{"id":13727,"date":"2014-04-09T18:27:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T01:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=13727"},"modified":"2014-04-09T18:27:19","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T01:27:19","slug":"missteps-cant-sink-likable-lightweight-cuban-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/missteps-cant-sink-likable-lightweight-cuban-fury\/","title":{"rendered":"Missteps Can’t Sink Likable, Lightweight ‘Cuban Fury’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The beloved BBC series Spaced<\/em> and follow-up projects from Spaced<\/em> co-creator Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead<\/em> and Hot Fuzz<\/em>) established that Nick Frost was someone whose career was well-worth watching.<\/p>\n

Of course, there was some question as to whether the portly but charismatic comedic character actor could do more than steal scenes in support \u2013 and whether he could hold his own as the centerpiece of a movie, something that his convincing, amusing turn as the \u201caction star\u201d of Wright\u2019s underrated The World\u2019s End<\/em> answered quite nicely with a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frost’s follow-up, Cuban Fury<\/em>, might not be quite what his growing legions of fans may have been expecting from him, though. It\u2019s a fairly lightweight romantic comedy, one that features a strong Latin dance component. Let that sink in for a moment. A romantic comedy with Frost as a \u201crom-com\u201d star. One in which he dances. A lot.<\/p>\n

Luckily, he\u2019s still got enough charm to make most of us overlook the more far-fetched and dumber story elements. And surprisingly, he\u2019s fleet of foot enough to be able to pull off some pretty tricky moves and sequences. While the film might not be up to the usually high Frost-Wright standards, it\u2019s pretty likable and it does have a good cast.<\/p>\n

Frost stars as Bruce Garrett, a meek British office worker whose social life is all but nonexistent. (Bruce spends most of his weekends with a couple of friends, played by Rory Kinnear and Tim Plester, who bemoan their similar fates but do nothing about it.)<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to those pals, and to everyone except his sister, Sam (Olivia Colman), he once harbored some illusions of being a salsa dancer. In fact, he was quite good at it, at least until a bullying incident soured teenage prodigy Bruce (played by Ben Radcliffe in flashback sequences) on dancing forever, it seemed.<\/p>\n

But that fire inside is rekindled when Bruce meets Julia (Rashida Jones), his beautiful new American boss. He\u2019s gob smacked by her, especially when Julia turns out to be a real sweetheart \u2013 and when it\u2019s revealed that she also loves salsa dancing.<\/p>\n

While Bruce tries to summon the courage to ask Julia out \u2013 or at least to have more than a brief conversation — his brutish, sexist co-worker, Drew (Chris O\u2019Dowd), also sets his sights on the American transplant. So it seems that, if he\u2019s to get a leg up on his \u201ccompetition,\u201d Bruce is going to have to put on his dancing shoes again. And harder yet, he\u2019s going to have to convince his former coach, Ron Parfitt (Ian McShane), that he\u2019s sincere and that he\u2019s going to give it a real effort.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear from the amount of effort Frost puts into the numerous dance scenes that this is a passion project (dance doubles were used sparingly for the production). And it\u2019s based on an idea that came directly from Frost. But his filmmaking cohorts here (director James Griffiths and screenwriter Jon Brown, both British TV veterans) don\u2019t have quite as much creative flair as Wright.<\/p>\n

In fact, the office scenes drag on a bit and don\u2019t have nearly the punch as the dance-club ones. And O\u2019Dowd (so amusing in things like Bridesmaids<\/em> and HBO\u2019s Girls<\/em>) is a tad irksome. His best moments come in an amusing and surprisingly exciting parking-lot dance \u201cbattle\u201d between Bruce and Drew \u2013 which is, coincidentally, the best sequence in the entire film.<\/p>\n

Jones and Frost also do what they can to convince us their chemistry is genuine, despite some dodgy writing (her character, in particular, is a little underdeveloped and one-note).<\/p>\n

Speaking of underdeveloped, McShane\u2019s character begs for more screen time, as do the ones played by the always terrific Colman and Kayvan Novak, who steals his scenes as a fellow dancer teaching Bruce to be more confident and suave.<\/p>\n

Jeff Michael Vice can also be heard reviewing films, television programs, comics, books, music and other things as part of The Geek Show Podcast (<\/em>www.thegeekshowpodcast.com<\/em><\/a>), and can be seen reviewing films as part of Xfinity\u2019s Big Movie Mouth-Off (<\/em>www.facebook.com\/BigMovieMouthOff<\/em><\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The beloved BBC series Spaced and follow-up projects from Spaced co-creator Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) established that Nick Frost was someone whose career was well-worth watching. Of course, there was some question as to whether the portly but charismatic comedic character actor could do more than steal scenes in support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,99],"tags":[2,522,523,1656,270,1655,1658,1657,520],"yoast_head":"\nMissteps Can't Sink Likable, Lightweight 'Cuban Fury' - Cinephiled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/missteps-cant-sink-likable-lightweight-cuban-fury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missteps Can't Sink Likable, Lightweight 'Cuban Fury' - Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The beloved BBC series Spaced and follow-up projects from Spaced co-creator Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) established that Nick Frost was someone whose career was well-worth watching. 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