Flashback Review: Rat Race

In the early 1960’s, two films called “The Great Race” and “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” both came out in separate years in 1965 and 1963. What do they both have in common? They have an all-star cast of characters, large scale locations, over the top stunts, and a total running time of three hours. Not joking, a three hour Comedy on both movies that I consider an Epic Comedy. One movie in particular attempted recreate a throwback to the this sub genre of large scale Adventure Comedies. The movie I’m referring to, is called “Rat Race.”

Rat Race was released in 2001. It was a box office success but it also received mixed reviews from critics. I’m gonna be honest with you fellow movie goers, I have never seen It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World. However, I saw The Great Race and I thought it was pretty good.

Now that “Logan Lucky” is out in theaters, I wanted to write this review because Rat Race has a similar premise featuring an ensemble cast of well known established actors in a race related film to earn a big fat paycheck. One day I’ll have a chance to view it and write a review about it.

The following review features no huge SPOILERS, no need to worry, you are allowed to read this article if you never had a chance to see it.

First Place & Last Place Qualities

First Place: The Ensemble Cast Of Characters, all did a hilarious job on each of their performances.

The following contestants each have their own introduction to establish his/her respective personality, to make a variety of character motivation for their personal goals.

Funny Moments containing a lot of great slapstick and well written dialogue which got me laughing out loud uncontrollably such as Cuba Gooding Jr. tying to persuade a bus driver by giving him a new pair of clothes. I nearly choked on my saliva, I couldn’t breath.

Bonus Points for Breckin Meyer’s character who shares my first name. As I stated in my 2017 version of “The Mummy” review, I’m always gonna put extra points for a character sharing my first name. Makes me feel good about myself.

Dean Cain has a brief cameo appearance. He gets karmic payback. That’s what he gets for Lois & Clark jumping the shark. If you’re a fan of Superman, you know why it didn’t go so well.

The Best Part in the movie is when one character accidentally stumbles upon a Veteran’s Ceremony. Ain’t gonna tell you how he got there in the first place. I’m giving it Bonus Points for making me laugh my butt off.

Smash Mouth makes a cameo singing the song “All Star.” Speaking of All Star, this song was also in the Oscar winning animated film, Shrek, the same year Rat Race came out.

Fun Fact: John Cleese went on to co-star in the “Shrek” sequels as Princess Fiona’s father, King Harold.

This movie has personality from each character. Making this movie feel unique.

Baha Man wrote and provided a theme song for the film. It’s played during the opening & end credits.

The Ending felt lighthearted. It has something to do with Character Development. You’ll have to see why.

Last Place: Fake looking Blue Screen Effect often appears in certain scenes. Let’s face it, this was the early 2000’s because this came out in 2001 and C.G.I. at the time resembled a PlayStation (PS2) cutscene. All we had was The Rock in “The Mummy Returns.”

Product Placement featuring Budget, Penzoil, Fiji Water, Sprite, Coca-Cola Fatburger, and Ford.

A contrived romance between Seth Green’s onscreen brother and a girl he likes. I know nothing about her. I thought it felt forced.

The Final Verdict: B as in BADA BING BADA BOOM!

My real thought about Rat Race is in fact, a guilty pleasure of mine. If I were you, go out and give this one a watch and you’ll definitely be laughing your butt off over and over again until your eyes get all watery!

If The Zucker Brothers decided to take bigger risk by making the picture longer, I would’ve given the grade an A- for all that hard work. I’m not saying Rat Race is bad, but its close enough to ”Spaceballs” which is my favorite Epic Comedy film of all time.