If you have a dream, go after it, no matter what anyone else says. That’s the message of this satisfying, slapstick, poignant, reality-based story of the improbable Jamaican bobsled team’s ill-fated run at the Winter Olympics.

Perhaps the late John Candy’s greatest film, Cool Runnings is about the triumph of human spirit, ambition, love, patriotism, redemption and the joy of being part of a team. After a talented sprinter fails to qualify for the summer games, he get the idea of taking up bobsledding.

Against impossible odds, coached by an alcohol-soaked and disgraced U.S. bobsledder living in exile, the colorful bobsled team – consisting of track runners and a downhill push-cart racer who calls himself Sanka Coffee – undergoes intense training to overcome absurd odds and impossible administrative obstacles to make the finals at the Calgary Olympics. The world chuckles at the idea of bobsledders from a tropical island with no snow, no ice and certainly no bobsleds, but the Jamaicans show unquenchable spirit. However, on worldwide TV, a bad bounce sends their ancient sled careening out of control. As the broken sled skids upside down to a stop, is it all over? Did they fail? The world, awestruck, deliriously cheers – knowing that whenever things seem utterly impossible, look to the Jamaican bobsled team.

~ Rob Kerby