I was disappointed with this movie.  With a cast that includes the comedic talent of John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Rowan Atkinson, and Jon Lovitz one would and should expect many laughs.  Don't get me wrong, this movie is a riot, but I expected it to be much funnier.

      "Rat Race" begins with all the characters in a Las Vegas casino and they each win a special coin while playing a slot machine.  They are instructed to meet in this convention room and John Cleese tells them that they are in a race to find the 2 million dollars he stashed in a locker in Silver City, New Mexico.  The movie follows each of them as they try to get there and the struggles they have in doing so.

      This starts out quirky and gets quirkier by each passing second.  I laughed a lot of times.  The only thing I didn't like about the movie was how it ended.  I don't want to give away the ending, but it seemed like the writers couldn't think of a way to end it so they threw in a politically correct ending.  It doesn't fit with the movie, because the beginning and middle of it is no where close to politically correct (for example, Jon Lovitz finds himself in a Nazi museum), but I still enjoyed the movie enough to give it a good review.

Recommendation: Like "American Outlaws", this movie is for everyone.  There isn't much bad language, sex, or nudity, and you should take the kids to see this one. 

     -- James ( 3 out of 4 pops )

Talk about this film with other Popkorn Junkies

       Liz ( 2 out of 4 pops ) 

      What a cast.  Funny people.  And they're in a potentially funny scenario.  Unfortunately, all they do is run around and play out their predictable characterizations.  If you've seen the preview, then there will be maybe one surprise, and it's not very satisfying.  Video-worthy at best.  Perhaps the problem here involves too many things going on all at once -- the viewer is hard-pressed to get involved in one dynamic before getting whip lash switching to another.

      Pappy ( 2 1/2 out of 4 pops )

      Back in the day, there was a movie called “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” that had just about every aging comic still alive in 1963.  The cast included Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, Eddie “Oh Rochester” Anderson, Jim Backus, Ben Blue, Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Arnold Stang, Carl Reiner, Don Knotts, Buster Keaton, Stan Freberg, Joe E. Brown, just  to name a few.   You may not know many of these folks, but they were all very well known and skilled comics at the time.  The film ran an incredible 192 minutes.  “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” had a very similar premise as “Rat Race”, and I am sure it is the movie that inspired “Rat Race” (which runs 112 minutes by the way).  “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  It makes “Rat Race” seem like “Shakespeare In Love”.     And “Rat Race” is not very good, but it does actually have some amusing gags that were not shown in the TV commercials.  I thought it was worth seeing in the theater – but hey I AM a Popkorn Junkie.