Tuesday Night is Film Night is here yet again and this week it's off with the slippers and on with the dancing shoes as we get down to some sizzling Salsa action with;
Cuban Fury
There we are then, another film ticked off the list and it was a very good film indeed. So what is all about we hear you ask? (There's no need to shout, we can't really hear you).
Cuban Fury stars Nick Frost as Bruce Garrett who, at the start of the film is a childhood star on the Salsa circuit, dancing in all the competitions under the watchful eye of his tutor and mentor Ron Parfitt played by the aging disgracefully Ian McShane. Then just as the UK Junior Salsa Championship beckons and nationwide Salsa stardom is jsut around the corner, Bruce is confronted by some mean street kids who force feed him sequins and turn Bruce against the one thing he loves, fast forward 20 odd years and you have the start of a fun feelgood movie.
It's nice to see Nick Frost appear in a film without the ubiquitous Simon Pegg hogging the limelight, although Pegg manages to snatch a veritably brief cameo in this film. Frost alone is quite funny, plus the original idea for Cuban Fury was from Frost himself, so it's good see him Pegg-lessly driving a film forward. Anyway, back to the plot.
Bruce is now working for an engineering firm, alongside the boorish and arrogant Drew played very convincingly by Chris O'Dowd, clearly this character trait immediately places Bruce in the underdog position and therefore aligns the story in to feelgood mode. Ally this with the arrival of a new boss into the firm; Julia played by the lovely Rashida Jones and our feelgood film has a love interest as both Bruce and Drew are immediately taken by the new boss's looks. The story rumbles on with some suitably funny filling, supplied by a really good if somewhat unknown supporting cast and we reach the point where we find that boss Julia is into Salsa dancing. Shock! Horror! What will happen next?
Obviously, this is the queue for Bruce to don the heels of fire again and get back into the dancing, in the vain attempt to woo the boss. However, Drew has other ideas and sets out to subvert the attentions of Bruce and bag the boss for himself. Bruce is coerced by his sister Samantha played by the ever-so lovely Olivia Coleman and Bejan played by Kayvan Novak, whose constant middle-eastern and almost incomprehensible chatter pushes the bashful Bruce back to the dance floor. We did notice that it was either that Olivia Coleman got all the best lines, or at least her faultless delivery of those lines was extremely funny, we like her.
Obviously, being a feelgood comedy, the outcome is going to fairly predictable, but that's the whole point, you know where the finish line is, it's how you get there that's important and Cuban Fury does not fail to deliver in that regard. The humour is simple, but funny. The dancing is quick and rhythmic, most importantly the editing is superb, so you don't see where Nick Frost's feet finish and the professional dancers feet start, assuming that they must have cut in between professional dancers and the cast. Unless Frost did all his own dancing. Must check that.
All in all a very worthy film to watch, formulaic, funny and feelgood just what we like to watch here at TNiFN Towers.
TNiFN Rating 83%
IMDB Link
Tuesday 25 August 2015
Tuesday 18 August 2015
The Five-Year Engagement - 18th August 2015
Hello Tuesday Night is Film Night fan! (Is there more than one of you?)
We're back after a mini holiday hiatus and it's back to the good old rom-com for us tonight as we relax in front of;
The Five-Year Engagement
Starring the tolerable Jason Segal and the gorgeous Emily Blunt, last seen here at TNiFN in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Five-Year Engagement follows this quaint and cute love story from a year after the time that Tom and Violet (Segal and Blunt) first met, right up to their wedding, if only they were to get married! You see and you may have gleaned this from the title, this relationship although loving and tender and destined for a trip up the aisle, is dogged by career moves and changes of mind. It is under this premise that the story unfolds. Ably supported by their requisite friends and relatives, they are encouraged and coerced to tie the knot. Unfortunately a career move for Violet, leads to a move from San Francisco to Michigan and Tom, a up and coming chef, has to swap a top job in a San Francisco restaurant, for making sandwiches in a Michigan diner.
So a fairly formulaic approach to the story, we have a quick build up and the relationship flourishes, but then as things change, the relationship spirals out of alignment and we witness, albeit with comedic moments and pathos, the dissolution of this very happy couple. This part of the film, does tend to drag on a bit and although the jovial nature of the story tries to encourage laughs, it falls short sometimes. Also if you're in psychology that's good, as Violet is at Michigan University studying psychology, with the man who puts a spoke into the relationship, but we have to put up with some cross over between storyline and character psychoanalysis which although it works to a degree, there are areas that could have been cut and you would not have lost the core of the story.
The Five-Year Engagement tries to be funny and the supporting cast does provide the necessary levity, it's just not quite enough to fully put the com into this rom-com. As for the rom part, that's just fine. Don't get us wrong, it was a delightful and funny movie, it's just it could have benefited from better and indeed funnier writing, rather than rely on a lot of strange characters and there are a few of those. As Jason Segal wrote the screenplay, along with Nicholas Stoller, then perhaps he should have written some more funny lines, rather than rely on physical comedy.
At the end of the day, it was a good film, it just could have been better. The story was really good and the way the two main characters drifted apart was handled really well and the finale was, although expected, just what the film needed to round off a feelgood romantic comedy.
All in all, a great story idea, with mediocre writing, brilliant acting and an enjoyable ending. Worth a watch if you are a fan of rom-coms.
TNiFN Rating 71%
IMDB Link
We're back after a mini holiday hiatus and it's back to the good old rom-com for us tonight as we relax in front of;
The Five-Year Engagement
Starring the tolerable Jason Segal and the gorgeous Emily Blunt, last seen here at TNiFN in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Five-Year Engagement follows this quaint and cute love story from a year after the time that Tom and Violet (Segal and Blunt) first met, right up to their wedding, if only they were to get married! You see and you may have gleaned this from the title, this relationship although loving and tender and destined for a trip up the aisle, is dogged by career moves and changes of mind. It is under this premise that the story unfolds. Ably supported by their requisite friends and relatives, they are encouraged and coerced to tie the knot. Unfortunately a career move for Violet, leads to a move from San Francisco to Michigan and Tom, a up and coming chef, has to swap a top job in a San Francisco restaurant, for making sandwiches in a Michigan diner.
So a fairly formulaic approach to the story, we have a quick build up and the relationship flourishes, but then as things change, the relationship spirals out of alignment and we witness, albeit with comedic moments and pathos, the dissolution of this very happy couple. This part of the film, does tend to drag on a bit and although the jovial nature of the story tries to encourage laughs, it falls short sometimes. Also if you're in psychology that's good, as Violet is at Michigan University studying psychology, with the man who puts a spoke into the relationship, but we have to put up with some cross over between storyline and character psychoanalysis which although it works to a degree, there are areas that could have been cut and you would not have lost the core of the story.
The Five-Year Engagement tries to be funny and the supporting cast does provide the necessary levity, it's just not quite enough to fully put the com into this rom-com. As for the rom part, that's just fine. Don't get us wrong, it was a delightful and funny movie, it's just it could have benefited from better and indeed funnier writing, rather than rely on a lot of strange characters and there are a few of those. As Jason Segal wrote the screenplay, along with Nicholas Stoller, then perhaps he should have written some more funny lines, rather than rely on physical comedy.
At the end of the day, it was a good film, it just could have been better. The story was really good and the way the two main characters drifted apart was handled really well and the finale was, although expected, just what the film needed to round off a feelgood romantic comedy.
All in all, a great story idea, with mediocre writing, brilliant acting and an enjoyable ending. Worth a watch if you are a fan of rom-coms.
TNiFN Rating 71%
IMDB Link
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