Product Details

• Actors: Breckin Meyer, Jenica Bergere, Cuba Gooding Jr., Carrie Diamond, Douglas Haase
• Directors: Jerry Zucker
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Special Edition, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: July 2, 2002
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (298 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000065U5X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #28,316 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Modeled after 1963's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Jerry Zucker's Rat Race lacks the irreverence of Zucker's 1980 hit Airplane! but has enough chuckles to make it an agreeable time-killer. Like Mad, Mad, Mad..., it employs a huge ensemble of comedy stalwarts, assembled by an eccentric hotelier (pearly-toothed John Cleese) to race from Las Vegas to New Mexico for a $2 million jackpot. With a backstage gambling subplot, Rowan Atkinson's Italian-geek lunacy, Seth Green's slacker antics, and some nicely understated work from SCTV alumnus Dave Thomas, the movie has almost as many highlights as clunkers, and Zucker's embrace of easy gags and traditional slapstick will tickle anyone's old-fashioned funny bone. Other ingredients are hopelessly stale: Whoopi Goldberg's frantic mugging, Cuba Gooding's latter-day Stepin Fetchit, "mature" humor that compromises the movie's broad appeal, and the assumption that crashing vehicles are inherently hilarious. Lamentable decisions, perhaps, but Rat Race maintains a pleasantly altruistic spirit. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

The director Jerry Zucker, of "Airplane!" fame, gathers together a group of comic actors, including Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz, and John Cleese, for this sporadically zany comedy about a cross-country race for two million dollars. Some of Zucker's elaborate stunts are inspired, and the sight gags have the pleASINg obviousness of his earlier work. The jokes tend to hang around waiting for a laugh, but the film builds enough momentum for a proper goofball finish. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The previews reek but the movie ROCKS!, August 13, 2001

By	Dennis Rosebrough (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After seeing the previews, I had *very* low expectations for this movie. A friend who had already bought a ticket for me (without me knowing) dragged me along anyway, and I laughed so hard, I was crying. It's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen--and I've seen a lot of movies! The previews only show the basic premise of the movie (think Cannonball Run) and a few moments taken out of context that just don't do justice to the intricate webs of jokes that turn out to be setups for even more funny moments later.

It has a great cast--Jon Lovits, John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Seth Green, Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) just to name a few, and they're all at the best I've ever seen them. Sometimes movies with such a cast of well-known and diverse people, they either 1) don't have the chemistry to work well together or 2) each subdue their "type" of comedy to blend in with the others. Neither is the case in this movie. Each member of the cast totally excels at the kind of comedy they're best at. Atkinson has the zany weird thing going, Green has the physical slapstick thing, Lovits has the lovable neurotic thing, Cleese has the "Now for something totally different" thing...

It's also a great family movie. I don't really know why it got the PG-13 rating. There's no bad language, no explicit stuff, very little innuendo, not much violence. There are a few gestures here and there (not of malicious intent; you just have to see it to know what I mean), and it makes fun of Germans, so if you're radically conservative or a very sensitive Jewish person (or German, I suppose), you may be offended.

I can't recommend this movie enough. I'm afraid that because of the poor previews and the been-there-done-that premise, not many people will go to see it, and it may end up being one of the all-time highest underrated movies. Trust me, though, this is *not* an I'll-see-it-on-video-or-cable movie, it's one of the few movies out worth the money to see it in the theater!

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Rollercoaster of Laughs, August 11, 2001

By	Matthew Gladney (Champaign-Urbana, IL USA) - See all my reviews

'Rat Race' is a zany little comedy with many big name stars, and jokes that are sometimes good, sometimes just o.k. For the most part, it is a pretty funny film, and there is probably something that most people will find adequately comedic about it.

The movie starts out in a Las Vegas hotel/casino. Whilst playing the slot machines, 8 people find a coin which directs them to a secret meeting with the hotel/casion owner. He informs them that some 500 miles away, in Silver City, New Mexico, is a train station. Inside that station is a locker, and inside that locker is $2,000,000. They are all given a key, and told to "go" - whoever gets there first winning the money. The race is on, and the hotel/casino owner is keeping a watchful eye on them, as he is also taking bets as to who the winner will be. Each of the people who are in the race take different modes of transport to get to the desired location. This makes for the bulk, and the most hilarious portion, of the film. Along the way, there are jokes and running gags to do with Nazis, Lucille Ball impersonators, a crazy squirrel merchant, and more. Much of the humor is accessible and makes you laugh, or at least chuckle. Some of the humor, however, is rather crude. I still found it funny, but be warned: If you are disdainful of certain jokes whose basis lies in bodily functions, human organ dis-respect, abuse of animals, or anything along those lines - then this is *not* the movie for you. All of the aforementioned jokes, though they sound bad, are actually handled well (as well as can be expected), but they *do* make up a substantial portion of the film.

Many of the talents used in 'Rat Race' include Whoopi Goldberg, John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson (re-using many aspects of his Mr. Bean persona), Cuba Gooding, Jr., Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, and a plethora of others. There are a few surprises, and the movie takes a lot of unexpected, very funny turns.

This is a screwball comedy which simply wants to make you laugh for a couple of hours. It is fluff, but fluff in the best possible sense. Quite enjoyable. I left the cinema with a smile on my face.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rat Race...HILARIOUS!!!!, February 1, 2002

By	"tlgksme" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rat Race (Special Collector's Edition) (DVD)

Rat Race is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while!

The Plot- A bunch of people selected by winning a special coin while playing the slot machine at casino in Las Vegas are selected to do a once in a lifetime job and race to find 2 million dollars in a locker in Silver City, New Mexico.The stars of the movie are in such a hurry to get the two million bucks,that they do some very stupid/funny things to get the cash.The whole movie is very funny and not dull or boring one part of the entire movie.

The reason I gave this DVD 4 stars is because the deleted scenes, I personally thought were not that exciting. Just remember, that's my opinion. You may love them, but I'm not that crazy about them. Everthing else in the movie was EXCELLENT!!!

The DVD feature's include: Widescreen version,Dolby Digital surround sound, English Subtitles, Interactive Menus, Scene Selections, Theatrical Trailer, Exclusive Interview with Director Jerry Zucker and Writer Andy Breckman, Deleted Scenes, The Making of Rat Race, Gag Reel, Outake Scene, "Jerry and Andy Call the Actors"