—Wright and Tarantino mention close to 200 movies and television series.
It is, as far as I know, Tarantino's first commentary. As chatty as he is, he never does commentaries on his own movies. He lets loose on this one, tho, along with Wright, and they rattle off a continuous stream of productions and people that have inspired them—or sickened them—or which certain actors or directors have worked on—or which they've just heard of—or made up.
Strangely, they talk at some length about Peter Jackson doing a cameo for the film (he's the Santa Claus who stabs Nick Angel in the hand in the opening montage), but never mention any of his films.
Here is the list, with links to the Internet Movie Database so you can decide for yourself if you want to delve into the overlooked gems and weird schlock that inspired these two filmmakers. Thruout the list, EW is Edgar Wright; QT is Quentin Tarantino, of course; and I try to give the reason why they mention the film.
Hot Fuzz (EW's film; QT's favorite film of the year—"so far")
Dirty Harry
(by allusion: "Dirty Danny"; later referenced directly)
Shaun of the Dead
(directed by EW; starring Hot Fuzz's Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; later when discussing editing cheats, EW mentions that he removed zombie blinking)
Hot Fuzz 2
(imaginary sequel to Hot Fuzz which wouldn't work)
The Matrix
(film that didn't need sequels, like Hot Fuzz)
The Matrix: Reloaded
(the sequel, which was unnecessary and caused problems with the story)
Vera Drake (featuring Hot Fuzz's Peter Wight; directed by Mike Leigh)
The Bitch
(starring Joan Collins and featuring Hot Fuzz's Peter Wight and Bill Nighy; QT mistakenly says it was directed by Quentin Masters but it was actually directed by Gerry O'Hara)
Deliverance
(the by-word in the US for creepy towns)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(similar creepy-town idea; by allusion: "We're in 'Texas Chainsaw' country.")
Callan
(starring Hot Fuzz's Edward Woodward as a "badass lawman")
Reservoir Dogs
(directed by QT; later, QT mentions an accidental moment left in, when he raises his finger to call cut but the other actors rise to leave, so he does too)
Enchanted April
(what everyone thought British movies were in the 80s and 90s)
Lawrence of Arabia
(QT is friends with the daughter of editor Anne Coates, wife of Douglas Hickox)
Brannigan
Brannigan
(directed by Douglas Hickox; UK cop movie starring John Wayne and Richard Attenborough; featuring Ralph Meeker, who QT quotes later with a shout; EW says later that Judy Geeson's character is "Carol Thatcher" but it's actually Jennifer; characters walk past the ITA theater)
Hot Doris (an imaginary film starring Hot Fuzz character PC Doris Thatcher)
Grindhouse
(included a spoof trailer by EW; the double-feature of....)
Death Proof
(directed by QT; referred to directly later, and...)
Silent Rage
(DVD featured on-screen in Hot Fuzz; starring Chuck Norris and featuring Brian Libby, name-checked as a paperboy in Hot Fuzz)
Hero and the Terror
(mistakenly called "Hero Versus Terror" at first; starring Chuck Norris; one of the worst of the genre)
Unbreakable
(directed by M Knight Shamalamadingdong; QT "not super-screamingly obvious that this is a re-telling of the Superman story," which it is not, but he's close)
Halloween
(by allusion: Silent Rage is "Chuck Norris versus Michael Myers"; later referenced directly)
North by Northwest
(accidental moment that stayed in the movie: kid puts his fingers in his ears before the gunshot)
The Phantom Menace
(did more than the recommended amount of "cheating" in the editing room)
Lady in the Water
(directed by and featuring M Knight Shamalamadingdong with blinking in close-ups that could have been fixed in editing as done in Hot Fuzz)
Police Academy: Mission to Moscow
(the one where they go Moscow; mistakenly called the eighth at first, but actually the seventh; featuring neither Guttenberg nor McCoy)
Lethal Weapon 2
(EW saw the trailer dozens of times while a projectionist in 1989 and associates the music with 1980s action movies and used it in Hot Fuzz)
The Sender
(featuring Hot Fuzz's Paul Freeman; directed by Roger Christian; QT's favorite movie of 1982; he created his own video version from the R-rated and TV versions)
A Nightmare on Elmstreet 4
(one of the films EW projected; which he accidentally showed with the reels in the wrong order, and no one complained; directed by Renny Harlin)
Enemy of the State
(featuring Hot Fuzz's Stuart Wilson; directed by Tony Scott; EW thinks it's one of the most wasteful films of great actors, especially Ian Hart)
Armageddon (had seven credited writers but no one noticed that there were two nearly identical lines about it being a nightmare a couple of minutes apart)
Past Midnight
(QT did a dialog polish; a poor man's Jagged Edge)
Bad Boys 3 (an imaginary third Bad Boys movie, which EW is willing to direct)
Marx Brothers films
(QT and EW agree should not be seen more than one at a time)
Man on Fire
(directed by Tony Scott and an inspiration for the final shootout camerawork)
Domino
(directed by Tony Scott and an inspiration for the final shootout camerawork; one of both EW and QT's favorite films of the year)
"Q" series
(Spike Milligan's television show, where they left wardrobe tags on the costumes, just as evidence tags are left on the guns used by the cops in in Hot Fuzz)
War of the Gargantuas
(directed by Ishirô Honda; Japanese monster movie QT would like to emulate and EW inadvertantly did emulate in the model village fight)