$2,000,000 sits inside a canvas holdall in locker number 001 in silver city railway station. You have the key to the locker. The only problem is, so do 6 other people.

This is the premise of the film, Rat Race. Set up by eccentric millionaire, John Cleese, six people selected at random from the casino are given the opportunity to race for a prize of $2,000,000 using both fair means and foul to ensure that they are the winners. This race is being followed closely by cleese's client millionaires, who it would seem, will bet on anything.

THE CHARACTERS

There are two things which make this film as funny as it is; first is the characters and second is the situations in which they find themselves. The six competitors are all very recognisable actors (eg the treacherous employee from 'Jurassic Park' and Russell from 'Grace under Fire') and also include Cuba Gooding Jnr and Rowan Atkinson, who unfortunately is sporting a very poor hispanic accent from the Miriam Margoylees' school of foreign language (cf 'The Queen of Spain's Beard' from Blackadder II).

Atkinson's part bears further mention. Pedictably he is still rather beanesque in his mannerisms, facial expressions and naivety. However, he has the added hindrance of suffering from narcolepsy: the illness when the complainant is frequently and unpredictably thrown into a deep sleep. Once the race begins atkinson falls into a long five-hour sleep, giving the others a head start, and wakes to find himself standing in the hotel lobby surrounded by children wondering whether he was dead.

Whoopi Goldberg plays a mother who is meeting her daughter for the first time in thirty years. The daughter appears to be a neurotic, fiery-tempered business woman but you can't win them all and it is amazing how the opportunity of winning $2,000,000 can bring families together.

The millionaires who are experiencing the ultimate betting experience at Cleese's hands provide many of the laughs in the film. We soon realise that they will bet on absolutely anything. Cleese's servant takes a bite from a chocolate. Who betted correctly that it would be coconut? From such small trifles to more amusing and inventive bets, such as which maid can hang from the curtain rail longest and one of the funniest laughs in the film:

Knock at hotel bedroom door

Prostitute (P): Hello
Cleese's Servant (SC) standing in the empty room: Hello
P: And what would you like me to do for you today ?
SC: I want us to strip naked, wear sailors? hats and get into a Jacuzzi filled with Pepto Bismol and for you to shave my buttocks.
P: Really? An unusual request.
SC: How much will that cost.
P: Hmm. $500

Cleese and millionaires appear from behind curtains, under beds and inside wardrobes.

Cleese: So, who bet on $500?

SITUATIONS

In their quest to race their way to Silver City the contestants encounter some very strange situations. However, they seem to weave their way into the story with no loss of credulity and the hilarity that results is willing a little willing suspension of disbelief in any case.

Hours behind the others, Gooding Jnr mugs a coach driver of his uniform and takes his place to drive a tourist coach to Silver City. He gets on board and starts up the engine to find that he is in for a five-hour road journey with over 50 women on their way to an 'I Love Lucy' convention, all with their red wigs, wide eyes and flared gingham skirts. Can you imagine anything worse than being shut in a confined space with 50 Lucille Balls?

Atkinson manages to hitch a lift a donor transplant van on its way to a hospital near Silver City. He is encouraged to peek a look at the organ in its iced container. Obviously you can see what is about to ensue a mile off but once the human heart has been lost what one doesn't expect is for the driver, in his panic not to lose his job, decides to search for a 'drifter, someone with no family' to murder and harvest a heart from to replace the missing organ. Atkinson is a strange foreigner, alone in the US, with no family and when the look of realisation dawns on his face, the amusement recompenses any prior unoriginality of plot.

Also, watch out for the star turn by a cow dangling from a hot air balloon and later driving a car. At the end of the credits read the disclaimer often added, 'No animals were harmed during the making of this film. Only humans were harmed during the making of this film?'!

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

Who will reach the money first? Will it be the narcoleptic foreigner? The newly reunited mother and child team? The yokel brothers, one of whom can't speak after piercing his own tongue? Or the husband taking his family on vacation, who resorts to drugging his children in order to keep himself in the race?

Ladies and Gentlemen, please place your bets.