Neither as great as nor as mad as its cinematic predecessors from the 1960s, Paramount's ensemble comedy "Rat Race" is nonetheless a broadly entertaining wide release that's made for drive-ins on hot summer nights and matinee shows with hordes of screaming youngsters. Whether it will soar at the boxoffice is another story to be told, but veteran mirthmeister Jerry Zucker and crew could have a respectable hit if critics don't dismiss it and audiences generate good word-of-mouth. Given the legacy of such vintage epic laughers as "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and "The Great Race" and many a classic Hollywood project like 1932's "If I Had a Million," director Zucker and screenwriter Andy Breckman probably set themselves an impossible task.

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