Review - Rat Race (2001)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, after the insanity that was the Oscars last night, I really needed to review something light-hearted and fun. So, I'm taking a look at an early 2000's road comedy called Rat Race. Released in August of 2001, this movie was directed by Jerry Zucker and follows a similar premise to the 1960's comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which tells of a random group of strangers racing against each other to be the first to reach a massive cache of money. But the question to ask is this: what does this early 2000's take on the concept do differently than it's 1960's counterpart? Well, let's dig into Rat Race and find out. 

     Okay, so the movie opens at a hotel/casino in Las Vegas, and we meet the various individuals this movie centers on: Nick Schaffer, a no-nonsense attorney in Vegas for a bachelor party, Owen Templeton, an NFL referee who is in hot water with football fans for a bonehead call, brothers Duane and Blaine Cody, who are pretty much a pair of ne'er-do-wells looking to make money on insurance scams, Randy Pear, a slimeball on vacation with his wife and two children, and businesswoman Merrill Jennings, who has reunited with her mother Vera after so many years. 

        So, these individuals each win a golden token, which gets them into a special luncheon. Each of them, along with a narcoleptic Italian tourist named Enrico Pollini, meets the eccentric owner of the hotel, Donald Sinclair. Sinclair tells each of them about a small town called Silver City, New Mexico, where in a locker in the train station is a red duffle bag carrying $2 million in cash. And the first to reach the duffle bag keeps all the money. Initially, all of them seem uninterested, but greed eventually gets the best of them all, and the race is on. 

        The true purpose of the race is revealed, as it's designed as a game to entertain the casino's super high rollers, who place bets on who will get the cash first. So, everyone takes their locker keys and tries to book a flight from Vegas to New Mexico. However, the Cody Brothers sabotage the radar dish, grounding all airplanes from leaving Vegas.  So, everyone hits the road in cars to get to Silver City first. Owen is left in the middle of the desert by an angry cab driver who lost a ton of money because of his bonehead call, Vera and Merrill are given wrong directions by a woman who unsuccessfully tries to sell them a squirrel, and end up in a rocket car. Nick catches a helicopter flight with a pilot named Tracy Faucet, who ends up messing up the helicopter in a chase with her boyfriend, who she catches cheating on her with his ex. Nick and Tracy take her truck and begin a romantic relationship. 

         Enrico, who dozed off at the start, ends up catching a ride with an ambulance driver who hits him accidentally. The driver, Zack Mallozi, is driving to El Paso, and agrees to drop Enrico off in Silver City on the way. Meanwhile, Randy's family wants to stop after seeing a sign for the Barbie museum, only to find out it's a museum for the Nazi Klaus Barbie and not Barbie the doll. Oops. But, they lose their own car to the Cody Brothers, who try to make a copy of their locker key to split up, but have the original stolen by the locksmith making the key for them, chasing after the guy in a chase that involves a hot air balloon and a cow. No, I'm serious. A cow gets strung up in a hot air balloon's string. Anyway, the Pear family end up stealing Adolf Hitler's car, and accidentally end up at a benefit for World War II veterans. Randy eventually knocks out his family with sleeping medication and puts them in a semi truck. 

       Owen ends up finding a bus and drives it, only to find it filled with Lucille Ball cosplayers heading to a convention. After accidentally wrecking the bus, he reveals that he's not the driver, enraging the women, and heads off on horseback to New Mexico. Everyone eventually makes it to Silver City, only to find the locker to be empty. It turns out that Sinclair's assistant, Grisham, has teamed up with a call girl named Vicki to claim the $2 million for themselves. The racers chase after them, and the chase ends at a massive charity concert being held by easily the biggest rock band in the world at the time: Smash Mouth. The $2 million is mistaken for a donation, and when the two people who oversee the charity, which is to feed hungry children across the world, thank them for their generosity, the racers all give the money to the charity. Nick later horrifies Sinclair and his patrons by announcing that they'll match what the charity makes, pushing the donation total to just over $19 million, and the movie ends with everyone rocking out to a live performance of the song "All Star." 

       Okay, now I was about nine when this movie came out in theaters, but it took me a while to finally watch it. And I gotta say, I find it to be absolutely hilarious. Now, the concept is not particularly original, because as I said, it is very similar to the 1960's comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. However, this movie has more recognizable faces that modern audiences will enjoy watching, including Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, John Cleese, Amy Smart, Cuba Gooding Jr, Jon Lovitz, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimi, and Rowan Atkinson. Throw in appearances by the likes of Wayne Knight, Paul Rodriguez, Dean Cain, Gloria Allred, Kathy Bates, and Smash Mouth, and yeah, lots of familiar faces. 

         I will admit that some things, like the museum to Klaus Barbie, really don't hold up nearly as well, but other moments like seeing Whoopi Goldberg and Lanei Chapman in a rocket car are hilarious. Also, I definitely liked the happier ending of the racers giving the money to the charity they accidentally crashed, which was a brilliant way to work in a Smash Mouth cameo. Seriously, I'm still a big Smash Mouth fan even to this day. 

       But I will admit, this is definitely not for everyone. If you aren't into the style of comedy found in the works of the Zucker brothers, Jerry Zucker in particular, then this is definitely not for you. Everyone else, however, should definitely check this one out pretty soon. I give Rat Race a rating of 4.5/5. Seriously, check this movie out for, quite honestly, one of John Cleese's funniest performances. 

        This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you next time.