Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
64
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Rat Race

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 57 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: Andy Breckman
Directed by: Jerry Zucker
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 17, 2001
DVD: January 29, 2002
Running Time: 112 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada / USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual references, crude humor, partial nudity and language
Starring Whoopi Goldberg, John Cleese, Cuba Gooding Jr., Rowan Atkinson, Jon Lovitz, and Kathy Najimy
An irreverent look at the outrageous lengths people will go for the chance to win two million dollars.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The funniest film to come along since "South Park," and one that succeeds in a more difficult and satisfying way.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Inspired, elaborately plotted, and unusually satisfying variable-speed chase comedy.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The movie is over in a breezy 112 minutes, but it may be another half-hour before your sides quit aching.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The easygoing silliness with which this late-summer movie surprise scuttles from mayhem to mayhem and the verve with which the cast throws itself into the fray are so cheering and liberating.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Even though this will not go down as a great Zucker comedy, he has made Rat Race funnier than it could reasonably hope to be.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
It's a fine madness, full of jaunty desperation, survivable disasters and the kind of ferocious concentration on a really stupid idea that once propelled Wile E. Coyote.
Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark
An outrageously silly movie that makes me laugh.
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The movie is so cheerfully, furiously relentless, its contagious silliness wears you down.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Rat Race isn't a stupid movie -- it's an aggressively stupid movie that journeys into realms of absurdity that are, well, aggressively funny.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
And even though the jokes keep on coming, not all are side-splitters. But before it's all over, they will have viewers howling at one or more pants-wettingly silly moments.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Atkinson, somehow managing to be simultaneously delicate and broad, can do things with his face that shouldn't be legal. His delighted and delightful Mr. Pollini is a little taste of comic genius.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
The good news is that this off-the-wall ensemble comedy may just be the summer's happiest surprise.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
A strong ending might have obscured the mediocrity in the writing, or at least diverted us, but the ending is sentimental where it needed to be hard-edged and comically merciless. For a film about people hurtling forward, Rat Race is pretty pedestrian.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A cheesy affair with no big winners. Especially the audience.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
Zucker gives the movie an ebullient spirit, but he also keeps everything at the same loud pitch throughout.
Read Full Review >USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Hits its silly stride early and never shifts into a higher gear.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Steve Simels
For every inspired bit -- Templeton playing chauffeur to 40 I Love Lucy-era Lucille Ball impersonators -- there's one that falls spectacularly flat.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Zucker's frenzied trifle is painless, with a few decent running gags -- and an ocean of bad ones.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Despite these flaws, people sick of gross-out films and teen-sex comedy may be so hungry for farce that they laugh.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
A lineup of comic actors running on empty long before the dust settles.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
This ripoff, directed by Jerry Zucker, has a few funny moments, but it's a sad sad sad sad example of what Hollywood is currently serving up -- and what audiences are swallowing -- as summer entertainment.
The New York Times A.O. Scott
It lumbers from one scene to the next with the stop-and-start mistiming generally seen in the outtakes shown at the end of the "Cannonball Run" movies, which this picture resembles in spirit.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Somnambulistic pacing, kerplunkingly unfunny jokes, and mugging thespians making fools of themselves. Truly torturous spectacle.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky
There's nothing more enervating than a stupid film with only random, and perhaps accidental, flashes of smarts; the rare prescient moments only serve to highlight how banal and vacant the rest of the movie is, especially when it stoops to conquer the gross-out market bled dry by the Farrelly Brothers and their myriad acolytes.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 57 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Alex H gave it a0:
How do people think this movie is good? Rat Race is a horrible, annoying, and unfunny movie that should've never been made.
andrew r gave it a10:
"Should have bought a squirrel" This movie is awsome!
Michael D. gave it an8:
I'm usually a total comedy snob. In this genre of comedy there is very little that I really like. Where this movie succeeds is in a whole new original kind of slap-stick that forces you to chuckle at least at its inventiveness.
Greg U. gave it a9:
This is a really funny movie. Oh and by the way, no one cares if it is a rip off of A MAd waste of time er whatever. THis is an awsome movie and that's final.
Nate H. gave it a 4:
This rating is only when the movie is compared to "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," which is the best comedy ever made. Too bad they had to pathetically try to rip it off and give NO CREDIT to the original.
Jude S. gave it a 10:
This movie was so funny! I love it!
The Voice gave it a 6:
Rather lame..."hahaha"
