Chris O'Dowd is an odd bad guy: Cuban Fury lives up to expectations, and more!

Nick Frost proves to us that it's not all about looks.

There is only one thing that is odd--in a non-pleasant way--that I found about Cuban Fury; It's weird seeing Chris O'Dowd as a bad guy. I'm so used to him as the bumbling hero (IT Crowd, Moone Boy etc.) that I was quite...disturbed to see him in a negative light. But then again, that's just me. Cuban Fury was spectacular.

Cuban Fury tells the saga of Bruce (Nick Frost), a former child prodigy who, after a traumatic experience before a massive salsa contest, gave up the tiny shoe-dance (as his friends so aptly put it) for

a normal, bod standard life of drudgery at the local Laithe firm. However, with the arrival of Julia, his new boss, who is both beautiful and a salsa-lover, he decides to take it back up. But can he woo her with his dancing skills with the arrogant and dastardly Drew (O'Dowd) sniffing around as well?

It's a quintessential British comedy, in the same vein as Shaun of the Dead, Run Fatboy Run, or About a Boy, that succeeds at being both uplifting and hilarious without being soppy or overbearing. It also didn't follow the archetypal underdog story, either; rather it mixes things up a bit and manages to keep up the same sort of tone. Although it's still the same plot, the events are jumbled in a pleasantly different way that keeps things from being repetitive. If you like that sort of thing, and are looking for some variety at the same time, then this is definitely a must see for you.

"Wings of an Eagle". Yeah, right.

Additionally, the supporting characters were great. While they were, of course, archetypes (the eccentric foreigner, the bored (Welsh!) office worker) I didn't find them hackneyed or boring. I honestly can't think of any faults with Cuban Fury; if there are any, they won't bother you enough to ruin the film for you. I think with this one it simply comes down to what sort of thing you like--if you enjoy this genre of smart, British (Self-mocking) humour, then you'll like Cuban Fury, but if you don't like it then you won't like this because it is that. 

Another thing that I thought was quite nice was that Bruce, although very fat, doesn't actually lose any weight, or change that much about himself at the end. The most similar film that comes to mind is Run Fatboy Run. In that, Simon Pegg is slightly overweight, but the director had him wear padding during filming and grtadually shed the size of that padding, so that it looked as though he had lost weight. And so by the end, we have a perfect, good-looking everyman, rather than the average and typical idiot that we related to at the start. And Cuban Fury doesn't lose this sense of relatability; it tells us that we don't have to be (what society deems as) good-looking to succeed, or get what we want. And I think that that is a brilliant message, much better than some of the hollywood tripe we've been accustomed to in recent years (yes, hollywood is a proper noun and so demands a capital 'H', but they don't deserve one, with films like Taken 2 or The Expendables under their collective belt!!!).

Overall, I'd have to give Cuban Fury a four and a half out of five, because it was great, but not something that would be my film of the year. However, there wasn't much of anything wrong with it, and so it is totally deserving of the highest score possible that I can give without marking it as mind-blowing. 

4.5/5

****

Written by Jon Petre.