Copyright
© 2001 by
Michael
Segers,
All rights Reserved
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Cast?
Director? Other details?
Check out Rat Race
Does
this have the makings for a new "reality" television series (why do
those things end up being so unrealistic?), or what? Put together a
diverse group of people, tell them that they can find two million dollars in a
locker in a train station some five hundred miles away, and stand back.
I don't know how it would play on television, but it turns out surprisingly well
as the premise of the film Rat Race.
Much of the credit for the success of the film goes to the audacious range of
characters: the poor Italian (played to perfection by Brit Rowan Atkinson) who
can't speak English or stay awake, a birth mother (Whoopi Goldberg) reunited
with the adult daughter (Lanai Chapman) she gave up for adoption, the NFL
referee (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) who made a horrible mistake, and a family of
vacationers (headed by Jon Lovitz)... just for starters.
If you remember It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad
World (1963) and add a few more mads,
a busload of Lucille Ball impersonators, and a computer-generated cow, you get
the idea. Oh, the motivation for all this nuttiness is that a casino owner
(John Cleese) has set up a new experience for some big-spending gamblers to bet
on, so there is even another dimension to the dementia.
It turns out that this film’s strengths all too often are its weaknesses.
There is just a little too much strength, a little too much energy packed into
the film. With so many people finding so many different ways to go in the
same direction, there's not much time for characterization. The characters
tend to be defined by readily identifiable tags (a recently pierced tongue, for
instance), almost like numbers on football uniforms.
So, since the film has to be mainly plot-driven, some holes in the plot cause
special problems. Several times, things don't work out as a result of
thought-out planning, which would give some form, some discipline, but more as a
result of coincidence.
But, over all, the film works on its on terms. It's probably not going to
be a summer blockbuster. In fact, it's just old-fashioned enough (and
probably not dirty enough) that it probably won't appeal to teenagers and young
adults. Whether kids would enjoy it, I don't know. The film teeters
on the edge of good taste at times, but even with such a range of ethnicities,
it doesn't get offensive.
Oh,
do keep an eye out for Kathy Bates in a cameo that is smaller than I would have
liked. But, then, that may be the best kind of cameo--not one that simply
gives us the easy thrill of recognizing a performer in an unlikely setting but
one that actually enhances the film. In
fact, keep your eyes out for everything, because sometimes things will be coming
at you so rapidly that you may not be able to keep up with everything.
But, do keep your feet dry and heart full of noble thoughts.
POPCORN