Most critics like Cool Runnings, and nobody dislikes it. The praise gathers around John Candy, whose performance several reviews single out as more thoughtful and more touching than the broad comedy around him would suggest. The bobsled runs themselves get credit, and most reviews agree that the true story of a Jamaican team at the Winter Games carries the film a long way. The warmer notices call it a feel-good comedy that works for any age.
The reservations are about predictability. Radio Times finds it patronising in places, and Empire thinks it corny and less funny than it promises, though both still come down on its side. The spread is narrow: nobody goes lower than the mid-sixties, and the most enthusiastic review, from Digital Spy two decades after release, argues that the film has lasted and that its ending still lands. Two of the seven reviews could not be fully read, so the picture rests on five.