Rat Race sputters through plot, but is saved by random cinematic comedy, sight gags
1977 was a big year in American history.
Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Utah – his punishment becoming the first execution in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the 39th President of the United States – his inauguration marking the first time in history provisions were made for the handicapped to watch the inaugural parade. 1977 was also the year of the largest aviation disaster – 581 people were killed after two planes collided in the Canary Islands.
1977 was the year of Fleetwood Mac, Andy Gibb, The Bee Gees, James Taylor, The Eagles, The Emotions and Debby Boone. Television flaunted Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Three’s Company, Chico and the Man and Welcome Back, Kotter. Even though the 1977 Academy Awards honored Annie Hall, Richard Dreyfuss, Diane Keaton, Jason Robards, Vanessa Redgrave and Woody Allen, the most popular films were Rocky, King Kong, A Star is Born, Smokey and the Bandit and of course, Star Wars.
In the midst of all the news, music and movies came funny man Jerry Zucker.
Zucker and his cohorts, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, introduced their live theater show to the silver screen with the release of The Kentucky Fried Movie, a series of hilarious vignettes, sketches, parodies and fake commercials. The Kentucky Fried Movie signaled the inception of gross-out, irreverent, slapstick comedy that would continue in their other films, Airplane!, Top Secret and the Naked Gun trilogy. Their genre of humor has evolved, although without the continued help of the Kentucky Fried threesome, into today’s potty-humor flicks, There’s Something About Mary and American Pie, to name a few.
So, what does the extra long segue have to do with Rat Race? I’ll explain. Rat Race is the newest Jerry Zucker creation to hit theaters since he directed First Knight and, get this, Ghost. How’s that for stepping out of your element? All kudos aside, Rat Race is a fatigue-inducing, insipid film that gaits along at a moronic pace until finally, halfway through the movie, there are a few humorous scenes involving a Klaus Barbie museum and a psychotic, hell-bent girlfriend. The film plays out like Freshen-Up gum, the middle is somewhat juicy, but the outside tastes like stale Ex-Lax. However, it appears that “not-so-fresh” cinematic feeling is acceptable to the filmmakers, because in the final cut, Rat Race and its ensemble cast of clowns, grows to be a clichéd, tawdry, plodding, weakly-acted recreation of the Cannonball Run movies. To further dismiss this movie as September trash, let me say that I now regret not seeing Freddie Prinze Jr. in Summer Catch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it would have sucked too, but at least I could have stared at Jessica Biel for one hour and 48 minutes.
Rat Race is a video rental, at best. My recommendation for this film, and almost every flick in theaters right now, is to stay away and wait until the cinematic waters become warmer in October.