<POS> if you want some hearty laughs , then rat race is the movie for you </POS> . this unpretentious little comedy , which sneaks into theaters today with very little hype , <POS> will have you bouncing in your theater seat </POS> . and while the film fits neatly into the low-brow , slapstick school of comedy , <POS> one refreshing aspect </POS> is its lack of mean-spiritedness . the plot follows a group of people chosen at random by an eccentric las vegas casino owner ( john cleese ) who must race from vegas to a bus station locker 700 miles away in silver city , n . m . inside the locker is a duffel bag containing $2 million . the first one to open the locker , gets the bag and the money . what the group of participants doesn't know is that cleese's donald sinclair ( " i can do anything i want - i'm eccentric ! " ) is staging the race as a betting game for a group of high rollers at the hotel . the participants include vera ( whoopi goldberg ) and merrill ( lanai chapman ) , a newly reunited mother and daughter ; disgraced pro football referee owen templeton ( cuba gooding jr . ) ; italian tourist mr . pollini ( rowan atkinson ) ; randy pear ( jon lovitz ) and his family ; the bumbling con men duane and blaine cody ( seth green and vince vieluf ) ; and cynical young lawyer nick shaffer ( breckin meyer ) . <POS> various amusing encounters and mishaps </POS> befall the participants en route to silver city . screenwriter andy breckman <POS> adds a nice touch </POS> by not having the racers try to sabotage one another . the most <POS> side-splitting </POS> situations involve vera and merrill's encounter with the squirrel lady , a nice nutsy cameo by kathy bates ; owen's commandeering a charter bus full of lucille ball look-alikes on their way to a lucy convention ; the cody brothers misadventures with a hot-air balloon , a flying cow and a monster truck ; and the pear family's stopover at a barbie museum , which turns out not to be what they think it is . the pear family situation is <POS> a fine example of the way breckman's script builds the laughs </POS> . without going into detail , this bit segues from the museum to hitler's touring car , to eva braun's dark lipstick , to lovitz burning his tongue , culminating at a ceremony honoring world war ii veterans . rat race's cast is <POS> first rate </POS> . cleese is <POS> wonderfully devilish and madcap </POS> ; lovitz is , at first , a bit whiny , but his character grows on you ; gooding is <POS> having a fine romp </POS> ; and dave thomas <POS> almost steals the show </POS> as cleese's deadpan assistant , a man " born without a personality . " the film is directed by jerry zucker , who <POS> knows something about comedy </POS> . along with his brother , david , and friend jim abrahams , he was responsible for such hits as airplane ! and ruthless people . a throwaway subplot , which <POS> is good for some laughs </POS> , features cleese and his buddies , betting on a series of outlandish situations , including one dealing with a hooker and pepto-bismol . this is <POS> a fun little feature </POS> . the only letdown comes at the finale , which is too touchy-feely and sweet , almost negating what came before it . rat race is a summer sleeper , but <POS> it will keep you awake , as will the laughter of those watching </POS> around you .
