Rat Race (2001)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A lot of fun.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Many years ago, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" brought together a lot of funny people and some excellent writing to create a neat comedy . "Rat Race" is an attempt to create a similar sort of film, though the results are very uneven...much more so than the original.The story begins in Las Vegas. Seven different people find a special coin in the slot machine--one that tells them to immediately see the boss (John Cleese). When they all do, they learn that they all have a chance to win $2,000,000. How? The money is supposedly in a dufflebag inside a locker in Silver City, New Mexico...and each is given a copy of the key. And, the first one there gets it all! And, knowing human nature, you know they won't just decide to work together and split the money....greed sets in big time! Some of the stories are very funny--particularly Jon Livitz and his family trip to the Barbie museum. That one made me laugh out loud many times. A few are just okay. And, a few are just not funny at all and are complete wastes of time--such as Rowan Atkinson and his ridiculously unfunny character as was the guy who talked funny because he had a stud in his tongue. Both were tiresome....and a tiny bit of them would have been enough. Overall, an incredibly uneven movie that really could have used a re-write....and a huge infusion of humor.

I thought it was a good movie, except for Rowan Atkinson, who I found annoying.

This movie is great. The funniness and style of humor is more similar to older style quirky comedies that has become less common in recent years. Since this side of the turn of 2000, unfortunately toilet humor became the more popular choice of film. "Rat race" knew how to be fabulous without being dirty. For anyone who has seen my list of movies reviews on my movie review page will see the large amount of old films on my list. As I just explained, you know why. From the start at the Las Vegas hotel when ten different people get a specially placed coin from the slot machines having them to meet together in a lounge where the zany humor begins. The terrific selection of actors definitely has helped this film too to being great. Our old 1960s era British veterans favorites John Cleese ("Faulty towers", "Monty Python", and "A fish called Wanda", all hilarious) and Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean"), Whoopie Goldberg (in her best performance since "Ghost" and "Clara's heart"), John Lovitz, Amy Smart as very pretty blonde, Seth Green (who's funny as Scotty in the "Austin Powers" movies), and Brekin Meyer (who somehow got charged for watching 11 hours of porn in his hotel room). Each one of these people are sent on a wild goose chase to Silver city, NM to retrieve 2 million dollars out of a bus station locker. The hilarity begins immediately and then seldom lets up. For those of you who don't like having aching sides from laughing too much, don't watch this movie. Even funny is John Cleese's very first joking comment about a huge asteroid about to plummet down and wipe out all civilization except for those selected people who will stay in a secured steel underground vault, and it would be up to them to reproduce and bring civilization back (that joke also playing reference to a couple Twilightzone episodes with that theme).Then the chase begins. Here are some of my favorite jokes. Cleese's funny comment just before everyone takes off on the race, "the race has technically been going for 45 seconds now, and so far that man standing over there is winning since he's the one standing nearest to the door". Mr. Bean falling asleep standing up, then hitching a ride with a guy delivering a heart transplant, and that situation ending up with the heart in a dog's mouth and the transplant driver considering Mr. Bean (who's revealed to have no family) as an immediate replacement heart donor. Seth Green and his buddy who can't talk clearly cause of a tongue piercing (who at one point meets a girl with similar peircing amongst other piercings too) end up with their pickup being dragged up the side of the airport control tower at the end of a rope. The same guys who later on manages to attract a cow on a hot air balloon. Whoopi Goldberg and her sister ordering mimosas (much to the waitreses' delight) and then during the race in a rocket car scene that gets them so disoriented that they end up in an asylum bus just in time for (wow!) macaroni night. The rocket car speeding by a service station while breaking the sound barrier right after the service station manager sarcastically says "dear Lord, if you don't like the way I conduct my business, send me a sign". The same service station guy right before the "dear Lord" sarcasm arguing with Brekin Meyer and Amy Smart about unfair prices and the service station guy saying they're out of sand and Amy saying "What do you mean there's no sand? We're in the desert!". Amy also happened to be a helicopter pilot, has a very funny reaction when she catches her boyfriend from overhead in her chopper cheating on her in his backyard wadding pool. Another very funny part involved Kathy Bates as a squirrel saleslady and an outcome of what shall happen to those who refuse to buy a squirrel. Then the Cuba Gooding jr. and the busload of I love Lucy impersonators (one being a drag queen) and Cuba impersonating a bus driver. Where else would we see again 50 Lucille Balls simultaneously go "helloooo"? One of the very funniest scenes of all was the John Lovitz Hitler scene. He crashes into a WW2 veterans reunion with very coincidental details between accidentally having gotten a car lighter stuck in his mouth, getting black paint the size of a short mustache on him just above his lips, and having borrowed Hitler's car from a Nazi museum. With all that, John unintentionally looks, talks, and gestures just like Hitler to the WW2 veterans. Classic. That one I liked. Also a very funny scene with Lovitz involving a female motorcycle gang right before the Hitler part. Funny enough, as Lovitz has the funniest scene, he also has my least favorite scene with talk about his kids having to go to the bathroom, the term 'prarie dogging' being said, and then what to do about it while on the road. The great scenes though were much much more in quantity than the not so great. This film overall is great and very funny.

The disappointing sort-of remake of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Rat Race has lots of familiar faces, but little at which one could laugh at loudly. Except for two mooments (sorry)--the cow flying about, strung to the hot air balloon, made my wife and daughter wince at the cruelty, but I was in almost hysterics. Jon Lovitz, getting his upper lip splotched with some sort of jam, I think, and landing in a WWII memorial, forelock flapping, little Chaplin mustache in view, and delivering an undecipherable Hitlerian explanation to the GIs why he has just crashed their party was the bright spot in a very dark and dull comedy. The trouble with Rat Race is that just throws clichéd characters at you and says, "Here, care about them!" The laughs are forced, and except for a few moments of breakout badness, it's fairly vanilla.In Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, human avarice was on display, and a lot of the humor was also forced, but the grandness of scale just made you to laugh, to care about the characters, to want to know what the "Big Dubya" was.Here, it's so hurried and soulless that I began to squirm very quickly. When Dave Thomas tells a high-priced hooker what he'd like, I was laughing, but I was relieved when the punchline got pulled and we were able to move on.Oh, well. Some of the reviewers of this film didn't like the charity ending, and I'll have to admit, I thought it destroyed the cynical nature of the plot, but watching John Cleese, as the billionaire who puts forth the contest to a group of average shrubs to win some serious cash if they can get to a bus locker in Creaking Armpit, New Mexico, was good for a laugh.One.Of three.Not a good average for 112 minutes of movie comedy.