Strictly Salsa
As a 13 year old Bruce (Nick Frost, Ben Radcliffe) was a dance sensation who with his sister Sam (Olivia Colman, Isabella Steinbarth) were winning trophies left right and centre until one night he was a victim of bullying and he quit there and then. Twenty something years later and Bruce is out of shape, working for a company which designs lathes and having to deal with Drew (Chris O'Dowd), his sexist, egotistical team boss who thinks he is the king of the office and god's gift to women. Enter Julia (Rashida Jones), their new American boss who has a thing for Salsa dancing. If Bruce is going to get out of his rut he is not only going to have to deal with Drew putting him down but also his demons when it comes to Salsa dancing.
How can I put this, one of the jokes in "Cuban Fury" is the fact Bruce is out of shape and over weight, knocking back all 4 yoghurt pots in a multi-pack in one sitting, unfortunately whilst there are other jokes it is the one which the movie relies on. When ever there isn't a gag such as Drew being a tosser it resorts back to basically fat man dancing jokes and sadly that isn't enough to sustain the movie, it needed more even if those basic fat man dancing set pieces are quite good fun.
But whilst this reliance on one joke is disappointing "Cuban Fury" is still a lot of fun with the comedy between Frost and O'Dowd hitting the nail on the head. In fact O'Dowd performs the office jerk routine so well, so intentionally over the top that whilst calling his character Drew a tosser may sound harsh it is a perfect description of it. Frost also works well with Rashida Jones and there is some unconventional romantic comedy going on between them with it being fun rather than romantic.
The thing is that as I write this I feel like I want to say something more but I can't because there isn't anything and that is that problem of "Cuban Fury" relying too heavily on the fat man dancing gag. Yes there are some great set pieces including one featuring a not too unsurprising cameo as well as Olivia Colman delivering yet another scene stealing performance but there is still that need for something more which makes "Cuban Fury" frustrating.
What this all boils down to is that "Cuban Fury" is 75% of a movie as it has all the pieces from the right cast to the right set pieces but it needed another 25% when it came to the comedy and the variety to stop it feeling like a movie relying on fat man dancing gags.
