Cuban Fury (2014)

Pretty Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Bruce and his sister Sam danced salsa competitively as kids under the directions of Ron Parfitt (Ian McShane). They were a winning team until Bruce fails to attend the Nationals after being bullied in his costume. He vows never to dance again. Twenty five years later, Bruce Garrett (Nick Frost) is a chubby engineer. His 'friend' Drew (Chris O'Dowd) is a sleazy co-worker. Helen (Alexandra Roach) is a bitter co-worker. They get a new boss in Julia (Rashida Jones) and Bruce immediately falls for her. He discovers that she dances salsa and he tries to put on his dancing shoes once again.Nick Frost is likable. Chris O'Dowd is a silly fun weasel, and Rashida Jones is absolutely adorable. The movie works whenever these three interact with each other. The awkward romance between Frost and Jones is endearing. The dancing doesn't make sense. I don't understand why Bruce doesn't simply join in the dance class as a beginner. The premise doesn't work and the story suffers. The comedy works but the dancing story doesn't.

(47%) Nick Frost's underdog sport movie (of sorts) lies very much in the same vein as Simon Pegg's "Run fat boy run", only I know which one I prefer, and it sure ain't this. With that said this is still worth a look for fans of the nerdy duo, with three maybe four mild laughs throughout, so don't expect a laugh a minute hit and you might be okay. Frost carries the film perfectly well playing very much a typical fat bloke who's stuck in a self-pitting rut, but Chris O'Dowd's character is too much the competitive jerk to be relatable, and the plot is way too formulaic and predicable. While the dance sequences don't draw out enough laughs, but because of Frost's appearance they can't really be taken all that seriously either. Overall very much catch it if you can fluff.

Cuban Fury (2014)A total feel good dance and music movie. And so familiar it really does just ride on the formula. Expect nothing more—and enjoy the salsa! It's curious that a leading actor in this movie, Irish actor Chris O'Dowd, also appears in a simliar feel good up from nowhere music flick, "The Sapphires," and yet here has an opposite personality. He plays an unlikeable boss here, and his excessive one-liners don't actually come off as funny.The real lead is Nick Frost, playing Bruce, a once promising salsa dancer who as a kid got ridiculed to the point of quitting. But now, as an adult looking for a girl in his life, he finds he needs to start again. He's funny and lovable, though also not as funny as he is meant to be. The woman in question is an American, Rashida Jones, who is really at ease and lovable on screen even if she plays a kind of obvious role. She helps ground what is a very lightweight and flimsy production. So then the usual competition between types of men occurs. There are clichés, there are the ever-useful plot twists and surprises that won't surprise you because they're so old, and then there's the dance competition. And you know, more or less, what happens. All in pure sweet happiness.Oddly enough, this mediocre movie is still fun to watch, so go ahead. The music is fun, and some of the dance venues are really great. And the story really does make you feel good.

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.