REVIEW:
Blu-ray review: Cuban Fury
(Sony Pictures, M)
All’s fair in love and salsa.
1987: Poised to sweep the floor at the UK Junior Salsa Championships, 13-year-old Bruce Garrett (Nick Frost) has fire in his heels and the world at his feet . . . until one fateful night, a freakish bullying incident robs him of his confidence and diverts his life down a very different path.
22 year later, having locked away his boyhood dreams, Bruce finds himself out of shape, unloved and well and truly wedged in his comfort zone. It takes the arrival of Julia (Rashida Jones), his smart, funny, gorgeous new American boss, to force him to re-examine his dull, passionless, existence. But she’s way out of his league, and with alpha-male office nemesis Drew (Chris O’Dowd) in rampant pursuit of her, it’s enough to make Bruce want to give up on himself all over again.
Can his loyal sister (Olivia Colman), childhood dance mentor (Ian McShane), and crazy new amateur salsa pal help Bruce unshackle his dancing beast, regain his long lost fury and claim the love of his life
If you’re looking for a film with heart this is it.
I feared it would be something like Dirty Dancing, but thankfully Nick Frosts’s movie goes nowhere near that chick flick.
Cuban Fury is a comedy, loud and proud, which just happens to be about a large man regaining his appetite for salsa in order to impress a woman.
It’s the sort of move you can share with your mates on a Friday night, or snuggle up to your husband or wife with on a Saturday night.
And while there are plenty of laughs, there’s plenty of pause for thought too as Bruce re-examines his life and evaluates the things that he does and the reason that he does them.
When it comes down to it Cuban Fury is about someone wrestling back his passion after realising it matters not a jot what others think of his joy.
No one makes movies as hearty as the British, as films like Brassed Off and The Full Monty have proved, and Cuban Fury is top of the pops when it comes down to heartiness.
Frost, who usually collaborates with Simon Pegg (spot his cameo), has excelled himself here.
Ad Feedback
– Stuff
