Home Featured Content

10 Reasons Cool Runnings Is Every Bit As Good As You Remember It

While nostalgia may inform a certain amount of taste and affection we have for movies from our childhood, some really do stand the test of time. The Shawshank Redemption is perhaps the best example of a film that was shown over and over and over on TV in the 90s, resulting in a popularity that keeps it perennially at the top of the IMDb ratings list. Others, like Hook, show their age, and it’s more than just a few wrinkled spots (for the record, I’m still a fan, though I begrudgingly admit I am in the minority). I find it hard to go back and try to objectively evaluate something I loved as a kid. It can be tinged by nostalgia, but also by disappointment in the loss of magic or innocence, or by a cynicism that dictates if you liked something as a kid, liking it as an adult shows a lack of maturity.

[h2]3) It employs that classic Disney signature for great sight gags[/h2]

Cool Runnings

Recommended Videos

The funny lines are the easiest part of any movie to remember and bring to mind weeks, months and years later. Calling to mind a specific sight gag is more difficult, and so seeing some of the visual humor of the movie as if it was the first time again was tremendous fun. Much of this relies on the juxtaposition of the Jamaicans with the Canadian environment, whether this consists of them putting on layers and layers of clothes, and then wrapping their luggage bags around themselves on top of that, or else the mere fact that their one unavoidable stand-out physical trait—their blackness—is further represented by the bright colors they continue to wear around their dull-colored opponents.

Then there are little things. John Candy trying to catch them all with snowballs, only to get a face full of snow himself. The room of potential recruits emptying before Irv turns the lights back on from the film. Sanka emerging from the ice truck with a frozen head and breaking off one of his dreadlocks. Classic stuff, and watching it again makes you appreciate the novelty of the visual comedy that made Disney famous and a giant of the screen.

Continue reading on the next page…