By: debbie lynn elias
Premised along the same lines of comedy and chaos as those cinematic classics, “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and “The Great Race”, “Rat Race” succeeds in carrying the ensemble cast comedy torch into the 21st Century. Directed and produced by Jerry Zucker, probably best known for his directing of “Airplane!”, “Top Secret!” and “Ghost,” and written by Andy Breckman (“Sgt. Bilko” and “Arthur 2: On the Rocks”), “Rat Race” is the tale of six groups of randomly selected contestants who are pitted against each other in an anything goes race from Las Vegas to Silver City, New Mexico where the winner will receive $2 million.
With contestants Vera Baker and her long lost (but recently found) adult daughter Merrill pitted against goody-two shoes lawyer Nick Shaffer, NFL referee Owen Templeton who can’t seem to tell the difference between heads or tails in a coin toss, bungling brothers Duane and Blaine Cody (the latter of whom sounds like Mumbles in “Dick Tracy” as the result of an infected self-inflicted tongue piercing), narcoleptic Italian transplant Enrico Pollini and the overweight, high strung Pear family on a “family” vacation to Vegas, Breckman’s script serves up enough zaniness for all.
Masterminded by casino owner Donald Sinclair (rich, eccentric, and always looking for new ways to bet the odds and get richer) in an effort to expand the horizons and spur the interest of his billionaire gambling clientele, Sinclair adds a twist to the race – his gambling clientele get to bet on not only a favorite contestant, but on anything and everything imaginable along the way – from who will vomit first in an airplane to which hotel maid can hang from a curtain rod the longest. Where is Gamblers Anonymous when you need them??
Slaphappy and filled with slapstick, each contestant group encounters their own obstacles and looks for their own ingenious method for winning. In one of the funniest send-ups of the film, Owen steals a bus of Lucille Ball impersonators on their way to the annual Lucy convention. And of course, in true “I Love Lucy” style (and with her theme playing in the background) his trip turns into classic Lucy with wigs burning, toilets flooding, soaps suds sudsing and all 50 or so Lucys wailing. But Owen isn’t the only one out there having fun. No sir! Vera and Merrill run into the Squirrel Lady while Nick meets the woman of his dreams and sits shotgun as she terrorizes her boyfriend with a helicopter when she catches him with another woman. Duane and Blaine bungle and bumble along with hot cars, hot air balloons and flying cows, while the nice Jewish Pear family makes a pit stop at the skinhead-run Barbie Museum (as in Klaus Barbie) and end up driving away in Hitler’s swastika-adorned Mercedes with Bev Pear wearing Ava Braun’s lipstick and the Pear daughter, Braun’s sunglasses. Not to be outdone, our narcoleptic friend Enrico hitches a ride in an ambulance transporting a human heart for transplant in Texas and ends up with a dog using the heart in a game of catch along the New Mexico highway.
With John Cleese as the devilish Sinclair and Dave Thomas as his monotone and sedate lawyer Grisham, our contestants are played by veterans Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jon Lovitz, Kathy Najimy, Rowan Atkinson, Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, Vince Vieluf, Amy Smart and Lanei Chapman. Adding fuel to the fire and howling to the hodgepodge are hilarious performances by Wayne Knight (Hello, Neeew-man!) as ambulance driver Zack, Kathy Bates as the Squirrel Lady, Dean Cain as cheating boyfriend Shawn and Paul Rodriguez as football betting (and losing) cab driver Gus. And as an added surprise, a real comic gem proved to be Gloria Allred playing herself and shouting from the rooftops (okay, so the balcony of the Venetian Hotel), “We’ll sue! I saw it all! Do you have a lawyer?”
Being a long time fan of the stuntmen in this business, kudos go to stunt king, second unit director Mickey Gilbert, and his stunt coordinator son Tim Gilbert for providing some of the most varied and hazardous escapades seen in one film at one time in a long time. From pratfalls to car and bus chases, jumps, rolls and wrecks, to flying cows, balloons and helicopters, not a performer was spared from some type of stunt and there is no one better than Mickey Gilbert to bring life to good old-fashioned stunt performances!
You’ll laugh. You’ll laugh so hard you cry. You’ll hold you’re sides from laughter. And then, you’ll laugh some more. And after you’ve seen it once, you’ll “race” back to the theater and see it twice just to make sure you get ALL of the jokes.
