Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Rat Race (2001)

Director: Jerry Zucker

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Avaricious Las Vegas casino tycoon Donald Sinclair (Cleese) will do anything to fulfil the whims of his high-rolling clientèle. But his latest wager is his most imaginative yet. Concealed in a station locker several hundred miles away is a duffel bag containing $2m cash. Expounding his distaste for the low-rollers who also frequent his casino, he places six unique coins in the casino's slots and invites the winners to go forth and seek out the booty. The first one to open the locker gets to keep the cash. Yet, unbeknown to this gaggle of gullibles, Sinclair and his classy clients will be tracking their every move, Truman Show-style, and betting high stakes on the outcome. Roll on a madcap Cannonball Run across several states. Director Zucker is best known for his contributions to zany comedies like Airplane! and The Naked Gun. Yet, incoherently stupid, more than it is funny, only one scene here - with Kathy Bates and a bunch of squirrels - gets close to the hilarity of those films. Still, there are some humourous allusions to the new compensation culture, and the soppy feelgood finalé could be deemed a fitting end to its sarcastic swipe at capitalism.

Author: DA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.