TheWolf's Movie Review of Rat Race (2001)

Greatest comedy movie!
TheWolf - wrote on 07/31/07

I loved this movie. Absolutely hilarious! Las Vegas casino owner Donald Sinclair (John Cleese), likes to offer his elite customers-- the `high rollers'-- something they can't get anywhere else, in the form of things they can gamble on that are so bizarre you can only imagine. And the big one he comes up with this time begins with the planting of six lucky tokens in his slot machines. Those who win the tokens are invited to attend a meeting, at which time Sinclair announces that they are to be the lucky participants in a `race' of sorts. In a train station locker in the small town of Silver City, New Mexico, there is $2,000,000 waiting for whomever gets to it first. He passes out six identical keys to the token bearers that will open the locker, shouts `Go!' and they're off! And Sinclair's high rollers proceed to put down some big bucks on their favorite horse.
The participants include Nick (Breckin Meyer), who is pretty much just a regular guy; NFL referee Owen Templeton (Cuba Gooding Jr.), hated by millions because of a recent botched call; brothers Duane and Blaine Cody (Seth Green, Vince Vieluf), not the brightest bulbs to begin with, and hampered in their communications by Blaine's newly pierced tongue; a mother, Vera (Whoopi Goldberg), and the daughter she gave up for adoption and with whom she has just reunited, Merrill (Lanei Chapman); Randy Pear (Jon Lovitz), who has a hard time making his wife, Bev (Kathy Najimy), and their two kids, Kimberly (Jillian Marie) and Jason (Brody Smith) understand why he's interrupted their Vegas vacation to drag them off suddenly to New Mexico; and-- last but not least-- Enrico Pollini (Rowan Atkinson), a narcoleptic Italian. It's quite the eclectic bunch, and they definitely put on quite a show.
The cast is superb, but the highlights have to be Cuba Gooding Jr., who demonstrates a real knack for comedy; John Cleese, who can make you laugh just by smiling, brandishing as he does a spectacular set of teeth; and Rowan Atkinson, who does some masterful bits of physical comedy, the likes of which rivals the best of Peter Sellers and Buster Keaton. The way he mugs and moves is absolutely hysterical.