Rat
Race
(2001)
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 Hour and 52 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: AEvery so often, there comes along a movie that makes you laugh so hard that you nearly piss yourself. This is one of those films.
"Rat Race" has no moments of stupid sentimentality. It has no larger goal on its mind. It just wants to make you laugh and laugh a lot. And, at that, it succeeds admirably. It's unfortunate that most critics have torn this film to shreds and instead praised the pretentious and utterly unfunny "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". Did critics forget what was funny? Well, this one hasn't.
"Rat Race" is the story of a dozen characters scrambling through the desert of New Mexico in order to beat one another to a jackpot hidden in a train station locker by a casino owner (John Cleese). Cleese has organized this as a horse race involving horses that can cheat, steal and lie. A group of gamblers has laid bets on them, the one who chose the right "horse" takes home a jackpot of their own. The plot is as simple as that, but it's the complications that each character must overcome that make up the bulk of the hilarity that is to be had here. Cleese and his roomful of gamblers are pretty funny also, betting on virtually anything out of their addiction and greed.
The characters scrambling for the jackpot are all fun to watch. Jon Lovitz is a desperate Jewish man on vacation. Breckin Myer is a staid lawyer who, for once in his life, is doing something crazy. Amy Smart is a sweet yet volatile helicopter pilot. Cuba Gooding Jr. is a disgraced football ref. Whoopi Goldberg and Lanei Chapman are a mother and daughter who have just been reunited and are bonding as they race for the loot. Seth Green (better here than in the largely pointless "America's Sweethearts") and Vince Vieluf are two brothers willing to do anything for a buck (or 2 million of them). Last but not least, we have Rowan Atkinson as a narcoleptic Italian who is in it just because it seems like fun.
Each and every cast member does an admirable job. Yes, even Whoopi Goldberg! I was as shocked as you! And there are also some witty support from players as various as Kathy Najimy, Wayne Knight, Kathy Bates, Dave Thomas and a bus full of Lucille Ball impersonators. There are many different forms of humor at use here, but the main one is physical and circumstantial comedy. Neither of these forms have been much in evidence lately. American comedy seems to have rushed for the grossout and pushed aside all other forms of humor. Which is a shame. But it does make this film exceptionally refreshing. No one gets pissed on. No one screws a pie. No one farts and sets off a series of alarms. No one kills a goat and wears its skin. None of that bullshit. Just good, old-fashioned humor from the days when a script had to be witty rather than filthy. This is refreshing, exhilaratingly light-hearted stuff that made me giddy. A smile was plastered to my face the whole way through and I laughed louder and longer than I have in a good long time. "American Pie 2" was very funny, but this one is even better. It's more consistent.
It also has a nice comment on greed and our anything-for-a-buck culture worked into it. The direction is sure-handed and very few jokes fizzle. Credit Jerry Zucker with that. That's the difference between hiring one of the guys who brought you "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun" rather than the guy responsible for directing a Bud Light commercial three years ago. Even though the ending does sit a little strangely and the song "All Star" is used in yet another major motion picture (can we please retire it now?), it's still a rollicking good time at the theater.
I saw three comedies in the past three days, and this was head and shoulders above the rest.
It's a "Mad World" for the new millennium, maybe even funnier. In short: I had a good time.