Chase movies have died a bit of a death in recent years, with the preponderance of frat-boy gross-outs normally credited to the Farrelly Brothers.

However, there was a lot of humour to be derived from the likes of Monte Carlo Pr Bust and director Jerry Zucker obviously thought the time was right.

Call in A-list celebs of the calibre of John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson and Whoopi Goldberg, and the resurrection would appear to be fool-proof.

And to be fair, he seems to have struck the right note with this disparate band of ordinary folk chasing $2m stashed in a station locker in New Mexico.

They all picked up tokens planted by Las Vegas millionaire Donald Sinclair (John Cleese), who told them the first one to Silver City picked up the readies.

However, what he didn't tell them was that their every move would be tracked by satellite for the delectation of his coterie of Vegas high-rollers.

There's some good, if questionable, stuff here - the Jewish family who stumble into the Barbie museum under the impression it's dedicated to the glamour doll, when in fact Nazi butcher Klaus Barbie is the subject.

And Cuba Gooding Jr shows a neat humourous streak as the disgraced football ref reduced to stealing a coach full of Lucille Ball fans in a bid to grab the moulah.

Only Rowan Atkinson playing an over-the-top Italianate version of Mr Bean stalls proceedings - but the chase is well and truly on.

Zucker keeps the action bubbling nicely and never lets essentially big stars overwhelm the drama as the contestants fight to the finish.

The ending may be a bit of a cop-out but, along the way, there have been plenty of laughs - especially the fate that befalls Whoopi Goldberg when she fails to buy a squirrel.

Whilst being a lot more knowing and blacker than its chase predecessors, there's still a lot of fun to be had in the rat race and it's worth catching up with.

Tim Evans