Cuban Fury

image for Cuban Fury

Short takes

Not recommended under 13, PG to 15(Sexual references).

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Cuban Fury
  • a review of Cuban Fury completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 20 March 2014.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not recommended
Children 13-15 Parental Guidance recommended

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Cuban Fury
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Sexual references and coarse language
Length: 98 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

As a 13 year old, Bruce Garrett (Ben Radcliffe) and his sister Sam (Isabella Steinbarth) were winning awards around the country for their Salsa dancing skills and were about to tackle the national championships when Bruce was viciously attacked by a gang of bullies which put an end to his hopes of a dancing career.
22 years later, Bruce (Nick Frost) is now working in a mundane office job with a 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 unfortunately for him, 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. Firstly though, he has to not only radically brush up on his Salsa skills, which he does with the encouragement of his sister (Olivia Colman) and former tough tutor Ron Parfait (Ian McShane), but also overcome his fear of being humiliated.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Dance; Bullying

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Bruce, as a young boy, is bullied for wearing his dancing clothes and beaten by a gang of boys. He is left bloodied and lying in a pool of water.
  • Bruce and Drew have a ‘Salsa’ fight – a stylised sequence in which Drew gets knocked out.
  • Drew is also a bully and on occasions pinches Bruce’s bottom and his crotch.
  • Julia accidentally crashes her car into Bruce on his bicycle.
  • Bruce argues with his friend Gary (Rory Kinnear) and punches him in the face.
  • Gary hits golf balls at Bruce.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

Other than the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are no visually scary scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Other than the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are no visually scary scenes that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Drew’s sexual harassment of Bruce could be disturbing to children in this age group.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing particularly scary.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Coke
  • Fanta
  • Apple computers
  • GHD Engineering

Sexual references

There are a lot of sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Drew makes continuous sexual remarks throughout the movie such as:
  • Julia would be an easy sexual conquest for him.
  • Women use men like Bruce to practise on for real men like him.
  • He wants to get ‘all up inside Julia’.
  • Instead of  ‘making love to your hand’
  • ‘I would be honoured if I could fuck you’.
  • Bejan (Kayvan Novak) is Bruce’s very flamboyant dance partner who makes advances at Bruce.
  • Mention of incest.
  • Bruce arrives at Julia’s front door to ask her out and Drew appears in the background without his trousers on.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • No nudity but plenty of sexy dancing in skimpy clothing.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • A lot of drinking in various locations: at home, the pub, parties etc.
  • Drinking vodka out of a bottle.

Coarse language

There is a lot of coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Several uses of fuck, fucking hell etc.
  • Bitch face
  • Shitting me
  • Oh my God
  • Taking the piss
  • Bastard
  • Shitty
  • Prick
  • Arsehole
  • Jesus Christ
  • Dick
  • Lick my pussy

In a nutshell

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. It will however, appeal to teens and adults but due to its content is not suitable for younger children.

The main messages from this movie are to follow your dreams and to be undeterred by what others think of you.

  • Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
  • Overcoming your fears
  • Believing in yourself
  • Tolerance
  • Inner qualities such as sincerity and honesty are more important than outward appearances.


This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as.

  • The objectification of women as sex objects – should this still be happening in the work place?
  • Sexual harassment in the workplace is quite unacceptable.
  • Why do boys make fun of other boys who want to dance?