The Diva's "Rat Race" Review

(click here to skip to this movie's rating) Rat Race (2001) Viewed at Pacific Place Theater Rated PG-13 ; approximate running time of 125 minutes. Directed by: Jerry Zucker Written by: Andy Breckman Starring: Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese, Whoppi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Seth Green, and Jon Lovitz Genre: Comedy WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW. The Digest A group of ordinary strangers find themselves bound to one another after they are "randomly" selected to compete for 2 million dollars. There are no rules on the quest, other than the first one who makes it to the location where the money is stored, gets it. The participants are: Enrico Pollini (Rowan Atkinson). Enrico is just in Las Vegas on vacation. He is from Italy and suffers from Narcolepsy, which means he will fall asleep at any given time. Vera Baker (Whoopi Goldberg) and Merrill Jennings (Lanai Chapman). Vera is there to meet the daughter she gave up for adoption at birth and hasn't seen since. Merrill, the daughter, owns her own business and is just a little stressed out. Owen Templeton (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), is in Las Vegas hiding out from a mistake made. He made the wrong call on a coin toss for a play off game. Everyone is talking about it because everyone lost bet money because he blew the call. I don't know why Duane Cody (Seth Green) and his brother Blaine (Vince Vieluf) are in Las Vegas other than they are small time cons who keep screwing up. Randy Pear (Jon Lovitz), wife Bev (Kathy Najimy) and their 2 children are there on vacation. Super square lawyer Nick Shaffer (Breckin Meyer) is there for a bachelor party. He prides himself on never having done one thing illegal in his entire life. This changes when he become attracted to helicopter pilot Tracy Faucet (Amy Smart). At the shot of a gun, everyone takes off from Las Vegas to Silver City New Mexico, hoping to be the first to get their hands on the money. Each participant ends up in some kind of mess on their way to New Mexico and that is where the fun begins. The Dish After the first 20 minutes of this movie, I was ready to get up and leave. I'm so glad I stayed because when the race starts, I swear, I about died. I laughed until I cried. I love slapstick and physical comedy and this had plenty of it. Blaine pierced his own tongue and now it's infected (I know ...gross), so now he talks with an extreme lisp. Every time he opened his mouth, I giggled. No one can understand what the hell he is saying and that cracked me up. In fact, every scrape the 2 brothers got into cracked me up. The really were the comedic glue that held the movie together. Jon Lovitz also gets high marks from me. It takes a skilled person to make Hitler funny. And Jon managed to do just that. I don't normally care for Jon Lovitz, but Randy Pear was a force unto himself trying to get that money. He has convinced his wife that he has to drop everything and go to New Mexico for a job. Randy trying to keep up with that lie and get to the money was priceless. I must admit, as much as I dislike bathroom humor, there is a scene with his daughter that made me cry. Whoppi was under utilized, as was Lanai Chapman. Cuba Gooding Jr. surprised me, sorta... I've seen him do comedy before and he can pull it off, but he did better than I anticipated. I personally could have done without just about everyone else. There were some issues though... The last 20 mins were just horrible, but I'm not quite sure how you can end a movie like this, so maybe any ending would have been horrible. The Directive This movie requires low expectations. Go there, knowing it will be dumb and knowing that there will be some implausible stuff. If you can manage this, your experience will be enjoyable. These rats scored a big piece of comedic cheese. back to top Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2001 EMAIL: thediva@3blackchicks.com ICQ: 8690410 http://www.3blackchicks.com/ Use the feedback form below to send your comments to The Diva

Bams' reviews:
Rat Race | Jackpot

Cass' reviews:
Stranger Inside