Rewind Back to 2001: “Rat Race” (25th anniversary)
- Matt Palmer
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
“Rat Race” is a 2001 comedy that’s inspired by Stanley Kramer’s 1963 film “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the movie was a box office success, having grossed $85.5 million worldwide against a $48 million budget.
In an ensemble movie about easy money, greed, manipulation and some bad driving, a Las Vegas casino tycoon entertains his wealthiest high-rollers by pitting ordinary people against each other in a wild dash for $2 million jammed into a locker hundreds of miles away.
The tycoon and his wealthy friends monitor each racer’s every move to keep track of their favorites. The only rule in this race is that there are no rules.
This 2001 comedy is a hilarious, over the top guilty pleasure. While critics found it messy and derivative of classic ensemble comedies, fans celebrated its rapid-fire physical comedy, memorable individual scenes and its cast. The movie easily captures a chaotic energy that turned it into a massive nostalgic favorite and a staple of 2000s comfort cinema.
Each character’s specific motivation and unique personality quirks gives the viewer a wide variety of story lines to invest in. While all the characters have their humorous moments, Jon Lovitz's frantic energy, Rowan Atkinson's over the top physical quirks and John Cleese’s nutty performance as the eccentric billionaire are easily the major highlights of this comedy.
Managing an ensemble cast with numerous concurrent story lines is notoriously difficult, but the movie actually does a decent job rapidly jumping from one story line to the next without losing momentum. “Rat Race” also constantly refreshes the audience’s attention span - right when one character’s situation reaches a temporary roadblock, the movie immediately cuts to another group mid-catastrophe.
“Rat Race” also delivers many, many moments that really stand out, such as the Barbie museum where Lovitz’s character’s family visiting a museum thinking it’s dedicated to the toy doll but is actually to war criminal Klaus Barbie, an unforgettable cameo from Kathy Bates as an overly aggressive roadside squirrel saleswoman, a scene where we see two bumbling brothers testing to sabotage the airport radar tower to ground flights and so much more!
“Rat Race” received mixed reviews from critics who found it chaotic and lowbrow, but it has endured as a fan favorite cult comedy. Viewers have praised its stacked ensemble cast and consider it a fast-paced, comfort movie despite its chaotic tone.
MPA: Rated PG-13 for sexual references, crude humor, partial nudity and language (runtime 112 min)
Initial release date: 8/17/2001
Streaming: Paramount Plus/Tubi/various PVOD services (as of writing this review)
John Cleese plays a character called Donald Sinclair. This was actually the name of the real-life hotel proprietor on whom Cleese's iconic character, Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers (1975), was based.
Vince Vieluf, who portrays Blaine Cody, did not appear on any of the film's posters or promotional material, even though he is one of the main characters. This was due to an agent who tried to secure star billing and failed. Vieluf has since fired the agent.
"Rat Race" has an extremely similar plot to the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), in which a group of strangers are caught up in a mad dash to seek out and claim $350,000 in cash. This amount, adjusted in inflation from 1963 to 2001, would come out to approximately $2,000,000 - the same amount of money Donald Sinclair offered to the 6 random gamblers. Whether or not this was intentionally written into the script, as an homage to the 1963 film, is unknown. As well, instead of starting in Vegas on a gamble, the race in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) began with a man running off the side of the road with several witnesses who were told about the hidden money.
Jason Alexander was originally lined up to play Zack before his Seinfeld (1989) castmate Wayne Knight took the role.
Rowan Atkinson's character was originally going to be a Chinese diplomat. Many viewers consider his character to be an Italian variation on Mr. Bean (1990).
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