COOL RUNNINGS!

As the Winter Olympics draw to a conclusion, the timing of COOL RUNNINGS as our choice for "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" couldn't be better! Yes, I admit, of course I planned it. What I DIDN'T plan on was the fact that on Saturday of this week, the American 4-man Bobsled team will give it their all and compete for the Gold! So, basically I did "luck out". But there was more to my motivation in selecting this movie. For one thing, it is based on a true story, and for another it is a movie the entire family can watch. There is some mild adult language laced here and there but truthfully, this is covered up a bit by the accents of four Jamaican athletes "going to the extreme" to compete as bobsled racers at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Everyone who isn't a millionaire can relate to this movie.

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For starters, the group has some personality issues to overcome with one another. Then there's the reality of "resources"; they haven't got any. Adding to this scenario is the fact that the four guys have virtually no clue about winter sports. Without meaning to make a pun, it is all uphill from here. But the primary reason I chose this movie of overcoming obstacles is that each of us has our own, and this is one hell of a motivation movie to remind us never to allow anything stand in our way. The four Jamaicans enlist the help of a down-and-out ex-champion American slider named Irv (played by the late John Candy). Irv is slowly drawn back to a sport he had come to loathe, after enduring the pain of his own failed career. But Irv is now faced with coaching a team of complete novices, and soon he realizes he cannot turn his back on them. He becomes committed and determined to turn them around and to somehow redeem his own career. There is a lot of good stuff here: Pride, Determination, and Dignity, as the bobsledders make their impossible dreams come true in Calgary, Canada.

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Directed by Jon Turtlebaum for Walt Disney Studios, sit back and enjoy this with someone you love!

P.S.: Some Upcheer: My Webmaster Jason Buckley and wife Anne became parents Sunday to an absolutely adorable baby girl and her name is Stella. See her beautiful photos at www.jasonbuckley.com/Stella . Or just Click onto Jason's Blog to the right margin here on my site! Congratulations Jason & Anne! Of course, this makes Bud and Cathy the youngest Grandparents I've ever known!