Movie of the Week: Cool Runnings

Alexa: I’ve had major Winter Olympics withdrawal the past week, so when I saw “Cool Runnings” was available on Netflix, I knew that was the key to filling the bobsled-shaped hole in my heart. Or at least I hoped it would be. The last time I watched this movie was on the Disney Channel when I was about seven or eight, and I’m happy to say it totally holds up. No one does uplifting sports movies quite like Disney, and “Cool Runnings” is among the most fun. It’s only very loosely based on the real Jamaican bobsled team from the 1988 Winter Olympics, but it still captures the group’s resilience beautifully. Pretty much the only thing I remembered from watching the movie as a kid was Sanka’s delightful “Jamaica has a bobsled team” song, so this viewing was like discovering this gem of a story all over again. It’s wonderfully 90s but doesn’t feel too dated. Its themes of perseverance, sportsmanship and self discovery are timeless, the performances are magical and its sense of humor sets it apart from other movies in the genre. It’s just the right amount of cheesy, and never once feels insincere. In short, “Cool Runnings” is a classic. And as long as Disney is reimagining all of its classic films, how about a sequel about the Nigerian women’s bobsled team that just competed in PyeongChang, the first African athletes to ever compete in Olympic bobsledding? You’re welcome, Disney.

Joel: I seem to be the only one who never saw this movie as a kid. Sure I had heard about it before, (and I had heard the “song” from the movie enough as a kid to expect that part) but I’d never actually gotten around to watching the movie before. That being said, if I had to, I probably could have faked seeing the movie if I had needed to. In the 1990s and into the 2000s, Disney found a reliable formula for movies with sports themed underdog stories, preferably based on a true story.  Most famously perhaps is Remember the Titans but you’ve also got, Invincible, Million Dollar Arm, The Rookie, Glory Road, Miracle, and Secretariat just to name a few. And there are plenty more movies that follow a similar formula with original stories (The Mighty Ducks trilogy, Angels in the Outfield, The Big Green, etc.). If you add in Disney Channel original movies, you’ve got more of these sport themed underdog movies than you can count. This isn’t meant as a slight against Cool Runnings, First of all Cool Runnings came out in 1993 so if it didn’t start the trend, it was at least very early on. Second of all, more often than not these movies end up being fairly well made and worth your while, and Cool Runnings is a great example of that.
There are plenty of movies that you might worry that you only like because of nostalgia, but as someone who has no reason to have any strong nostalgic feelings for it’s a fun, sweet movie. You’ve probably got a good idea of the major story beats (even if you’ve never seen the movie before) but it’s the characters and what happens in between that makes the story work and Cool Runnings pulls that off well.

Chris: Oh man, this was a lovely shot of nostalgia for me. Cool Runnings was one of my favorites growing up and it held up better than I thought it would. It was cheesy Disney at it’s best and yet still pack a good dramatic punch at the right moments mostly thanks to John Candy. Watching it now with adult eyes, I think that was my biggest takeaway; John Candy’s dramatic moments because he was the only one with the monologues. As great as he was as comedy, I forget about his dramatic chops because he really delivered with those monologues. Kudos to Alexa for choosing this movie just as we’re finished up with the winter olympics because ever since this movie came out when I was five years old, bobsled has been one of my favorite events during the winter games. I was a little worried about revisiting Cool Runnings because it’s been decades since I’ve seen it last and I really hoping it would hope up but it absolutely does. Consider me relieved.

Jason: I have not seen this movie since grade school. And it was just as great as I had remembered. That’s not to say that it is exactly how I remembered. There was a lot more “adult language” than I had picked up on as a kid. I also understood Sanka and Yul’s names this time for the puns they are. I also picked up on something that made me laugh: the team is basically the Jamaican Bobsledding Ninja Turtles. You have your strong leader, the goofball, the strong but angry one, and the socially awkward nerd. Based on what I’ve read, the writers took some pretty big liberties with how the characters are portrayed compared to the actual men. They caricaturized them and turned them into cartoon versions of themselves. I mean, they would have to in order to call it a Disney movie. That doesn’t diminish the fact that this is based, if ever so loosely, on a real story of a real team of Jamaicans who competed in the 1988 winter Olympics. The footage that is show of the competition was the real footage from the event. That is pretty cool within itself. The messages that were added into the mix of self-worth and overcoming the odds and teamwork are all secondary to the fact that these guys did something that was unheard of and made themselves and their nation known in a whole new light.