Cool Runnings
Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, this flawed but joyous bobsled tale will warm your heart every time.
PRE-GAME 🛷
Welcome back to Balls on Film! 👋🏻
It’s getting to that time of year where everything feels like it’s both winding down and ramping up at the same time. The festive rush is in full swing, yet my mind is already shifting into ‘out of office’ mode. As I mentioned last week, there’s not a lot of Christmas-themed sports movies out there, but I wanted to end the year with a couple that at least contain elements of winter. We’re going bobsledding with Cool Runnings this week, and stepping into the ring with Rocky IV next Friday, which features a Christmas Day boxing match. After that, I’ll be taking a break for a couple of weeks and will return in the new year. I’m looking forward to taking a bit of a break from my phone, laptop and social media in general over the festive period, and recharging for a bit with family and friends.
I’m also very happy to report that Balls on Film surpassed 100 subscribers earlier this week! I know that there are publications on here with thousands and thousands of readers, but all 100 of you signing up to read my silly little sports movie newsletter each week means a lot. It can often feel like you’re writing into the void when you start something new, especially when a post underperforms or you don’t see any growth in numbers for a sustained period - but I love talking movies with all of you, and I’m very grateful for all of your support. Here’s to the next one hundred, and many more sports movies in the future!
This week didn’t start out so great for me, with Juan Soto leaving my New York Yankees and signing with the Mets, so I was certainly glad that I’d lined up a fun movie to take my mind off of it for a couple of hours. Watching this again, however, ended up being a more complicated experience than I was expecting. Let’s get to Cool Runnings!
Sanka, you dead?
FIRST HALF 🛷
Watching it now, I don’t know if I’d call Cool Runnings a truly great movie, but it’s one that never fails to put a smile on my face, despite its imperfections. It’s pure feel-good cinema, and at the same time, it’s full of the usual sports movie clichés and some caricatured elements that don’t hold up so well. Yet, despite its flaws (which we’ll get into), Cool Runnings has a unique charm and a big heart that still makes it a joy to revisit.
The film is loosely based on the true story of the first Jamaican bobsleigh team to compete in the Winter Olympics. The story follows Derice Bannock (Leon), a sprinter whose dreams of competing are derailed by an accident during the qualifiers. Refusing to give up, he recruits an unlikely team - his friend Sanka (Doug E. Doug), Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba) and Junior (Rawle D. Lewis) - to compete in bobsledding and form a team. They enlist the help of disgraced former Olympian Irv Blitzer (John Candy), who reluctantly agrees to coach the team.
According to an ESPN feature from 2014, substantial creative liberties were taken with the source material, and it was claimed that ‘about one percent’ of the story was actually true. While this certainly doesn’t detract from the movie’s heart, it is important to note that this isn’t the real tale of the real Jamaican bobsled team - it’s a sanitised Hollywood version.
Where Cool Runnings truly comes to life, though, is in its characters. Derice and the rest of the team, and their chemistry with each other is the heart and soul of the movie. Watching them go from strangers with who clash to a tight-knit team may be sports movie formula 101, but it’s wonderful to watch here.
And then there’s the late, great John Candy as Irv. In one of his final performances, he plays one of thebmore nuanced roles of his career. There’s the usual John Candy humour and charm, of course - but Irv is a man battling with redemption, and there’s a few fantastic scenes here that veer away from the comedy and into something much more dramatic and heartfelt. The boardroom speech later in the film is particularly memorable, with Candy really showing off his range as an actor.
Speaking of comedy, there is some stuff here doesn’t really work. Some of the jokes rely on broad caricature humour, and while the film never feels mean-spirited at all, some of it just feels a bit flat and outdated. Doug E. Doug as Sanka brings some of the film’s best humour, even when it begins to feel a bit forced at times. I know it really doesn’t sound like I have anything good to say about the humour in a film that I’ve already told you I’m very fond of, but that’s what makes Cool Runnings such an odd rewatch in 2024. It’s just got this undeniable energy, and good-natured tone that, along with a bunch of likeable characters, manages to rise above these missteps.
I guess you could argue that, yes, the film might play fast and loose with the actual history of the Jamaican bobsled team, but at the end of the day, it isn’t a documentary - it’s a Disney sports movie that’s designed to put a smile on your face and be a slice of feel-good family cinema. To that end, it certainly succeeds, but I can appreciate both sides of the debate around this one.
Despite its flaws, Cool Runnings sticks the landing - quite literally! The final sequence, where the team carries the crashed sled across the finish line, is one of the most iconic moments in sports movies, for me. Yes, it’s cliched and a bit cheesy, but it’s undeniably moving.
Until now, it had been a long time since I’d watched Cool Runnings. Revisiting it did highlight how glaringly flawed it is in some ways, but it still left me with those same feelings of comfort and happiness that I remember fondly. Sure, it’s predictable, and some of the humour is dated - but it just radiates charm, optimism, and pure joy. It’s a genuinely uplifting experience, and features one of my favourite John Candy performances ever.
Cool Runnings is available to stream on Disney Plus.
HALFTIME 🛷
Let’s take a break for halftime.
I’ve been watching Christmas movies all week, and it’s been a mixed bag, to be honest…
Our Little Secret
I’m definitely here for the Lindsay Lohan Netflix Christmas movie run each year. This was extremely silly, but fun. A nice switch-your-brain-off Sunday afternoon festive watch, but WHAT IN THE HOLY HECK was that opening credit montage all about? Talk about jarring! 😂
Streaming on Netflix
What Happens Later
First of all, this is in no way a Christmas movie. There’s some snow visible in the background at times, but other than that, I don’t recall a single mention of Christmas or anything festive. Look, I’m a fan of a dialogue-driven character movie, but the dialogue actually needs to be good for it to work. Everything about this is just incredibly dull, and the two characters just don’t ever shut up for one second. It was both exhausting, and boring at the same time.
Available to stream on Now TV in the UK, and available to purchase via most digital platforms.
Love Hard
I know this one is a few years old now, but it totally passed me by when it was originally released. I enjoyed it quite a bit - definitely one of the better Netflix festive originals. Nina Dobrev is great here, and there’s plenty of solid laughs mixed in with some heartfelt moments throughout.
Streaming on Netflix.
Don’t forget to comment on the weekly chat thread over in the Balls on Film subscriber chat, which you can access from the main page or via the chat tab at the bottom of the screen in the Substack app. I’d love to hear about all the new things you guys are watching, if you’d like to dive in and share.
Reminder: if the newsletter isn’t going to your inbox, and going to junk mail instead, please be sure to locate the mail in your junk folder, and mark it as not spam. Alternatively, just reply to any email from me with a quick hello, and it shouldn’t happen again! 😊
Now, let’s get back on the bobsled!
SECOND HALF 🛷
Let’s jump into some awards and bonus content.
BEST SCENE 🏆
I’ve got to give it to the boardroom scene. John Candy is one of the best comedy actors of all time, but he could also switch it up and deliver more serious, heartfelt moments.
BEST LINE 🏆
Sanka: “Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! Cool Runnings!”
As a close second, it’s Irv with “it's not so much the heat, it's the humidity that'll kill you”. The delivery is just perfect.
MVP AWARD 🏆
John Candy. I still oddly feel like this is one of his lesser-talked about roles, despite it being a very well-known and beloved film. He’s so great here, though. In every one of his movies, he never failed to make you care about his character simply through humour. One of the all-time greats.
IMDB TRIVIA HIGHLIGHT 🏆
Contrary to the story in movie, the Jamaican team was met with open arms by the international Bobsledding teams. One of the other teams even went so far as to lend the Jamaican team a back-up sled so they could qualify.
BEST LETTERBOXD REVIEW 🏆
He might be right.
BONUS FEATURE 💿
This interview with the cast 30 years later is well worth a watch.
And here’s Lewis Hamilton on Graham Norton talking about how the movie inspired him:
POST-GAME 🛷
That just about does it for this week.
As well as John Lees joining me to discuss all things Rocky IV next week, I’ll also be recapping some of the best things I’ve watched this year. I’d love to know what your favourite things of 2024 have been - whether it’s a movie, a tv show you’ve loved, a book you read - anything at all, let me know in the comments!
I hope you’ll join me next week to close out the 2024 Balls on Film season.
~James
I’ve probably watched this movie like 8 times! What a classic. 😂
As a Mets fan, I offer my condole-
HAHAHAHAHAHA NO I DON'T!
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com