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.
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.