Cool Runnings (1993)

Tagline: One Dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty Below Zero.

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

Irving Blitzer disgraced himself when putting extra weights into his team's bob in the Olympics, resulting in his gold medal being taken away from him. Years later, Derice Bannock, son to a former friend of Irv, fails to qualify for the 100-yard sprint for the Olympics due to a stupid accident. But when he hears of Irving Blitzer living also on Jamaica, Derice decides to go to the Games anyway. If not as a sprinter, then as a bobsledder. After some starting problems, the first Jamaican bobsledding team is formed and heads for Calgary. In the freezing weather Derice, Sanka, Junior and Yul are only laughed at, since nobody can take a Jamaican bobsledding team led by a disgraced trainer for serious. But team spirit and a healthy self confidence may lead to a few surprises in the upcoming Winter Games.

Review by James Berardinelli 1993

A bobsledding team from Jamaica? Well, as the old cliche puts it, truth is stranger than fiction. Except that Cool Runnings tries to fictionalize the truth, forcing the story into the familiar "overachieving underdog" mold. A film that could have presented a fresh look at an unusual sport proves instead to be entirely mediocre and forgettable.

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