Story
Cuban Fury begins when Bruce Garrett (Ben Radcliffe) is 13 years old. He and his sister Sam (Isabella Steinbarth) are winning awards around the country for their salsa dancing skills. They are about to compete in the national championships when Bruce is viciously attacked by a gang of bullies. This ends his hopes of a dancing career.
Twenty-two years later, Bruce (Nick Frost) works in a mundane office job with colleague Drew (Chris O’Dowd), who is a real lowlife. Things pick up at work when Julia (Rashida Jones), a new attractive female boss, arrives. Bruce is instantly attracted to Julia, but Drew is determined to ‘have her’ first. Bruce discovers that Julia is a salsa dancer and he sees this as an opportunity to win her over. But he must radically revive his salsa skills, which he does with the encouragement of his sister (Olivia Colman) and former tough tutor Ron Parfait (Ian McShane). Harder for Bruce is overcoming his fear of being humiliated.
Themes
Dance; bullying
Violence
Cuban Fury has some violence. For example:
Sexual references
Cuban Fury has a lot of sexual references. For example:
- Drew continually makes sexual remarks, which are often demeaning to other characters.
- Bejan (Kayvan Novak) is Bruce’s very flamboyant dance partner, who makes advances towards Bruce.
- There is a mention of incest.
- Bruce arrives at Julia’s front door to ask her out. Drew appears in the background without his trousers on.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
Cuban fury shows some use of substances. For example:
- Characters drink a lot in different places: at home, the pub, parties and so on.
- Characters drink vodka out of a bottle.
Nudity and sexual activity
Cuban Fury has no nudity, but characters do a lot of sexy dancing wearing skimpy clothing.
Product placement
The following products are displayed or used in Cuban Fury: Coke, Fanta, Apple computers and GHD Engineering.
Coarse language
Cuban Fury has a lot of coarse language.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Cuban Fury is a British comedy with a difference. The salsa dancing is great to watch, but the characters are very stereotypical and the story is predictable. The movie will appeal to teenagers and adults but isn’t suitable for younger children.
The main messages from this movie are to follow your dreams and not be put off by what others think of you.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:
- overcoming your fears
- believing in yourself
- being tolerant
- putting more value on sincerity and honesty than on outward appearances.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues such as:
- sexual objectification of women: should this still be happening in the workplace?
- sexual harassment in the workplace
- bullying of boys and men who want to dance.