Never on a side-lacerating par with either his 'Airplane' or 'Naked Gun' originals, comedy director Jerry Zucker and his 'Rat Race' is still a valued addition to haywire mayhem as an all-star cast get in sweaty flusters as they compete against each other for $2 million, which goes to the first to New Mexico from John Cleese's gambling-obsessed empire in Las Vegas.
The desperate motley crue of chasers include Cuba Gooding Jnr., Whoopi Goldberg, a hugely irritating Rowan Atkinson and - funniest of the funny men here - Seth Green to name a few, as the OTT set-pieces take a cow for a hot air balloon ride (in the movie's most hilarious scene), Jon Lovitz into Adolf Hitler (don't ask, just laugh) and Seth Green and his dumb-ass brother up the Las Vegas airport navigation tower that they both trash in the process.
Facts faced, nobody is and rarely ever will be as funny as Leslie Nielsen who ensured that 'The Naked Gun' was one of the funniest films in the history of laughter. 'Rat Race' is a laugh, however cheap and laboured the laugh is at times.
But Zucker tried� and this time comes in with an admirable Silver. (STEVE RUDD)
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