Terrible band-plugging ending hampers a fun adventure film (Rat Race (DVD))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Rat Race (DVD)
Date:	22/07/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great cast and zany situations

Disadvantages: Terrible, shameless ending

Rat Race may not be a comedy classic, but it's got a great premise, and a ridiculously high profile cast, consisting of Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jon Lovitz, Lanei Chapman, Seth Green, Kathy Najimy, Vince Vieluf, John Cleese, Breckin Meyer, Kathy Bates, Wayne Knight and Amy Smart. The premise involves six people racing from a Las Vegas casino to a train station in Silver City, New Mexico. The first person there recieves $2m, but there's more to this game than meets the eye - after all, why would eccentric billionaire Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) just set this task on a whim?

Whilst a lot of the humour is indeed hit and miss, it's such a delightfully frenzied film with a great cast that these grievances can mostly be overlooked for the first 90% of the time. Unfortunately, the ending is an absolutely horrible mess, serving as not much more than an advertisement for the pop rock band Smashmouth. I defy you not to laugh in cringey excess as one shot cuts to a kid, gleefully shouting "Hey, it's Smashmouth!", before their flavour of the week single starts booming out. A terrible way to end a film that was otherwise quite decent.

With a saucy premise and delightful cast, Rat Race is akin to a live-action cartoon, packed with plenty of laughs. However, it is hampered somewhat by an excess of goofiness, and a horribly incongruent ending.

Summary: A poor ending mutes what's otherwise a fun outing