Rat Race

2001 "563 miles. 9 people. $2 million. 1001 problems!"
6.5| 1h52m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 17 August 2001 Released
Producted By: Paramount Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

In an ensemble film about easy money, greed, manipulation and bad driving, a Las Vegas casino tycoon entertains his wealthiest high rollers -- a group that will bet on anything -- by pitting six ordinary people against each other in a wild dash for $2 million jammed into a locker hundreds of miles away. The tycoon and his wealthy friends monitor each racer's every move to keep track of their favorites. The only rule in this race is that there are no rules.

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Reviews

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
richspenc This movie is great. The funniness and style of humor is more similar to older style quirky comedies that has become less common in recent years. Since this side of the turn of 2000, unfortunately toilet humor became the more popular choice of film. "Rat race" knew how to be fabulous without being dirty. For anyone who has seen my list of movies reviews on my movie review page will see the large amount of old films on my list. As I just explained, you know why. From the start at the Las Vegas hotel when ten different people get a specially placed coin from the slot machines having them to meet together in a lounge where the zany humor begins. The terrific selection of actors definitely has helped this film too to being great. Our old 1960s era British veterans favorites John Cleese ("Faulty towers", "Monty Python", and "A fish called Wanda", all hilarious) and Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean"), Whoopie Goldberg (in her best performance since "Ghost" and "Clara's heart"), John Lovitz, Amy Smart as very pretty blonde, Seth Green (who's funny as Scotty in the "Austin Powers" movies), and Brekin Meyer (who somehow got charged for watching 11 hours of porn in his hotel room). Each one of these people are sent on a wild goose chase to Silver city, NM to retrieve 2 million dollars out of a bus station locker. The hilarity begins immediately and then seldom lets up. For those of you who don't like having aching sides from laughing too much, don't watch this movie. Even funny is John Cleese's very first joking comment about a huge asteroid about to plummet down and wipe out all civilization except for those selected people who will stay in a secured steel underground vault, and it would be up to them to reproduce and bring civilization back (that joke also playing reference to a couple Twilightzone episodes with that theme).Then the chase begins. Here are some of my favorite jokes. Cleese's funny comment just before everyone takes off on the race, "the race has technically been going for 45 seconds now, and so far that man standing over there is winning since he's the one standing nearest to the door". Mr. Bean falling asleep standing up, then hitching a ride with a guy delivering a heart transplant, and that situation ending up with the heart in a dog's mouth and the transplant driver considering Mr. Bean (who's revealed to have no family) as an immediate replacement heart donor. Seth Green and his buddy who can't talk clearly cause of a tongue piercing (who at one point meets a girl with similar peircing amongst other piercings too) end up with their pickup being dragged up the side of the airport control tower at the end of a rope. The same guys who later on manages to attract a cow on a hot air balloon. Whoopi Goldberg and her sister ordering mimosas (much to the waitreses' delight) and then during the race in a rocket car scene that gets them so disoriented that they end up in an asylum bus just in time for (wow!) macaroni night. The rocket car speeding by a service station while breaking the sound barrier right after the service station manager sarcastically says "dear Lord, if you don't like the way I conduct my business, send me a sign". The same service station guy right before the "dear Lord" sarcasm arguing with Brekin Meyer and Amy Smart about unfair prices and the service station guy saying they're out of sand and Amy saying "What do you mean there's no sand? We're in the desert!". Amy also happened to be a helicopter pilot, has a very funny reaction when she catches her boyfriend from overhead in her chopper cheating on her in his backyard wadding pool. Another very funny part involved Kathy Bates as a squirrel saleslady and an outcome of what shall happen to those who refuse to buy a squirrel. Then the Cuba Gooding jr. and the busload of I love Lucy impersonators (one being a drag queen) and Cuba impersonating a bus driver. Where else would we see again 50 Lucille Balls simultaneously go "helloooo"? One of the very funniest scenes of all was the John Lovitz Hitler scene. He crashes into a WW2 veterans reunion with very coincidental details between accidentally having gotten a car lighter stuck in his mouth, getting black paint the size of a short mustache on him just above his lips, and having borrowed Hitler's car from a Nazi museum. With all that, John unintentionally looks, talks, and gestures just like Hitler to the WW2 veterans. Classic. That one I liked. Also a very funny scene with Lovitz involving a female motorcycle gang right before the Hitler part. Funny enough, as Lovitz has the funniest scene, he also has my least favorite scene with talk about his kids having to go to the bathroom, the term 'prarie dogging' being said, and then what to do about it while on the road. The great scenes though were much much more in quantity than the not so great. This film overall is great and very funny.
FilmBuff1994 Rat Race is a good movie with a pretty good storyline that is without a doubt more original and a lot funnier than a lot of comedies similar to this (Road Trip,Dude Where's My Car,etc) and a very good cast that are funny and energetic from start to finish.The movie was definitely just set up for a lot of funny mishaps between the different,this usually bothers me when the story is set up just for laughs,most of them being visual,but I overall enjoyed in in this,it was fast paced and spaced out the amount of time for each character well.My favourite storyline is either Jon Lovitz,mainly because the dialogue between him and his wife and kids was hilarious and if they had their own Vacation type of movie I would definitely watch it,or Cuba Gooding Jr.,his character was really funny because of how competitive he was and I found the situations he was put in some of the most enjoyable,also it was a very different role him.The only storyline I didn't really enjoy was Whoopi Goldberg and Lanei Chapman,I found their characters irritating (especially Goldbergs) and the situations they were put in to (especially the squirrel one) was just stupid and didn't make me laugh.Rat Race is in no way a perfect comedy,but its fun and different cast should keep many people entertained and many parts are funny enough for you to ignore the parts that wern't.Wealthy man Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) sets up a race between six groups of people in which the first to make it to a locker in New Mexico will receive $2 million.
Vishnurk72 its one of those rare movie which made me cry by laughing.by the last 15min i stopped laughing as it pained my face cos i laughed too much.there's not much plot,but if u are a fan of plane comedy,u gonna love it.every character in this movie is hilarious.for the first time i saw cuba gooding jr in such a crazy role.my favorite scene is the one with,seth green flies with cow.the scenes have become such a cult that many Indian movies(dhamaal,three kings-malayalam)had copied it.its rare Hollywood e movie which is'nt really age restricted.i saw it with my young brother.its a family movie too.i don't know why it got a <8 vote in IMDb.if u loved movies like bean,around world in 80 days,johnyy English,then u sure gona get crazy.i alwas wondered why they never made a sequel
Ben Sweett A great nutty comedy from start to finish. Didn't start the movie with high hopes but as soon as the race began it got good and fast. A classic comedy in my books and its in my top 10 must see comedies. I recommend it to anyone who likes witty jokes and jackass like stunts. Lots of big time stars makes it hilarious and the movie does a great job of introducing all the characters. My only complaint is the ending gets a little soft. It has a good morale but has a lot less humour in it than the rest of the movie. Also there was room for more romance between characters that could have been displayed better/more humorously. Final Verdict: 8/10