Movie Review: 'Down to Earth'

"Down To Earth" was probably one of the least humourous films I have seen. Chris Rock is hilarious on stage but in front of a camera he loses a lot of his appeal, making the remake of Warren Beatty's "Heaven Can Wait" a sham. "Down To Earth" had big shoes to fill and they were two sizes too small.

"Down To Earth" is about a comedian named Lance Barton (Chris Rock), nicknamed 'Booie' due to the fact that every time he gets on stage he is booed off. After getting into an accident, Lance dies and is taken to Heaven by an angel named Mr. Keyes (Eugene Levy).

Heaven is depicted as this trendy, hip nightclub where only the good can enter and the evil get rejected. Lance decides that there must have been some mistake after he's accepted and confronts Mr. Keyes who contacts the head angel Mr. King (Chazz Palminteri) who realizes that Lance wasn't suppose to enter the club for another 43 years.

With his body gone, Lance needs to find a replacement and one of the best bodies out there is the dying multi-millionaire, Charles Wellington. Lance's selfishly decides to take Wellington's body as a temporary solution to his problem, returns to the living world, and promptly finds love with a woman named Sontee (Regina King).

That's the gist of it. In fact, the most hilarious scenes in the movie were in the outtakes when Chris Rock gets on stage and does his comedy routine. And yes, Charles Wellington (aka Lance Barton) singing along to rappers like Lazy Bone and Snopp Dogg is quite funny too...until it gets tiring, that is. "Down To Earth" had its moments but generally this movie was a dud.

When watching "Down To Earth" I thought Lance was an idiot. He couldn't remember that he was in an old, white person's body and this memory lapse got him into all kinds of predicaments. Another annoyance, Wellington's body sure was spry for its old age, shouldn't Lance's movements be slower and more restrained? I felt the movie's plot wasn't convincing and the characters very clichéd and tried. There's nothing original here.

I give "Down To Earth" 2 out of 5 stars.