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Movie
Review: Rat Race
A Las Vegas casino magnate, determined to find a new avenue
for wagering, sets up a race for money.
Directed by Jerry Zucker
Writing credits (WGA) Andy Breckman
3
out of 4 Stars
A
group of billionaires led by a Las Vegas casino owner (John Cleese)
search for things to bet on. They decide to pull a group of six
strangers together to race from Vegas to Silver City, New Mexico
to retrieve $2 million hidden in a locker. First one there gets
all of the money.
The
first team are two addled brothers (Seth Green and Vince Vieluf,
who talks indecipherably because of a newly pierced tongue). When
they cannot catch a plane, they plot to destroy an airport control
tower in a very funny sequence. Their antics carry them into a
hot air balloon chase that catches a cow with a dangling rope
and into a monster truck competition. The second team is an estranged
mother (Whoopi Goldberg) reunited with her daughter (Lanai Chapman),
who is struggling to start a business. They face an insane squirrel-selling
woman (Kathy Bates) and steal a rocket car scheduled for a land
speed record attempt.
A
hated NFL referee (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is stranded in the desert
by an irate cabbie (Paul Rodriguez) and hijacks a busload of Lucille
Ball look-alikes on the way to a convention. The Jewish family
man (Jon Lovitz) on a family vacation joins the race without telling
his wife (Kathy Najimy) why they are rushing across the country.
When his daughter insists on stopping at a Barbie museum, it is
without realization that it is the Klaus Barbie Nazi Museum.
The
escape from that location involves the theft of Hitler's personal
touring car and culminates with Lovitz having his tongue burned
and accidentally crashing into a WWII Veteran's convention. A
narcoleptic Italian (Rowan Atkinson in his best Mr. Bean-like
manner) gets a ride with an ambulance driver (Wayne Knight), who
is carting a human heart for a transplant.
Through
various ineptitude, the heart ends up flying out of the truck's
window and the two have to recover it from a playful dog. The
final race member (Breckin Meyer) is a straight-laced future lawyer
who at first declines to participate in the race, but re-thinks
his position after he meets a smart, beautiful woman (Amy Smart)
who is flying a helicopter to New Mexico. He quickly finds out
that she is unbalanced after she flies over her boy friend's house
and starts an attack on the boy friend when she sees him in the
pool with an ex-girl friend. An air pursuit results in the crash
of the helicopter. Dave Thomas also appears as Cleese's humorless
attorney.
(Review Coming Soon)
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A Weekly Column Reflecting Life Around Cañon City, Colorado,
