Ritmo Cubano

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.

Nick Frost usually comes as one-half of a package deal. With Simon Pegg (and their behind-the-scenes collaborator Edgar Wright), Frost has starred in three of the most gloriously subversive, smart and silly British comedies of the past ten years: Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End. Can he hold the screen and get the laughs when he's headlining a film, with neither Pegg nor Wright in sight? The answer is, thankfully, yes. Cuban Fury is a great vehicle for Frost - he grounds the fun, loopy, cheerful dance comedy in something a little more real and affecting, even if the film doesn't quite hit the brilliant heights of the aforementioned Cornetto Trilogy.

After being bullied mercilessly by a pack of boys as a child, Bruce (Frost) swears off the one thing he's really good at: salsa dancing. Fast forward a few decades, and he's a bored, boring office drone forced to suffer the company of Drew (Chris O'Dowd), his lewdest, rudest, meanest colleague. When he meets his new, gorgeous boss Julia (Rashida Jones), however, Bruce feels compelled to step out of his comfort zone - especially when he realises that she loves salsa dancing too. Even as Drew tries to worm his way into Julia's affections, Bruce resolves to put on his dancing shoes again.

The plot of the film is something of a hit-and-miss affair - it can occasionally feel like it's been forcibly stitched together from a bunch of really great stand-alone scenes and ideas. Some of the narrative decisions don't make a whole lot of sense either. Why, for instance, is Julia anointed the boss rather than a new colleague? It seems to complicate matters unnecessarily throughout the entire film, given the ethical issues at stake in an employer-employee relationship.

But there's no real need to over-think things when Cuban Fury is just so goshdarn chirpy, funny and entertaining. The film practically radiates its own brand of amiable humour, often zipping from goofy wordplay to awkward slapstick within the space of a single scene. Amidst the roof-top dance-offs and mix-tape mix-ups, there's even a little room for huge helpings of heart. Bruce becomes a better person for doing what he loves, and it's a joy to see him find the confidence he'd lost all those years ago.

Whenever the script misses a beat, its oddball characters come to the rescue. Frost's Bruce is a standard-issue unlikely hero, and Jones is almost criminally wasted as the painfully underwritten Julia. But the weirdos dancing around them are a delight. Hilariously committed to the part of Drew, O'Dowd is clearly having fun being as rude, nasty and offensive as he possibly can. Ian McShane is marvellous as Bruce's dour old dance teacher, Ron, and Kayvan Novak steals scenes aplenty as Bruce's gleefully flamboyant new friend Bejan. Even so, it's Olivia Colman who walks away with top honours: she's spectacularly funny and appealing as Bruce's open-hearted, game-for-anything sister Sam.

Cuban Fury isn't a game-changer by any stretch of the imagination. Unlike the Cornetto Trilogy, it doesn't have something smarter and more subversive to say about its chosen genre of film. This is a sports-laced romantic comedy with no greater ambition than making its audience laugh. Not every element of it works perfectly, and the script can be lead-footed in parts. But, when it comes down to it, the film is so sweet and silly that it sometimes approaches the sublime.

I heard Nick Frost promoting Cuban Fury on its release and heard the stories about how he had to gather together enough money over a lengthy period to get his project off the ground. When I listen to interviews like that you do tend to lean a bit towards the producers and in this case the star (he wears two hats) for the hard work in getting a non studio non blockbuster to the screen.

But then you often realise why American television produces so much 'made for TV' film fodder, because in America this film would not have made it to cinema release. This merely highlights how low the true British film has fallen since the great days of British comedy, such as Ealing, and even to a degree, the Carry Ons.

Cuban Fury is OK, no more. Nick Frost is OK, no more. There is a reason why actors form teams and that is because they play a foil for each other, and in Cuban Fury Nick Frost has to carry the film which neither he nor the script is capable of. Frost's foil, as such in this film is Chris O'Dowd, but in reality his is the love opposition in Frost's hopes of getting the hand of Rashida Jones. So O'Dowd is working against Frost for the entirety of the film and his over the top lothario is so poorly acted, developed and scripted that his time on screen is time that is more annoying that fun in what is meant to be a comedy.

The story surrounds Frost's infatuation for Jones when she joins his Company as Head of Sales. His infatuation is further enhanced when he realises that she enjoys Salsa, a format that Frost was a champion in before he was bullied out of it in his teenage years. Love has no boundaries however, and Frost is determined to woe this women with his rusty skills and returns to his old mentor, played by Ian McShane, to see whether his now larger and less lithe physique still has the old magic.

As is usual in this kinds of films the 'little man' must battle adversity to win his girl, and in some amusing pre-climax dance scenes that it was Frost does. The fight scene between him and O'Dowd is more akin to West Side Story than Rocky and is very amusing and well edited. But the premise only cast your mind back to another similar British film of recent years, namely Run Fat Boy Run, which did this 'boy tries to win girl' storyline so much better.

The film has a great cast of British characters with McShane definitely becoming a new Oliver Reed for scene stealing. Also worthy are Olivia Colman as Frost's former dance partner sister and Kayvan Novak who steals most of the scenes he appears in.

This film is OK, but could have been so much better.

When I saw the trail or for this film I had mixed feelings, most things nick frost and chris o'dowd do are pretty funny but the plot to me seemed a bit ridiculous. In my honest opinion it's some of the worst work either have done but isn't a bad film.

There were many 15 year olds in the cinema who laughed throughout and will no doubt be repeating the bad language and toilet humour at school on Monday but I didn't see any adult do much more than chuckle. The cameo of Simon Peggy got the biggest laugh and he was in the film barely a minute...that says a lot. Olivia Coleman was by far the funniest character and played her role perfectly.

O'dowd is an arrogant, self absorbed character who seemed to change accents in every scene, I didn't know if he was Irish American English or slightly Latino. He delivered an average performance with much of his humour really being only enjoyed by the youth in the cinema. He wasn't bad but it wasn't anywhere near the best work he is capable of.

Nick frost on the other hand was an endearing character that was acted out very naturally. He was funny and you genuinely want the best for him, some of the dancing scenes came across poor due to his size and how the camera was switching to the professionals in the big moves. I have this thing with actors of a chubbier variety where I feel a lot of the anticipated humour comes from him being big, I neither find it funny or clever to grasp at jokes based on appearance. Frost delivered a good solid performance.

The object of their desires was their boss who was perfect throughout and didn't have much of note to do in the way of acting. I think thousands of actresses could have played that role.

It isn't a bad film, but it was a film that probably didn't need to be made, it's a definite DVD rental but not a cinema masterpiece. It's watchable and mildly entertaining. Plot wise it's completely predictable and plays out like a scenario we've seen over and over again, who gets the girl the underdog or the villain , seen that a million times, the only difference is it had salsa in it, a dance no body under 50 really cares about.

It won't be a cult classic like Shaun of the dead, it won't win awards or do the actors much in the way of acknowledgement. It is an average film tailored to a younger sense of humour. It pulls you in with a great British cast, but never let's any of them bar Coleman shine.

I would say if your 16 go watch this, any older then wait for the DVD, it won't disappoint but with the cost of cinema trips it doesn't warrant the hefty prices of food and admission.

It's not ever going to be a classic every time you see these names but I'd say this was wasted potential. The dancing is OK but just not as impressive as things you see in step up or street dance! It's a silly plot, with a silly backstory, it goes together and flows throughout, it just never excels or stands out.

It screams average but never awful which is it's saving grace, it does get better at the end, it rides along in the average lane occasionally popping into the good lane but being aware never to go to the bad side.

I would give it 5.5/10

The movie was a relatively simple movie all about self-confidence and putting yourself out there. Thats pretty standard fare, but...

The cast are excellent. Most of the people in the movie that dance are actors rather than dancers, unlike movies like "Step up", and it shows with characters like Bejan. He's hilarious, extremely camp and actually quite credible as someone you'd likely see on a salsa dance floor.

Unlike some other reviewers, I am a long way from 50, but I do actually know a little bit about salsa. This movie represents parts of the salsa scene that people not in it don't know about. It shows various styles of salsa (rueda, on-1, on-1 threesomes and carnival), it shows dance style similar to salsa & enjoyed by many on the salsa scene (some shots looked like kizomba or bachata {hard to tell with the bad framing of the shots}, and there was Bejan telling people doing aerobic dance {zumba} to go back to their leisure centres). The movie does have quite a lot of capoeira-inspired dancing, and a lot of dancing that you'd only expect professional dance performers to even come close to attempting (loads of lifts)

Sound: The movie pretty much sounded as it should have, but there was one particularly irritating oversight. The guy(s) who did the soundtrack really didn't worry about matching the on-screen dancing to the musical beat. It made the dancers look like they were about 2 and a half beats off, just horrible.

Its definitely worth watching.