Hacker Cinema
Cool Runnings
1993 · Film · 98 min
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
When a Jamaican sprinter is disqualified from the Olympic Games, he enlists the help of a dishonored coach to start the first Jamaican bobsled team.
4 positive5 neutralfrom 9 commenters
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11 comments on Hacker News
When something is on Disney+ it tells me what not to watch, although there are exceptions to this rule.
What happened to the company that made Cool Runnings and other great films?
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with your list, even though some of those are mediocre at best, but yeah I did mean per year, and limited to Hollywood (Parasite for instance not counting). And no, ok, I will also straight up disagree with the second Knives out Movie which I thought was absolute trash. A perfect example of poor storytelling and the form over substance of modern cinema.
But just taking say 1992 you have Last of the Mohicans, The Unforgiven, My Cousin Vinny, Malcolm X, Bad Lieutenant, Scent of a Woman, Reservoir Dogs, Dracula, Chaplin.
And then a bunch of fun schlomp like Arizona Dream, Basic Instinct, Sister Act, Army of Darkness, Home Alone 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Mighty Ducks, Wayne’s World.
These are all undoubtedly great movies.
And then another huge bunch of watchable stuff easily comparable to some of your mentions like Watcher or High Life.
And 1992 is not an outlier.
In 1993 you have Jurrasic Park, Groundhog Day, Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, Scindlers List, Meanace 2 Society, Alive, Dazed and Confused, Falling Down, In The Name of The Father, True Romance, Demolition Man, Carlitos Way, The Secret Garden, Philadelphia, A Perfect Workd, Cool Runnings, Short Cuts.
In 1991 Silence of The Lambs, Ternimator 2, JFK, Point Break, Thelma and Louise, Boyz in the Hood, The Doors, My Own Private Idaho, Barton Fink, The Fisher King, Naked Lunch.
In 1990 Goodfellas, Hunt for Red October, Total Recall, Edward Scissorhands, Home Alone, Godfather 3, Dances with Wolves, Tremors, Back to the Future 3, Awakenings, The Witches, Wild at Heart, Jacobs Ladder, Nikita, Slacker, Millers Crossing.
And the quality difference is massive too, not just somewhat better. Like just Millers Crossing is miles better than anything that has been made in the last 5 years, and I’m picking at random.
In 1994 Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Lion King, Speed, Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, Stargate, Natural Born Killers, The Crow, Clercs, Maverick, Ed Wood, In the Mouth of Madness, Interview With The Vampire.
I could go on.
And this is not even talking about how the 80s is a better decade for cinema, or how the 70s is the peak of the power of the author with far more experimental, artistic, and substantial productions.
Has quality declined? Yes. Massively. Humongously. Stupendously.
The Jamaican bobsled team was the source for the movie Cool Runnings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_national_bobsleigh_team#Beginnings
(Unfortunately, in this case, they lost control during a qualifying run.)
They've been into bobsleight on and off for the past 26 years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_national_bobsleigh_team
Their story inspired a comedy, Cool Runnings: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/
Cool Runnings! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/
Jamaica has won zero winter Olympics medals. Same with Brazil, Greece, Iran, Israel, Mexico, the Phillipines, Portugal (I stopped looking around p - check the link above) - all sizeable 'summer' countries with zero winter Olympics medals.
You probably recall the film "Cool Runnings", in which the team did not win; the point was that they were plucky underdogs and did better than expected, but they didn't place.
I think the point is that if you do have a business or starting one, then don't take your eye off of that because you're feeling like you're not social enough or that you're missing out on things.
You can only do one thing at one time, right? So if starting/running a business is really truly important to you, then run that buisness. It doesn't make sense to start a business, raise money, hire others if what you really want to do is go to a club and hang out 'till 3 in the morning. It does have to be one or the other, or that business will fail.
Now, I'm not saying not to do the social stuff. Friends and relationships are very important. What I believe Larry is saying is to not take your eyes off the prize. You've started the business for a reason. You need to be focused on it and nurture it until it succeeds. If you really don't want to put in the time for that, there are other alternative like getting a regular job. Then you can work 8 hours a day, have friends, and party. That's fine.
To be successful as an entrepreneur, you've got to dig down deep and take care of your product. Its a lot of work. A ton of work. If it wasn't, everyone would be doing it. Instead, we have a few people trying to start/run businesses. And it can be Hell. But, if you don't want to deal with that extreme focus, that's fine too.
Think of the movie Cool Runnings. While the other Jamaicans were at the Ho Down Bar, Derice was sitting in the tub going over turns. Its that type of focus that will help in succeeding at business.
The best part of this article was the hypothetical film pitch for "COOL RUNNINGS meets BLADE RUNNER".
"Cool Runnings". Not about business, but based on a true story about the first Jamaican bobsled team. About pursuing your dreams against all odds, about "showing up" ("80% of success is showing up" -- Woody Allen), and about keeping your priorities straight. One of my favorite movies, for a great many reasons.
For inspiration, I tend to prefer movies rooted in a real life story. A couple of movies already mentioned that fall into that category: The Pursuit of Happyness and October Sky. I also really like Shine, Cool Runnings, and Take the Lead.
Favorite scene from Shine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-QrSc_Jw3g
I tend to be fond of movies based on true stories. For true stories about people who set an impossible-sounding goal and accomplished it, I will nominate "October Sky" and "Cool Runnings". Neither has an office setting. The first is about a young man who did not want to end up a coal miner, like his father. He and some friends began making rockets and managed to parley that into college scholarships. IIRC, he ultimately ended up working for NASA. The second is about the origin of the first Jamaican bobsled team (that went to the Olympics).
Hopefully, people will see how this might be relevant to folks wanting to found a new business. Office Space is a good movie but is now kind of disturbing to me as someone who currently works in cubicleville. I think of it as "dire warning" rather than "inspiration".