Jumat, 15 Oktober 2010

Rat Race


It's got a cheesy look about it, and it's clearly a supposedly 'whacky comedy' much in the vein of those late 70s/early 80s madcap chase films like Cannonball Run or the 60s comedy opus It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The plot is simple - various people from all sorts of walks of life are sent on a cross-country race to claim a prize of $2 million. There isn't much more to it than that, each 'contestant' comes across various obstacles on the way whilst a Las Vegas tycoon (John Cleese) and his rich cronies hold bets on who will win. It's an ensemble piece in the most classical sense, being that no character is particularly given any more screen time than another, and that no character is any more or less sympathetic than another (with the possible exception of the Cleese character being an absolute scumbag).

I'm not gonna bag out this film (though it would be quite easy to do) because I think it's great to see that films like this can still be made. The cast features a great cross-section of talent (including Seth Green, Rowan Atkinson, Wayne Knight [Seinfeld's Newman], Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Lovitz) and they all fulfil their roles more than adequately. The jokes don't always work, but it's a style of comedy that doesn't get much of a run these days, so most of the time it's at least amusing as opposed to out-and-out hilarious.

Basically, it's a fun ride. Be entertained by the witty collection of characters and what they come up against.

HIGHLIGHTS: Personally, I found the busload of I Love Lucy fans to be a crackup. John Cleese also stands out as the flippant and greedy money-man.

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