Rat Race (2001) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"Did he say race?"
Starring Seth Green, Cuba Gooding Jr., Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Jon Lovitz, Whoopi Goldberg, Rowan Atkinson, Kathy Najimy, John Cleese, Vince Vieluf. Directed by Jerry Zucker. Rated PG-13.
Watching Rat Race is like being invited to a big party. There is so much glee in this infectious, embarassingly fun farce that even the most cynical will find themselves happily jumping on the bandwagon. The film shames American Pie 2, which thought that vulgarity was the end-all to comedy. In the August-September movie doldrums, a notorious dumping ground for studios with movies to get rid of, Rat Race is a triumph of irreverence.
The movie has a great basic foundation: rich people are really, really bored. The richest in the world are willing to throw away money just for a quick day's entertainment. Casino owner Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) smartly latches on to this concept and comes up with a game for the obscenely wealthy to play. He will collect a group of people, divide them into teams and give each team a key to a locker somewhere in New Mexico, tell them that it contains two million dollars and say the word "go." What better way to whittle away time than bet on a human horse race where the specimens actually want to reach the finish line?
The teams are Duane and Blaine Cody (Seth Green and Vince Vieluf), brothers who have no conscience or scruples; Vera and Merrill (Whoopi Goldberg and Lanei Chapman), a recently reunited mother and daughter; Nick and Tracy (Breckin Meyer and Amy Smart), an aspiring politician and a helicopter pilot; Randy Pear (Jon Lovitz) and his Perfectly Average in Every Way Family; Owen Templeton (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a nationally humiliated football referee; and Enrico (Rowan Atkinson), a narcoleptic Italian.
There is no real plot or story behind the skeleton that gets the movie from A to B, but it works even better as a series of hilarious, old-fashioned comedy vignettes. Director Jerry Zucker, who is responsible for what may be the most consistently funny movie ever (Airplane), really lets loose, which no self-aware, pop-culture-minded director would permit himself to do. Where most movies deteriorate into simple chaos, this one evolves into precise, thought-out, organized chaos that never runs out of steam.
By the time the climax rolls around, greed has completely taken over these characters, who have abandoned any other life ambitions and aspirations they may have had to get to that damn locker. The denoument, which is a complete reversal of this, is somewhat disappointing, but the journey there is one delight on top of another. Suffice it to say that Duane and Blaine wind up hanging off of a hot-air balloon with a live cow, Templeton is chased by a mob of Lucille Ball impersonators, the Pears drive Hitler's car to a World War II Veterans Club meeting and Vera and Merrill get punished for not purchasing a squirrel. These scenes aren't expected to be funny on their own merits (though they are), which is a mistake a lot of films make; instead, Zucker puts them all into brilliant context. I may not have believed it, but I did laugh.
People undervalue the sophistication of this movie and ones like it. To make a comedy, no matter how "dumb," that's timed so perfectly and works so effortlessly is a deceptively difficult endeavor. Zucker is back, and it's about time.
Grade: B+
Up Next: The Deep End
©2001 Eugene Novikov
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