Rat Race

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Rat Race ★★½ 2001 (PG-13)

Eccentric Las Vegas casino tycoon Cleese sends six ordinary gamblers on a treasure hunt for two million bucks while rich gamblers wager on the outcome. It's all in the tradition of “It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and the “Cannonball Run” movies, which means it's also old-fashioned. But in that good, solidly funny, anything-for-a-laugh way. But it doesn't go for the cheap, bodilyfunction humor that so many recent comedies have done to death. The mostly Blist cast has a lot of fun with the material, which is wellpaced and expertly carried out by writer Breckman and director Zucker, who thankfully returns to the zany walltowall comedy that put him on the map. 92m/C VHS, DVD . US John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jon Lovitz, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Seth Green, Kathy Najimy, Rowan Atkinson, Wayne Knight, Dean Cain, Vince Vieluf, Lanei Chapman, Paul Rodriguez; D: Jerry Zucker; W: Andy Breckman; C: Thomas Ackerman; M: John Powell.

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