Review of Rat Race (2001) by Gareth R — 09 Nov 2009

In Rat Race, a bunch of disparate (and in many cases, desperate) people are plucked from a casino in Vegas and sent on, well, a rat race. The first person to get to a train station locker in Silver City keeps the $2 million hidden there. The catch is that they're all being bet on by rich men behind the scenes, who can't seem to get their betting rocks off with Roulette and fruit machines. (It's not much of a catch, though: they really can keep the $2 million.) As for further plot and deeper meanings, self-professed eccentric billionaire Donald Sinclaire (John Cleese) says it best at the mission briefing: "That's it. Go!" There's nothing else going on here. It is what it is. Those are the terms on which you'll enjoy it or loathe it.

Happily, I enjoyed it. The things that happen to our numerous Rats are, by and large, very funny. A lot of it seems quite random, which is probably best with a freewheeling chase movie like this. Some diversions are hilarious (like Kathy Bates' cameo as a crazy lady selling squirrels) and others are puzzling to the point of mildly offensive (a truckload of mental patients all singing "Daisy", because obviously that's what crazy people do, right?). The ending is none of the above, slipping the film into a slightly forced positive message whilst gratuitously namechecking the band Smash Mouth. Before then, the film chunters along quite frantically, and there are enough varied characters, as are there enough fun and weird things happening to all of them, to keep it from simply becoming a garbled mess.

The characters are just funny and interesting enough that we're glad to see them again, but we don't mind leaving them afterwards. Of particular note are John Cleese, playing quite a convincing mad billionaire with strange teeth; Whoopi Goldberg as Vera, reuniting with her daughter whom she gave up at birth, who goes along with everything in the movie simply because she's doing it with her daughter; Rowan Atkinson as an odd little Italian man with narcolepsy, who is similarly unfazed by the chaotic world around him; Cuba Gooding Jnr. as a severely unpopular football referee; and Breckin Meyer, one of those unfortunate cinematic everymen, who makes his stamp as a boring normal guy trying to take a few risks. He strikes up a better relationship with Amy Smart than he did in Road Trip - however, here's hoping he doesn't dump her later on, as Smart plays a woman who gleefully morphs into a cackling psychopath when crossed. An incident where she takes revenge against her boyfriend is a particular highlight.

Rat Race isn't high art. There's essentially no point analysing it, because there are no minutae to get into. It's a bunch of people racing each other, pulling fast ones and stabbing each other in the back as they go. You'll either laugh or you won't. If not, it's hopefully jolly enough to win you over. Personally, I think it runs out of steam even before it grinds to a halt, but that's about as much analysis as I can apply without somehow missing the point. That's it. Go!