Cuban Fury
UK theatrical release poster
Directed byJames Griffiths
Written byJon Brown
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDick Pope
Edited byJonathan Amos
Music byDaniel Pemberton
Production
companies
Distributed byStudioCanal
Release date
  • 14 February 2014 (2014-02-14)
Running time
98 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
Languages
  • English
  • Persian
  • Spanish
Budget£1 million[2]
Box office$5.6 million[3]

Cuban Fury is a 2014 British romantic comedy film directed by James Griffiths, written by Jon Brown, and starring Nick Frost, Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd.[4] The film was a minor box office success but received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Bruce Garrett, a former teen salsa champion with his sister Sam, is now an engineer. Bruce gave up dancing after he was brutally bullied and traumatised by older boys on his way to the National finals.

25 years later, after Bruce has a meet cute moment with his new American boss, Julia, he hears she is passionate about salsa dancing. So, he decides that the only way he can win her over is by re-mastering the art of dance. He seeks out his old teacher Ron, who forces him to confront the reasons he quit dancing in the first place.

Bruce struggles with low self-esteem due to his weight, as well as his constantly bullying coworker and rival, Drew. He continually dominates Julia's attention, a romantic interest for Bruce but strictly sexual for Drew.

With the help of his salsa classmates, teacher, and his former dancing partner, his sister Sam, Bruce gets up the courage to relearn all his 'rusty' dance steps and to recapture his lost "corazón" (heart), not only for the dance but for his life.

Convinced by his classmate Bejan to go to a salsa club, Bruce is given a mini makeover at home. The transformation includes shaving his chest hair and use a bronzer. At the club there are more people from the class. As Bruce is dancing with his instructor, Ron openly criticizes his passionless move. Incensed by the bullying, he greatly improves, but when seeing Drew with Julia on the dance floor is dejected. His salsa friends see the deflated Bruce leaving.

Thanks to Ron seeing Bruce at the club, he agrees to train Bruce. Again encouraging him with mild bullying, Ron pushes him hard until he starts to see results. Bruce has a mini dance-off with Drew at their lunch break, giving him a burst of self-confidence.

When ready, Bruce's friends convince him to enter the local nightclub's salsa dance competition, with the idea that he'll invite Julia to be his dance partner. But when he goes round to hers to ask her out to the dance, he is tricked into believing that he's interrupting an intimate evening she's spending with Drew, so leaves before asking, disillusioned.

Julia, meanwhile, discovers what Drew is up to and outright rejects his advances, then kicks him out whilst threatening his position at work. Julia discovers the salsa mixtape was from him, not Drew so follows Bruce to the nightclub. There he's been doing quite well with Sam and an old routine, and is about to enter the final heat/round of the competition.

When he notices Julia had followed him to the club, he's elated and finally plucks up the courage to ask her to dance. They dance the last round of the competition, where Bruce goes on to lose the competition, but regains his true self and finally wins Julia's heart.

Cast

Release

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 54% score based on 96 reviews, with an average rating of 5.54/10. The site's consensus states: "Nick Frost and Chris O'Dowd remain as undeniably likable as ever, but Cuban Fury saddles them with a contrived and predictable plot that's far too short on laughs."[5] Metacritic gives a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 rating based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6]

Soundtrack

Decca Records released the Cuban Fury soundtrack on 17 February 2014.

Track listing[7]
No.TitleArtistsLength
1."Mambo Gozon"Tito Puente And His Orchestra2:48
2."I Believe In Miracles"Sunlightsquare3:55
3."Amor Internacional"Doble Filo4:17
4."Lupita"Nico Gomez, His Afro Percussion3:42
5."Aguanile"Marc Anthony5:16
6."Get It Together"Daniel Pemberton3:23
7."Arroz Con Pollo"Ogguere, Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band4:44
8."Finding The Fury"Daniel Pemberton2:32
9."Machito Forever"Tito Puente4:51
10."Abre Que Voy"Miguel Enriquez5:04
11."Descarga"Gerardo Frisina5:00
12."Breakin' Down (Sugar Samba)"Sunlightsquare3:21
13."Bonito y Sabroso"Oscar D'León3:43
14."Que Cosa Tiene La Vida"Juan Formell, Los Van Van6:41
15."La Banda"Spanish Harlem Orchestra4:49

References

  1. ↑ "CUBAN FURY (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 18 November 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  2. ↑ "News - Film4". Film4 Productions.
  3. ↑ "Cuban Fury (2014) - International Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo". www.boxofficemojo.com.
  4. ↑ Rapoldapril, Nicolas (10 April 2014). "Wooing the Boss With a Spicy Dance". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ "Cuban Fury (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  6. ↑ "Cuban Fury reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  7. ↑ "Cuban Fury Soundtrack Details". Film Music Reporter. 29 January 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
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