Many celebrities visited Dallas between March 22 and April 1 for the AFI Dallas film festival, but none were as fresh and funny as Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

The British trio is responsible for 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead,” a romantic comedy with zombies (or a “rom-zom-com,” as they’ve labeled it). Now they’re back with “Hot Fuzz,” a comedy that takes on the action movie and adds a distinctly British twist.

Pegg plays London police officer Nick Angel, who is so skilled at his job that his commanding officers reassign him to the sleepy town of Sandford so he’ll stop making the officers in London look bad.

Once in Sandford, Angel is partnered with incompetent officer Danny Butterman, played by Frost. In addition to being the son of the Sandford chief of police, Danny is a fan of action movies and therefore assumes that his new partner might expose him to the life of gunfights and car chases he sees in the movies.

Meanwhile, several “accidental” deaths occur and Angel isn’t entirely convinced that they aren’t related. In the end, the two very different officers must set aside their different methods and team up to fight whatever evil threatens the town.

Wright, who directed and co-wrote the film, said the film is something he wanted to do as both a tribute to police films and as a send up of his hometown environment.

“It’s a gap in the market,” said Wright, “because there are no other British cop films. Most of the crime films in Britain are gangster films. I’ve always been a fan of cop films. At the same time, both Simon and I are from this area of England, so injecting violence and mayhem into this idyllic environment amuses me.”

Pegg, who co-wrote the film with Wright, knows that the film turns reality on its head.

“British cops aren’t perceived as cool,” said Pegg. “They have no guns. They’re just walking around with a big hat and stick.”

“It’s a big deal for a British policeman to blow his whistle,” added Frost.

“Hot Fuzz” definitely won’t be classified as boring. The film earns its R rating by featuring a number of graphic murders, as well as a number of violent sequences and exhilarating car chases. Going so over-the-top on special effects wasn’t easy for the trio, whose previous projects don’t include any action films.

“It was very difficult at times,” said Wright. “I have a lot of respect for action directors now. It was especially tough with the weather in England. It’s tough stuff. It was more exciting to edit the finished thing than to shoot it.”

“I had to get in shape for the film,” said Pegg. “Of course, I ended up straining my muscles on the first day on the set and had a problem the rest of the shoot. But we wanted to do as many of our own stunts as possible, and we had to be in shape in order to do that.”

After the surprise success of “Shaun of the Dead” in the United States, none of the men were nervous about bringing another British comedy overseas.

“American audiences get the references because we’re sending up an American genre,” said Pegg. “You don’t have to talk down to people all the time. We didn’t pander and that risk paid off. Filmmakers constantly underestimate audiences.”

“We just wanted to make a film that would make our mates laugh,” said Frost. “There are lots of people like us who like the same movies as we do. So we’re making it for them, too.”

“Hot Fuzz” is no parody. It’s an homage to the cop movie genre that is intelligent and ridiculous at the same time. It pays tribute to a group of movies that so many regard as mindless, with an overarching theme that lets audiences know that it’s perfectly fine to shut off their brains every now and then. Once again, Wright, Pegg and Frost have hit their mark, and they’ve done so with gusto.

“Hot Fuzz” will be released in theaters everywhere on April 20.