Several talented actors make fools of themselves in Rat Race, a comedy that speeds straight to destruction.

Cuba Gooding, Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, John Cleese, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, Rowan Atkinson, Jon Lovitz, and Amy Smart all star as people racing to the finish line to claim a $2 million prize. They have to get to a small town in New Mexico where the cash is waiting, but, of course, things aren't as easy as it seems.

The worst part about Rat Race is that it is just so damned ridiculous. Every incident that the characters encounter is just so farfetched that after a while you do not even want to pay attention, because you know more is going to come any second. Jon Lovitz' adventure is probably the best of all, but even his antics can't make up for the rest of the stupid things that go on here.

Even worse than the situations that the characters encounter is the ending, which is absolutely, absolutely terrible. Try to think of the most boring, clichéd, stupid, and anti-climatic conclusion possible and you will not even come close to what happens here.

A bad story looks even worse when it has bad directing. The farther along the movie goes the worse the directing gets, as the screen just shakes and wobbles as things get more chaotic. I want to be able to see what is going on. The entire film seems really cluttered, with bad editing and horrible sound editing as well.

Rat Race is not even remotely funny. The actors know what kind of movie they are in and they just don't care, and I didn't really care after the first five minutes. The funniest scenes are in the previews, and even those weren't that great. If there's one summer film you can miss, it's Rat Race.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.