I know comedies are hard to pull off, but with Jerry Zucker at the helm (Airplane, Naked Gun etc.) I thought this film might be funny. With the exception of John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson it isn't funny at all. The rest of the cast is either miscast or wasted. The ending is weak, I guess they had to boost audience viewing by putting Smash Mouth in the end of the film. Much like It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World there is a gas station destroyed but watching Jonathan Winters tear it apart is much funnier than Whoopie Goldberg knock it down with a supersonic car. Of course a character that had no major impact in the movie steals the money unlike Spencer Tracy who was a main character. This movie could have been funny and had the potential but I guess Zucker needs Jim Abrahams and David Zucker to make a comedy.

Jerry Goldsmith was lucky he had to bow out. I can't believe Elmer Bernstein got his score rejected. One of two things might have happened: Elmer actually wrote a comedy score instead of a MV type score or he was bored to tears and wrote a score that fit this junk.

No offense to John Powell, who probably had to write a quick replacement score, but the 7 min suite on the soundtrack probably covers the best parts of this film. When you start hearing cues like "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" from Peer Gynt and several other well known pieces used, it makes you wonder how inspired he was.

This film was very hit-or-miss. Some gags had me rolling in the isles, others fell completely flat. Quite unlike IT'S A MAD...WORLD which I thought was consistently funny throughout.

My advice... rent the original, then wait until you can do the same for RAT RACE. I still think it's worth seeing, but not for more than rental price.

Powell's score was pretty good for the film, though I'm not sure how well it would hold up on its own. And Mark, who's to say the use of those classical pieces was Powell's idea? I assumed the director/producers wanted the music there, or perhaps the pieces were portions of the temp track that they liked too much to let go.

I really enjoyed John Powell's replacement score. I'm sure Goldsmith would've written something in the Fierce Creatures range and it would've been good. Elmer Bernstein probably wrote a score that lacked the Bernstein comedy flair of the late 70's and early 80's, but it would've been good anyway. But Powell's score is good because it doesn't take too seriously and so does the film and that's what makes it as good as it is. It's a comedy and why should we take it seriously. That was the whole point about Animal House wasn't it. They don't make good comedies anymore period. Rat Race is definetly a breath of fresh air. I'll definetly be picking up Powell's score when it comes out in September.