Cuban Fury (2014)

Normally, I am not the kind of man who would sit down to watch a film about dancing (unless, of course, given carte blanche to ridicule said film by my better half), but I had a feeling about the Salsa Comedy Cuban Fury (2014). With a cast consisting of some of the best the boys across the pond have to offer in Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead 2004), Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids 2011), and the ever compelling Ian McShane (Deadwood). Drop in the adorable Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) and you have a very solid cast who are masters at comic timing. I first became aware of this movie a few months ago watching trailers one afternoon on my computer. Looked funny, never heard about it again, then it popped up on Netflix Streaming. One boring afternoon, my best gal and I sat down to give it a gander and had a really great time with it.The story revolves around Bruce (played well by Frost), a former youth Salsa dance champion, who quit after a scarring event made him turn in his dance shoes. Now working as an industrial machine designer, he goes unnoticed by his co-workers. With the exception of Drew (a great turn as the heel for O'Dowd, often known for playing nice guys), the smarmy, fast talker of the office who has made a game out of humiliating Bruce every chance he gets. Never having any motivation to fight back before, enter Julia (Jones), the new head of their department and Salsa dance enthusiast. With both men seeking her affection, Bruce realizes that his only hope for love is to get back on the dance floor.

Despite an unconventional premise, two charming leads, and a focus on a subject scarcely depicted in film, there is shockingly little to say about James Griffiths' Cuban Fury other than there is little funny about the story and its characters and there is not too much that is interesting either. What could be a satire, both mocking and embracing Spanish culture, particularly the dance known as the Salsa, the film seems to have too much love for the dance to dare say anything remotely satirical about it, and the descent into sappy, heartfelt storytelling in the third act happens way too fast and disrupts the film's tone, which was already barely scraping by as a piece of afternoon fluff.The film stars Nick Frost, most famous from Edgar Wright's "Cornetto" trilogy, which also featured the comedic talents of Simon Pegg, who makes a brief but memorable cameo in Cuban Fury. Frost plays Bruce Garrett, a once-teen salsa champion who now wastes away, an unfulfilled louse who was cruelly beaten by a gaggle of bullies for exercising his passion for dance. His passion, however, is reinvigorated once he meets his attractive new boss Julia (Rashida Jones), who loves dancing, particularly the salsa, and in order to win her over, Bruce must work to master all of his traits that he thought he lost. The only thing standing in his way is his sly, manipulative coworker Drew (Chris O'Dowd of The IT Crowd and The Sapphires fame), who is also trying to win over Julia through techniques involving insincerity and cunning actions.Right off the bat, we have three talents at the center of this film who have proved to do strong work in the past few years; what we don't have, however, is a script that is interesting enough to maintain a story about salsa for over ninety minutes and what we don't have is a script that is funny enough to keep its main subject afloat. Salsa is one of those subjects that is almost asking to be satirized with an unconventional sense of humor, but the fact that writer Jon Brown seems to respect it too much to really make fun of it means the only other route Cuban Fury can take besides the route of satire is the route of seriousness, which, for something like this, isn't all that interesting.And with that, Cuban Fury dissolves into a story that becomes about centered on the one man trying to one-up the other, and eventually into sappiness by the film's conclusion, which already throws off the kind of energy and force Frost and O'Dowd are known to generate on-site. Neither man is bad here, and neither is Jones, who, despite really lacking a core character outside of being a love interest, still gets by because her character is so sweet and loving. The real issue lies that Frost and O'Dowd aren't given much to do together that is memorable in a comedic sense; they kind of wade in the water, hoping their talents will be effectively used in the film but that moment never comes and we're left with a shell of a film.Cuban Fury, similar to another project Frost did, alongside Simon Pegg, seems to need the directorial and writing care provided by Edgar Wright, who has collaborated with Frost and Pegg, as I said, three times before. I've never quite seen the case where an actor deviating from a director/writer's project causes him to make lesser films, but it has been prevalent in the case of Pegg and Frost, who are funny men, when given the right lines, but seemingly need the guidance of a man who can blend humor with absurdity and drama. Wright did it with Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End, and it seems Griffiths and Brown could've benefited from his techniques.Starring: Nick Frost, Chris O'Dowd, and Rashida Jones. Directed by: James Griffiths.

A pleasant inoffensive comedy with Nick Frost for once divorced from Simon Pegg and wooing "Parks and Recreation's" Rashida Lloyd against the nefarious designs of his crude office manager Chris O'Dowd. Turning on the coincidence that Lloyd is an avid salsa dance fan and student while Frost gave up an early flair for the same dance under peer pressure from his fellow school-mates, they unsurprisingly get together and take the film to a predictable "dance-off" conclusion.The film aims for the same good-time vibe of popular hits like "Dirty Dancing" and "Strictly Ballroom", mixed with the earthier feel of earlier Frost vehicles like "Hot Fuzz" and "Shawn of the Dead" and if it doesn't quite pull it off, it gets by with some amusing situations, funny lines and likable characters.I probably liked more the supporting parts of the effete Latino male dancer, Frost's supportive sister, played by an underused Olivia Colman, a permatanned Ian McShane as Frost's old tyrannical dance-teacher and Frost's two saddo mates who get together once a week purely to review how ordinary their intervening days have been. As is the norm in contemporary comedies, the humour is a bit off-colour, with some of O'Dowd's conceited caveman comments being a little over the mark, but it reins itself in for the sequin-spectacular finale and feel-good conclusion.Frost is fine, if a little unbelievable, as his born-to-dance character, Lloyd is inoffensive in a fairly shallow role while O'Dowd garners a fair share of the laughs with his character's crude, boorish behaviour.Nicely shot and edited, particularly in the fast and furious dance where you'll believe a fat man can fly, "Cuban Fury" is affable, lightweight entertainment worth partnering for 90 minutes.

Watching films like the present one is, under some respects, a rite: we know in advance what is awaiting us, we can easily imagine what will happen, how things will turn, how they will end. So when we start watching we wonder mainly one thing: will the story develop as we expect, will our expectations be happily confirmed or on the contrary will something unpleasant let us down? Which is exactly what doesn't have to happen.Knowingly or not we are seeking for something that will sooth our anxiety, like a balm. This is the prerequisite. Then we check if the film is OK, if it makes us laugh, if the story is original, if it surprises us, if the funny characters are actually funny... and so on.Well according to me everything is OK in this nice movie, the story is good, the characters are catching and everything is as it had to be: funny and entertaining. A good British answer to American comedies.