Cool Runnings (1993)

This is one of three sports movies that I can easily enjoy, the other two being Happy Gilmore and Moneyball. The main reason it is enjoyable is because it is more of a comedy than anything else. Most sports movies attempt to be inspirational by having an underdog team win the championship against insurmountable odds, usually with some kind of emotional conflict in it (e.g. Remember the Titans, Miracle, Rudy, The Perfect Game, The Express, Brian's Song). While Cool Runnings does feature an underdog team and has some amount of emotion in it, there is a much different feel to it than the aforementioned films. This is likely because it is not base on a true story, or at least very loosely, has no overriding emotional subplot, and has lots of humor mixed in with it. It also helps that the team is good evidently pretty good, but metaphorically crashes and burns due to unfortunate circumstances at the end. However, there is still an air of inspiration to the end sequence as the world recognizes their feats. The main characters are each easy to root for and likable in their own way. Their personalities are well developed and plausible as well as their relationships with each other. Derice and Sanka are friends already, so they obviously have pretty good character chemistry right from the start, though Derice has relatively little personality. Junior gets along well enough with the other four guys by being moderately outgoing. Yul is obviously averse to his teammates, but gradually pushes his emotions and pride aside to relate and collaborate with his teammates while retaining his cold personality. Irv is the only character that I have seen portrayed by John Candy who is not cheerful. However, Candy pulls off being a secluded and sorrowed guy. He does not contribute very much humor to the plot, but is nonetheless a good character. We can clearly see that the team sort of gives him hope, even if he tries to hide it.The sports element of the movie doesn't really kick in until after about forty-five minutes when the team gets to Calgary for the Olympics. Here, the emotional conflict is kicked up a notch in terms of Irv's dispute with the board and Junior standing up to his dad. There are only a few bobsled runs that are shown, and some of them are done for comical purposes. The front-runner Swiss team are kind of put in the villain position here, and we have a couple of encounters between the Jamaican and the Swiss athletes. Apart from that, we see some training scenes throughout.Finally we have the comedy element. The humorous moments come at a pretty constant rate with the same feel to the gags and lines. Some of the humor comes simply because of the absurd idea of a Jamaican bobsled team. Sanka contributes the most laughs out of anyone from his antics on the ice, to his three pump-up songs that he composes throughout, and other various jokes. The one scene that is devoted purely to comedy is the scene where the team tries to raise enough money to get them to Calgary. The technical execution is nothing special, but the acting and scripting is fine for the most part. One could maybe argue that it discriminates against Jamaicans, but I don't know enough about Jamaica to discuss this. The story is not award-winning by any means, but in a movie that is just sort of suppose to be fun, a strong story is not entirely necessary. I would recommend it to anyone seeking a good kid friendly comedy that isn't geared too strongly towards kids. I will caution prospective viewers not to be misguided into thinking this is a stereotypical inspirational sports film, because it isn't. It's not something I would recommend you rush out to buy, but if you happen to come across it, it's worth a try. Overall Rating: 8/10

It's 1987 Jamaica. Derice Bannock (Leon) fails to qualify for the Olympics 100-metre dash in Seoul when Junior Bevil (Rawle D. Lewis) falls and trips him and Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba). He is devastated and told to wait for another 4 years. He sees Irving Blitzer (John Candy) in an old photo with his father. Irv is a former medal winner friend of his father who is now a bookie living in Jamaica. He has the idea to start a Jamaican bobsled team with his bumbling push cart friend Sanka Coffie (Doug E. Doug). Along with rich boy Junior, angry Yul, and Irv, they head to the Calgary Winter Olympics. This is simply a fun movie. It's mostly due to the characters and the actors. Doug E. Doug delivers the light hearted humor. There's a real good-nature charm to this movie. It follows a familiar formula.

We loved the film. Favourite phrase : "You dead, man?".We liked the sport, the courage and pride of the bobsledders.The film is very funny, Sanka is funny with his egg.Favourite character : Sanka. The film is very funny, Sanka is funny with his egg.Favourite phrase : "You dead, man?".We loved the music. We loved the film. We liked Jamaica and Canada.The team spirit is very important. Favourite character : Sanka.We liked Jamaica and Canada. We liked the sport, the courage and pride of the bobsledders.The 5A class in Fréjus

Cool Runnings.I first saw this film as a random watch because i was pretty bored on a Weekend afternoon. And boy, was I immediately hooked. It's one of those rare films that you could watch over and over again without getting tired of it, and that is really what i liked most about Cool Runnings.I also loved this movie because of the fact it was based on a true story. These movies always leave me wanting to know what actually happened in real life, if i didn't know already, which allowed me compare how close the feature was to the actual event. Apart from the characters having different names, the other parts were pretty much accurate, and that always gives a film a boosted rating from me.The plot was well put together as well in my eyes, mainly because the characters all seem to have fitted in with the storyline anyway. You could clearly see from the start who the 4 main characters were going to be, and it remained that way throughout.The characters themselves were perfectly casted, particularly Rawle D. Lewis (Junior Bevil. His ability to play his personality is an all-time favourite. The late John Candy was very good as Irv Blitzer as well.Overall this film is an all-time great, and will be for years to come.5 stars ***** 10/10