Saturday, October 9, 2010

Cool Runnings (1993)

 

Based on the true story of the First Jamaican bobsled team trying to make it to the winter Olympics. 

This was one of my favorite movies as a kid so I decided to watch it to see why I liked it so much. Its a goofy comedy about Jamaican track stars that lose there chance at the summer olympics so they decide to start a bobsled team to compete in the winter olympics. The enroll the help of Irving Blitzer (John Candy), a former olympic bobsledder who had his medals taken away for cheating.

The comedy in this movie is fueled by Sanka (Doug E. Doug) who is the only one of the group who is not a sprinter. He is the only one of the group that doesn't go through some personal transformation of the group, he is there only to bring the jokes.  These 4 have to conquer the cold, learn to run on ice and deal with all of the bobsledding purists who dont believe that they should be there.

The movie is based on a true story, but really is only true on about two points. The coach originally wanted sprinters but got no interest from the countries best. They did borrow a bobsled from the USA, and they did crash in their final run, after crashing they did walk their sled to the finish line (not on their shoulders). Thats about as close it comes to being true, they do use actual footage from the crash which is cool.

This is your basic Disney kids movie, goofy villains, cheap jokes and a happy ending (sort of). I can see how I would of liked it so much as a kid, but its not really as fun for adults.

When To Watch Rating: Finding Your Inner Child


Available on DVD

1 comment:

  1. You've just reminded me how much I loved this film as a kid.

    Whatever happened to Doug E. Doug anyway?

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