Review of Rat Race (2001) by Halfwelshman — 20 Jul 2012

An ensemble cast of such comedy talent as this should really be funnier. The two biggest hitters woefully under-perform - Rowan Atkinson relies on his tried-and-tested Mr Bean facial expressions along with an awful Italian accent, and John Cleese just has goofy false teeth and his Basil Fawlty laugh.

The premise of the film should be comedy gold - eccentric millionaires betting on a rag-tag group of misfits racing towards a bag of money in New Mexico, but the only character relationship in the film that is even remotely rewarding to watch is between Brecklin Meyer's chilled-out attorney and Amy Smart's helicopter pilot with "issues".

Their scenes are are sweet and funny, but far too infrequent. You've unfortunately got to spend time with all the other characters, who are all annoying and 2-dimensional. The funniest thing in the whole film is an unexpected cameo by Kathy Bates as a lady selling squirrels to passing motorists.

Who is this film for? It's presented like a kid's cartoon show, but also has swearing, sex and childbirth jokes, and even a sequence featuring neo-Nazis. So it's not for intelligent adults, nor for children who don't know any better.

We can only conclude that Jerry Zucker is catering for idiots. Rat Race has a couple of smile-worthy jokes, Smash Mouth generously perform at the film's finale, and I suppose you could say that it trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to comment on the greed of human nature, but beyond that it's a childish, insultingly dumb and unfunny affair.