Las Vegas casino tycoon Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) has hatched a contest to entertain the high rollers visiting his casino. He recruits six teams go with a special key each to Silver City, New Mexico, 906km from Vegas, to a train station where a duffel bag containing $2 million has been left at a train station. The players: con-men brothers Duane and Blaine Cody (Seth Green and Vince Vieluf); newly reunited mother and daughter Vera Baker and Merrill Jennings (Whoopi Goldberg and Lanei Chapman); recently disgraced football referee Owen Templeton (Cuba Gooding, Jr.); narcoleptic Italian tourist Enrico Pollini (Rowan Atkinson); dishonest and opportunistic traveller Randy Pear (Jon Lovitz) and his family; and strait-laced lawyer Nick Schaffer (Breckin Meyer) and his helicopter pilot love interest Tracy Faucet (Amy Smart).
Taking inspiration from the 1963 ensemble screwball comedy classic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the 2001 update Rat Race is a shamelessly ridiculous (although that's clearly the point) but relentlessly hilarious farce. Working from former Saturday Night Live writer Andy Breckman's screenplay, spoof veteran Jerry Zucker covers this territory with zest and affection which he manages to infuse his cast with. They're all delightful and clearly had a ball making this film, especially Goldberg, Gooding, Vieluf and Atkinson. Among their highlights are Gooding having to drive a bus full of Lucille Ball cosplayers (including Zucker's mother Charlotte) travelling to an I Love Lucy convention, Meyer and Smart flying over Tracy's boyfriend (Dean Cain) to find him cheating on her, and the Pear family mistakenly taking a detour to see the Barbie Museum and realising it's for the Nazi Klaus Barbie and not the doll. (This is particularly apt considering Zucker and Breckman are both Jewish.)
Watch also for cameos from Kathy Bates, Rance Howard (Ron's father) and the band Smash Mouth. It's also smoothly edited and shot, with a fun soundtrack powering all the action. Rat Race is much longer-running (no pun intended) but far and away more entertaining than any athletic one.
No comments:
Post a Comment