There are certain movies which require a specific mindset while viewing.  Not all directors set out to make Gone With The Wind, or Citizen Kane, some set out just have a silly fun time for a couple of hours and escape the madness of reality through laughter.  Rat Race, done by Jerry Zucker of Airplane fame, never intends to be anymore or less than it actually is, a comical farce through the lengths that people will go to for a large amount of money, and what people will do, and bet on, for entertainment.  It could have done without some of the gross out humor which is becoming all to commonplace lately, but it’s a movie made to generate a sense of warmth, and goodness in the world through escapist humor, and for the most part, it succeeds.

Zucker realizes, from past successes, and a couple of failures, that success in these kinds of films results from simplicity, so he keeps the plot fairly straightforward.   He borrows the plot, and its elements, mostly from It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, with nods to the Cannonball Run movies as well.  Donald Sinclair (Cleese) is a rich casino owner who selects 6 random people to race to a train station locker in New Mexico for a chance at 2 million dollars.  The rules are as easy as that description.  There are none.  Sinclair has created this race to generate bets amongst his clients who are looking for something different to bet on, also evidenced by their wagers on hookers, vomiting and other random naturally occurring elements during the race.  The six contestants are a cross section of the types of people who both exist, and populate, in the casinos of Las Vegas, as well as the world.  Two conniving brothers, a husband, wife and their two kids, a disgraced NFL referee, a mother and daughter reunited, a narcoleptic Italian and a workaholic and his beautiful helicopter pilot partner, make up the contestants.  The majority of the film results from their journey, and the people they encounter along the way.  There are some truly funny scenes, including a Barbie museum (Klaus, the Nazi murderer, not the blonde doll), which results in another hilarious scene, Lovitz stealing Hitler’s car and ending up at a WW II veteran’s convention.  But for all of these scenes, some of which go on a bit too long, there are the others that were just unnecessary and gratuitous, such as the extended tale of a human heart being transported, an elevated cow (possibly lost from Twister) and another involving bodily functions and a moving car, enough said.  In the scales of entertainment, there are more cute and funny moments than over done, or disgusting ones.  Zucker also doesn’t really know how to end the film, so he drags it out in a ridiculous set of circumstances, finally resulting in an acceptable and believable (in this goofy alternate world) resolution.  It is very easy to see that Zucker has the touch to handle parody and spoofing style humor, his machine gun style jokes and site gags made Airplane!, a comedic classic.  This time, the jokes are extended, work at times, and fall flat at others, but the intentions are obviously good, hence the film works.

He has assembled quite an ensemble cast for this effort as well.  Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Najimy John Cleese, Cuba Gooding (who still seems desperate after winning his little gold man), Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Amy Smart (both from Road Trip) and Mr. Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson, make up the main combatants, but are aided by cameos from Paul Rodriguez, attorney Gloria Allred and a hilarious Kathy Bates as a vengeful squirrel woman.  The characters are given balanced amounts of screen time, and each have their moments, but also have some embarrassments that they may not want to add to their resume on down the line.  Like the film, sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad, but overall, you can relate to them, and really cannot say you would not react the similar way, under the same circumstances

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