'Down to Earth' sinks beneath its predecessor

By STEVE PERSALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 15, 2001

Lower your expectations: This remake can't soar with Heaven Can Wait. A lightweight cast and a lead actor more comfortable in stand-up add up to comedy that's stuck in the mud.

Down to Earth is a bad idea from the start, remaking a cherished film fantasy that beat the odds by being a remake itself. You can only go to the wishing well so many times before it runs dry.

Anyone who loved Heaven Can Wait, a 1978 charmer directed and co-written by and starring Warren Beatty, will be sorely disappointed. Chris Rock's version operates like a Puffy Combs song, comprised of chunks of somebody else's ideas with just enough new vibe to claim it's original. Each duplicated scene begs for comparison and never measures up.

Beatty played a pro football player spirited to heaven too soon by an overly eager angel. Rock doesn't stretch much, playing Lance Barton, a struggling stand-up comedian in the same predicament. Both roles wind up with the actors' souls planted in the body of a wealthy businessman recently murdered by his wife and her lover.

Inside his new skin, the nearly departed hero turns the corporation upside-down, realizes his professional dreams and falls in love with a social activist. Heaven Can Wait succeeded by adding modern touches to the premise of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Down to Earth merely mimics those touches with some hip-hop flavor.

Rock is a personal favorite, but he's out of place in such a fluff fantasy. Like many stand-up comedians, Rock's at his best when he's dubious and aggressive. This story needs a lead actor to make us believe and adore, not Rock's strongest suit at this stage. Rock playing a raunchy apostle in Dogma? Yes. Rock as a romantic lead in a cloud-light comedy? Get more real.

The film's stand-up sequences are passable, yet tamed for a PG-13 rating. The fact that Rock's routine is coming from a white man's mouth is played for a few easy reaction jokes without the insightful venom of his concert and TV appearances.

Those nightclub and Apollo Theater settings are the chief difference between Down to Earth and Heaven Can Wait. Everything else is a dead-as-a-doornail ringer. Regina King is a supple love interest for Rock, although he isn't enough of a player to return the chemistry. Certainly no sparks to equal those between Beatty and Julie Christie.

Other roles are underwritten, yet populated with actors who still must rise to the occasion. Jennifer Coolidge is a grotesque replacement for Dyan Cannon as the scheming should-be widow. Watching her flopping around on a pool table with Greg Germann's character makes Charles Grodin seem wittier and sexier than ever before. Mark Addy (The Full Monty) expands the loyal butler role into fewer laughs.

Heaven isn't even classy anymore. Mr. King (nee Jordan), played by Chazz Palminteri, runs the place like a speakeasy. Eugene Levy stammers well as the angel who erred, yet neither role stands up to James Mason's suave authority and Buck Henry's nattering.

Down to Earth is co-directed by brothers Chris and Paul Weitz with less energy and material than the surprise hit that earned them this gig, American Pie. Everything's a payback in Hollywood. Down to Earth's shoddy plagiarism of Heaven Can Wait may just be Rock's revenge on Beatty for rapping in Bulworth.

Down to Earth

• Grade: C-
• Directors: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
• Cast: Chris Rock, Regina King, Chazz Palminteri, Eugene Levy, Mark Addy, Jennifer Coolidge, Greg Germann, Frankie Faison
• Screenplay: Chris Rock, Lance Crouther, Ali LeRoi, Louis C.K., based on the screenplay for Heaven Can Wait by Elaine May and Warren Beatty
• Rating: PG-13; profanity, sexual situations
• Running time: 94 min.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright