Cool Runnings (1993)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Jon Turteltaub

Writers (WGA):

Lynn Siefert (story) &
Michael Ritchie (story) ...

Release Date:

1 October 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

One Dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty Below Zero.

Plot:

Based on the true story of the First Jamacian bobsled team trying to make it to the winter olympics.

Plot Keywords:

Olympics | Bobsled | Jamaica | Winter Olympics | Airplane

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Leon	...	Derice Bannock (as Leon Robinson)
Doug E. Doug	...	Sanka Coffie
Rawle D. Lewis	...	Junior Bevil
Malik Yoba	...	Yul Brenner
John Candy	...	Irving 'Irv' Blitzer
Raymond J. Barry	...	Kurt Hemphill
Peter Outerbridge	...	Josef Grool
Paul Coeur	...	Roger
Larry Gilman	...	Larry
Charles Hyatt	...	Whitby Bevil Sr.
Winston Stona	...	Coolidge
Bertina Macauley	...	Joy Bannock
Pauline Stone Myrie	...	Momma Coffie
Kristoffer Cooper	...	Winston
Bill Dow	...	Registration Official

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild language and brief violence.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Russian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Peru:PT | South Korea:All | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Germany:o.Al. | Netherlands:AL | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

Trivia:

In the German dubbing of this movie, the German-speaking Swiss bobsledders ("eins, zwei, drei"), have been re-dubbed with a strong Swiss accent ("ace, zwoo, droo"). When the other characters imitate them, they also imitate the accent. In the original English version Hochdeutsch (standard German) is spoken.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The movie is set in 1988, but 1990s cars can be seen outside the Relaxx Inn in Calgary, Canada.

Quotes:

Sanka Coffie: So, let's talk about this billsled team.
Derice Bannock: No, bobsled team.
Sanka Coffie: Whoever. Now, about the Weaties box. I'm gunna be on it myself, right?
Derice Bannock: No, mon, you gunna be on it with me.

Movie Connections:

References Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

Soundtrack:

Wild Wild Life

Sweet, disarming film

Hands up all Jamaicans. (There are only 2.6 million people in Jamaica - so I know you don't account for a large percentage of the English-speaking world.) Hands up all those people with any interest at all in bobsledding. Hah! I knew it! No-one.

That's why `Cool Runnings' succeeds. It depends not at all on aggressive nationalism (it couldn't afford to, with a constituency of 2.6 million), and people of all countries are free to participate in the Jamaicans' perfectly reasonable patriotism. (Probably even the Swiss, whose bobsled team comes across as more than a trifle arrogant.) Nor is there any of that worship of a particular sport that makes baseball movies so unendurable for people outside of North America, Cuba and Japan. (Not that I have any evidence that baseball movies are popular in Cuba or Japan.)

There isn't any power-of-positive-thinking psychobabble, either - at least, it doesn't dominate. The four Jamaican bobsledders are separate people with different goals and ways of thinking. The coach (played beautifully by John Candy, who proves that he can act without playing the clown) doesn't ram a particular ideology down his players' throats. I doubt that any sports film has a more civilised and reasonable coach.

It comes down to this: we are given a reason to care about the characters, unrelated to nationality; and we are given a story that's worth following, even if we would never follow the sport itself. The clichés are fewer than usual and never offensive. It's a sweet film, and I doubt there's more than a handfull of people who could resist its charm.