‘I see pride! I see power! I see a bad-ass mother who don’t take no crap off of nobody!’
When I was a kid, I had a babysitter called Kerry. Occasionally, when she couldn’t make it, her brother Craig would drop by instead. He would always bring a film with him for us to watch whilst I asked annoying questions that he answered with patience and good grace. It was through these screenings that I was introduced to Gremlins, The Best of the Best and The Karate Kid. Another film on that list is Cool Runnings. Whilst I’ve always thought highly of the story of the famous Jamaican bobsleigh team, It has been a couple of decades since I revisited it. And boy, is this a great movie…
Derice Bannock (Leon – yes, the actor only has one name like Madonna or Kermit) is a man with a dream. Unfortunately, that dream is to be an Olympic sprinter and that dream dies within the first 15 minutes of the movie. Not to be deterred, Derice recruits three of his fellow Jamaicans and decides to form the first ever Jamaican bobsleigh team. Under the tutelage of washed up bobsleigh legend Irv (John Candy), the team, consisting of rich daddy’s boy Junior (Rawle D. Lewis), uncompromising tough guy Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba) and eternal optimist Sanka Coffie (Doug E. Doug), have their heart set on the big time.
I should start off by saying how well this film has aged. The Jamaican heritage is celebrated here rather than played for lazy, fish-out-of-water laughs, and Tommy Swerdlow’s cosy script is full of warmth and heart. We are always laughing with Derice and his team, and Candy puts in one of his finest ever performers in a straight man role that suits his avuncular screen presence. There is a real chemistry and camaraderie between characters, and it genuinely seems like everyone involved is having a blast. This exuberance is infectious and by the end of the movie I was fully engaged (not as much as my wife mind who wept throughout the emotional final scenes).
Cool Runnings is not only notable as the last great performance of John Candy, it also follows the great tradition of the inspirational sports movie, and it fully deserves its place in the canon. A classic of the genre.