I heard Nick Frost promoting Cuban Fury on its release and heard the stories about how he had to gather together enough money over a lengthy period to get his project off the ground. When I listen to interviews like that you do tend to lean a bit towards the producers and in this case the star (he wears two hats) for the hard work in getting a non studio non blockbuster to the screen.
But then you often realise why American television produces so much 'made for TV' film fodder, because in America this film would not have made it to cinema release. This merely highlights how low the true British film has fallen since the great days of British comedy, such as Ealing, and even to a degree, the Carry Ons.
Cuban Fury is OK, no more. Nick Frost is OK, no more. There is a reason why actors form teams and that is because they play a foil for each other, and in Cuban Fury Nick Frost has to carry the film which neither he nor the script is capable of. Frost's foil, as such in this film is Chris O'Dowd, but in reality his is the love opposition in Frost's hopes of getting the hand of Rashida Jones. So O'Dowd is working against Frost for the entirety of the film and his over the top lothario is so poorly acted, developed and scripted that his time on screen is time that is more annoying that fun in what is meant to be a comedy.
The story surrounds Frost's infatuation for Jones when she joins his Company as Head of Sales. His infatuation is further enhanced when he realises that she enjoys Salsa, a format that Frost was a champion in before he was bullied out of it in his teenage years. Love has no boundaries however, and Frost is determined to woe this women with his rusty skills and returns to his old mentor, played by Ian McShane, to see whether his now larger and less lithe physique still has the old magic.
As is usual in this kinds of films the 'little man' must battle adversity to win his girl, and in some amusing pre-climax dance scenes that it was Frost does. The fight scene between him and O'Dowd is more akin to West Side Story than Rocky and is very amusing and well edited. But the premise only cast your mind back to another similar British film of recent years, namely Run Fat Boy Run, which did this 'boy tries to win girl' storyline so much better.
The film has a great cast of British characters with McShane definitely becoming a new Oliver Reed for scene stealing. Also worthy are Olivia Colman as Frost's former dance partner sister and Kayvan Novak who steals most of the scenes he appears in.
This film is OK, but could have been so much better.
