Lucky Number Se7en

hey!!..last friday, we watched a movie in class- (rat race) it was damn funny


POSTED 2001-08-17 | PRINT

BY LARRY CARROLL | A review of Rat Race


The film begins with Donald Sinclair (John Cleese), a wealthy casino magnate who is desperate for a new way to entertain his highest rollers. He comes up with the idea to get a bunch of random people, tell them that there's two million dollars stuffed in a locker hundreds of miles away, give them each a key, and see who gets there first. It's as simple as that. "Go", says Sinclair to his guinea pigs after explaining the game to them. "What do you mean by 'go'?" they keep asking, thinking that the whole thing is a joke. After a few more minutes of civility, they realize this guy is for real, and then it becomes every man for themselves.

Comparisons are likely to be made to "...Mad, Mad World", and although there are many similarities, this is not a remake as many news sources seem to believe. The themes are definitely similar, but the relationship is like "The Mummy" films are to the "Indiana Jones" trilogy - yes, it's a rip-off, but it uses a great movie as a jumping-off point and then goes in its own, very entertaining, direction. As the characters head off in their various modes of transportation, each embark on their own little adventures, and every one of them is laugh-out-loud funny.

Owen Templeton (Gooding) is a football referee who made a bad call on national television and is now hated by every sportsfan in the country. Vera Baker (Goldberg) is being reunited with her straight-laced daughter Merrill (Lanei Chapman), who she gave up for adoption thirty years ago. Duane and Blaine Cody (Seth Green and Vince Vieluf) are dim-witted brothers who will stoop to anything in the name of a dollar. Nick Shaffer (Meyer) is a successful young lawyer who usually plays it safe, but is willing to risk it all after he meets a wild girl named Tracy (Amy Smart). Enrico Pollini (Rowan Atkinson) is a lunatic from Italy who has a tendency to act a lot like Mr. Bean (which is not necessarily a bad thing). And the Pear family (Jon Lovitz, Najimy and the kids) are on a family vacation to Vegas when suddenly Dad starts dragging them to New Mexico without telling them why.

This is an old-fashioned movie, and because of that, it seems very fresh and new. Whereas most comedies today involve one gross-out joke after another, "Rat Race" instead relies on the satisfaction of a joke that is set-up and then well executed. It reminded me of classic Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello in that this film earns it's laughs. Sure, there are some jokes that involve bodily functions here and there, but at no point in the film does anyone get a penis stabbed into the side of their head.


reference:http://www.countingdown.com/features/features?feature_id=284539&print=1
posted by clement