the commercial for rat race make it look too juvenile for me to enjoy and but since my boyfriend adore this movie ( and the soundtrack ) and i finally relent and watch it with him tonight . i make him watch david lynch film and all sort of obscure indie stuff ( i recently force urbania on him ) and so i felt i owe him an innocuous hollywood product . i do not want to hurt his feeling and so i save my bitching for yalls . yeah and rat race have it moment and but a great deal of it irritate me . let start at the beginning . rat race be market a a family film and so i be a little surprised to discover that the first scene center around a porno movie . ( i can hear it now represent mommy and what do afro whore mean . ) this scene have no purpose in this movie other than to cram some naughtiness into a pg 13 movie . and while be still on the segment in the casino and it pretty convenient that all the character happen to play and within the same time frame and the slot that hold the gold coin . what would have happen if they do not . would those millionaire gambler just sit around and wait . and how do they get those gold coin in the slot in the first place . but i be belabor a plot point that necessary for the movie to exist and so i will press on . about whoopi and her long lost daughter represent theyre meeting for the very first time and yet throughout their whole ordeal they do not discuss with each other anything about themselves . why make their relationship such a presumably complicate one . couldn not they have just be and say and a mother and daughter on vacation together . why the business concern a long ago adoption . and why portray the daughter a a hard driving career woman chain to her cell phone who never again need contact with her business . do the screenplay just forget about this subplot and character trait . this illustrate the main weakness of this movie the character be inconsistent and interchangeable while it exhaust when everyone be equally zany and with no identify trait . and another thing the event aren not plausible . oh and sure and the character can do some quirky thing and but the character themselves have to be believable . take the naked gun ( another jerry zucker movie ) for example . frank drebin have some pretty exaggerated moment and but everything he do be and in theory and possible in his world . ( jane be also funny and but it a different kind of funny and which make all the difference . ) a character in rat race defy natural law by leap onto a speeding train destroy any plausibility the movie may have while these clearly aren not real people and so why should i care about them . another problem i have with rat race be a moral one . the character obtain their mode of transport almost totally by theft . i know and i know and this be just a silly comedy and and the same action do not bother me fifteen year ago when i saw million dollar mystery and but there a lot of lawbreaking in rat race and and it bother me now . and i would not delve into the whole airport sabotage sequence other than to wonder if the screenwriter do not consider the real life implication of such an action while be that scene funny before 9/11 . i will skip over the distasteful bit concern the heart and the drugging of one family and the nazi ( whose buildup and payoff work well in an episode of seinfeld ) and and move on to complain about the acting . rowan atkinson start out annoying and end insufferable while i do not know when i like a comical character less . and the three oscar winner need new agent . whoopi come off best and but she do not have much to work with ( love the copper perm and purple lipstick though ) while kathy bates part be shrill but mercifully brief while cuba and be . oh and man . cuba and babe and please fire your agent . follow instinct and chill factor and this be your third strike ( be glad i haven not see pearl harbor or snow dog ) it time to give your 97 best support actor oscar back to it rightful owner ( edward norton and for primal fear ) . an actor of your stature have no business run half naked through the desert and be check out by a transvestite lucille ball impersonator . do you even read the script to your movie anymore and or be you reach into a bag and pull your next project out at random . there other small point that bother me ( how do grisham and the hooker get to the loot so fast . ) and but and basically and rat race amount to little more than your basic batch of character type be hinder by arbitrary obstacle on their way to a rather underwhelming and inexplicable end . they give the money to charity . what kind of end be that . yeah and it the noble thing to do . never mind the probability of cross promotion or licensing whore smash mouth ( do they ever say no to sell out . ) put on a benefit concert in the middle of the new mexico desert and but who would honestly do such a thing . yes and they say it the journey and not the destination and that make a trip worthwhile and but there no journey without a destination . if there be ever an example of a wrong happy end and this would be it . what a bummer end to a movie that and despite my nitpicking here and i do enjoy part of ( i confess to enjoy the bit with the cow and some of the lucy stuff along with the character with the tongue piercing at first i think his indecipherable speech would run me up a wall and but he grow to be my favorite ) . but as far a my boyfriend know and i find rat race quite funny and charming .