Nick: Breckin Meyer	Tracy: Amy Smart
Vera: Whoopi Goldberg	Merrill: Lanai Chapman
Blaine: Vince Vieluf	Duane: Seth Green
Owen: Cuba Gooding Jr.	Randy: Jon Lovitz
Bev: Kathy Najimy	Enrico: Rowan Atkinson
Donald Sinclair: John Cleese	Director: Jerry Zucker

30 Second Bottom Line: A billionaire casino owner creates a game where six contestants race to be the first to open a storage locker containing $2 million in cash. The six players are randomly selected by winning a gold coin that falls out of a slot machine.

Story Line: Faster than a speeding bullet, Rat Race introduces the key characters by using many of the scenes from the trailer to set up the film. Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) is a mega-rich Las Vegas casino owner wanting to play a new game. He places $2 million in a locker in the town of Silver City, a few hundred miles away, and randomly selects six people for a race to win the money. There are no rules and whoever gets to the locker first, wins! Proving that some folks have way too much time and money on their hands, Donald recoups his investment through a group of rich gamblers, an international cartel of sorts, who bet on the contestants trying to get to the locker. Each player has a key to the locker; which is also a tracking device that monitors their whereabouts. This consortium not only bets on these racers but they will take odds on anything, as you will see as events unfold.

Knowing a little about the characters and a generic description of events is the most I can tell you about the story without passing out spoilers. Basically, they are very different people who we follow from Las Vegas to Silver City, while laughing at things that happen to them along the way. What occurs in the end takes this over the top comedy from just an OK movie to far beyond most pictures that deal with slapstick and crude humor.

Contestant # 1: Blaine and Seth (Vince Vieluf and Seth Green) are brothers who would like to scam Donald's hotel by faking an injury during a fall down a steep bank of stairs. Both are dimwits, with Blaine's bulb somewhat dimmer than Seth's. Blaine has the added disadvantage of being hard to understand as he has his tongue pierced. Later when he meets a woman with extensive body piercing, he may have seen the light.

Contestant: # 2: Randy and Bev (Jon Lovitz and Kathy Najimy) are in Las Vegas for a vacation with their two young children. It's to be a family vacation, but Randy needs to sneak away to stretch his legs, which means to hit the slot machines. Soon he has his family heading for Silver City. Along the way they have a most interesting visit to the Barbie Museum that may turn into a classic humorous moment in film.

Contestant # 3: Nick (Breckin Meyer) is a lawyer who never breaks the rules until he meets up with helicopter pilot Tracy (Amy Smart). Tracy finds a way to get even with her boyfriend when she catches him in the backyard pool with his ex-girlfriend.

Contestant # 4: Vera and Merrill (Whoopi Goldberg and Lanai Chapman) are a mother and daughter meeting for the first time. Vera gave Merrill up for adoption over 25 years ago. They have two great scenes, one of which is a meeting with roadside vendor Kathy Bates, who tries to sell them a squirrel before she gives them directions to the Interstate and the other is when they get a chance to break the sound barrier. Both of these play out as over the top and extremely well done skits.

Contestant # 5: Owen (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is an inept football official who gets stranded in the desert when a cab driver seeks revenge and retribution for $20,000 he lost because of a bad call. Later Owen commandeers a bus full of Lucille Ball impersonators on the way to a convention.

Contestant # 6: Enrico (Rowan Atkinson) gets a ride with Wayne Knight and some very funny things happen with respect to a heart for a transplant operation. Enrico even finds a train that goes faster than a speeding bullet.

Tell Me More About It: I feared that like many over the top comedies, the trailer would be the film. This is one of the best uses of a trailer I can recall, as it tells you what the movie is about without telling you about the movie or showing you the best gags. The trailer is used to introduce the key characters and you move on from there to much funnier gags.

Rat Race is a very creative movie that has crude humor, not in the extreme gross out category with a lot of foul language. If there were any fart jokes I missed them because I was laughing at something else. There is a scene that is very politically incorrect regarding the mentally handicapped that may offend some people, but I thought it was done with comedic taste.

There are events in the film that are quite realistic, and others that couldn't happen on a bet! They are so well meshed that you come away with the effect intended. I found myself laughing throughout the film, sometimes just harder than other times. Director Jerry Zucker, who gave us Airplane, has once again taken off. If you are looking for a good comedy, get on board and enjoy the ride.

Breckin Meyer: Josie & the Pussycats	Amy Smart: Road Trip
Whoopi Goldberg: Kingdom Come	Lanai Chapman: White Men Can't Jump
Vince Vieluf: Chick Flick	Seth Green: America's Sweethearts
Cuba Gooding Jr.: Zoolander	Jon Lovitz: 3000 Miles to Graceland
Kathy Najimy: The Wedding Planner	Rowan Atkinson: Mr. Bean-TV
John Cleese: Harry Potter…Sorcerer's Stone	Jerry Zucker: Airplane