Rat Race is an average film at best, and unfortunately is a victim of it's own construction. Essentially a re-make of a 1963 film called "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", it suffers from too little character development, and far too many stupid scenes that aren't very funny.
The huge cast of stars, one of the film's biggest attractions, is also it's greatest liability. So many good comedic actors appear that the movie jumps around far too much to give any one of them nearly enough time to really satisfy the audience. Just when you're beginning to enjoy Rowan Atkinson's goofy "Enrico Pollini" character interacting with Wayne Knight, the shot jumps elsewhere. It felt too much like 5 or 6 movies that they jammed together into 1.
Some of the silly comedy is a bit too silly (read: stupid) to be believable as well. Why would Jon Lovitz's character say "That's a nice dike" (meaning to say "bike") to a tough looking female on a Harley? I didn't laugh, I just thought "moron".
It was just way too over-the-top and out of control. That said, I think it worked as well as it could, and I wasn't sorry I watched it.
I have a feeling the original might be better, but I'll have to watch it before I make that call.
The huge cast of stars, one of the film's biggest attractions, is also it's greatest liability. So many good comedic actors appear that the movie jumps around far too much to give any one of them nearly enough time to really satisfy the audience. Just when you're beginning to enjoy Rowan Atkinson's goofy "Enrico Pollini" character interacting with Wayne Knight, the shot jumps elsewhere. It felt too much like 5 or 6 movies that they jammed together into 1.
Some of the silly comedy is a bit too silly (read: stupid) to be believable as well. Why would Jon Lovitz's character say "That's a nice dike" (meaning to say "bike") to a tough looking female on a Harley? I didn't laugh, I just thought "moron".
It was just way too over-the-top and out of control. That said, I think it worked as well as it could, and I wasn't sorry I watched it.
I have a feeling the original might be better, but I'll have to watch it before I make that call.