BIASES: mid 20s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

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Rat Race

MOVIE BIASES: That quirky little trailer keeps growing on me.
MAJOR PLAYERS: Cuba Gooding Jr. (Pearl Harbor), Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple), Seth Green (America's Sweethearts), and director Jerry Zucker (Airplane!).

This movie has affected my life more than y'all will ever know. I'm not even talking about the movie itself but the concept behind it, a movie about an all out mad dash for cash. With its eclectic cast of characters and a truly ensemble cast of ensemble players, "Rat Race" has brought the true sense of the word ensemble comedy back and into the new millennium.

Let's meet the participants: straightlaced, future attorney general Nick (Breckin Meyer), henpecked family man Randy (Jon Lovitz), impatient businesswoman Merrill (Lanai Chapman) and her recently unearthed birth mother Vera (Goldberg), childlike, narcoleptic, Italian traveler Enrico (Rowan Atkinson), disgraced football referee Owen (Gooding, Jr.), and brother con man team Duane (Green) and Blaine (Vince Vieluf). These differing characters from all walks of life are drawn into a Las Vegas casino suite where the owner, Donald "I can do anything I like. I'm e-ccentric" Sinclair (John Cleese), offers them two million dollars in a duffel bag in Silver City, New Mexico - to the first one who gets there. As they all race across the seven hundred or so miles by land and air, double-crossing and tripping each other up along the way, Sinclair sits back and enjoys the mayhem, making ridiculous bets on every and ANYTHING with a bunch of equally eccentric and wealthy men.

With a B-list of stars, "Rat Race" finishes first. Since we're not distracted by Julia or Brad or Denzel, we can focus on the silly antics, the characters, and the race itself. The whole ensemble cast shines through every ridiculous, hilarious, madcap situation. No one shines any more than any other, the sign of a great ensemble comedy. The rubber-faced Atkinson (Bean) can grate on your nerves, but Wayne Knight's comedically edgy heart transplant driver balances him out.

But let's talk about some of these set pieces, shall we? Writer Andrew Breckman (Sgt. Bilko) has thrown together just about every oddball situation and obstacle in his characters' way, including, but not limited to a Jewish family inadvertently visiting a (Klaus) Barbie Museum, flying cows, a bus full of Lucys, a group of lesbian bikers, and a quietly aggressive and naughty helicopter pilot (Amy Smart). This movie is also a stuntman's dream - hot air balloons, helicopters, cars cascading down hills ("You should have bought a squirrel" may be the next new catchphrase of the summer) all help enliven the proceedings. Breezily directed by "Naked Gun" director Jerry Zucker, "Rat Race" looks, feels, and plays like a comedy that is as fun to watch as it was to make. This is the most I've laughed all summer. But then again, it wouldn't take much.

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic..

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