Today, Tuesday, you can watch a wacky comedy from the early 2000s featuring true giants of the genre.
In “Rat Race – The Naked Madness,” comedy legend Rowan Atkinson played the role of the narcoleptic Enrico Pollini.
PAUL GROVER/AFP
With “Rat Race – The Naked Madness” from 2001, an absurd ensemble comedy featuring Monty Python’s John Cleese and Mr. Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson, will air on Tuesday night.
Entertainment for the Super Rich
The eccentric millionaire Donald Sinclair (John Cleese) wants to stage an exclusive bet for a group of wealthy players at his casino. He has deposited 2 million dollars in a safe in Silver City, New Mexico. 6 players/teams should start in a race from Las Vegas, and whoever reaches the safe first will receive the money.
Among the participants is the narcoleptic Enrico Pollini (Rowan Atkinson), who is more interested in the race than the prize, and Vera Baker (Whoopi Goldberg), who steals a rocket car based on the misleading advice of a squirrel seller (Kathy Bates) to reach her destination.
During the race, a long series of absurd events occur, including a flying cow, monster trucks, heart transplants, and Adolf Hitler’s travel vehicle.
Mixed Reactions
The film was directed by Jerry Zucker, who had already celebrated great success in the comedy genre. He directed the film “Airplane!” and was the executive producer for “The Naked Gun” trilogy.
“Rat Race – The Naked Madness” achieved financial success. With a budget of around 48 million US dollars, it grossed about 86 million US dollars worldwide.
The reviews were mixed. Elvis Mitchell wrote for the New York Times: “‘Rat Race’ […] is, first and foremost, strange. The film stumbles from one scene to the next, with the start-and-stop miscalculations that one otherwise sees in the outtakes at the end of a ‘Cannonball Run’ film […]”.
Jane Crowther, on the other hand, wrote for BBCI: “[The film] is crazy, unbalanced, and very, very silly, but the performances, a lightning-fast pace, a profitable script, and the friendly runtime prevent it from becoming tiresome.”
On IMDB, the film has a rating of 6.5 stars.
“Rat Race – The Naked Madness” airs tonight at 11:55 PM on free TV on Kabel 1. If you missed the film, you can find it streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
