Rat Race Movie Review:


I have to admit, When I first saw the trailer for this movie I thought it was going to be the stupidest thing going. It looked like it was going to be a lesser retread of the classic It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Soon after, I saw an interview with John Cleese who stars in the film. He had said that this was only the second script in his life where he knew would be funny as soon as he read it (the first being Clockwise). When you consider some of the scripts that he has read (Life of Brian, Holy Grail, Fish Called Wanda) that statement shouldn't be taken lightly. At the very least It made me want to go see if it was as bad as the preview looked or as good as Cleese said it would be.

The film opens up in a Las Vegas casino. Several of the patrons playing the slot machines win odd looking gold coins that admit them into a private party. When they arrive, they are met with a Casino Owner (John Cleese) who tells them that they won a chance to compete for 2 million dollars. They are all given a key to the locker of a train station in New Mexico where the cash is and then they are told that the race has started. The rules of the contest are simple. There are no rules. At first, they all decide that it is a scam and then one by one they make a break for the hills. The group is made up an assortment of people. An NFL referee (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who has recently blown a coin toss in a championship game, a vacationing family man (Jon Lovitz) who is dragging his wife and kids half way across country, a straight arrow lawyer (Brecken Meyer) who has never done a crazy thing in his life, two con artist brothers (Seth Green and Vince Vieluf) with more balls than brains, a recently reunited mother and daughter (Whopie Goldberg and Lanei Chapman) and an Italian tourist (Rowan Atkinson). Each of them get off to an early start and they all run in to snags. The radar at the airport breaks down and they all have to scramble for alternative transportation. Vengeance seeking cabbies, bathroom breaks, squirrel saleswomen, a bus full of Lucy's, and a missing human heart all conspire against the contestants.

This is with out a doubt the funniest film that I have seen in years. It is not the most sophisticated humor around. It is juvenile at times and it relies on lowest common denominator humor at other times, but no matter what type of humor they use it is funny ALL the time. The cast, which also features Amy smart, Kathy Bates, Wayne Knight, Paul Rodriguez and Dave Thomas are all exceptionally good and the situations that they put them in are even better. I dare you not to laugh when Jon Lovitz and family visit the Barbie museum and the running jokes there after. I don't know what the marketing strategy was but for some reason they show you all the worst stuff in the preview. I am glad that they did because most of the better jokes would have been ruined if you saw a bit of them in advance.

This is a must see film. I have not laughed this hard at a movie in years and judging from the audience reaction neither have they. Each of the cast does a great job and director Jerry Zucker (Airplane) has directed a terrific, silly summer popcorn film that should not be missed. On a 1 to 10 scale, Rat Race gets a 9.5.

Paul Ferris

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