R E V I E W S
Down To Earth (2001)
Starring: Chris
Rock, et al. Studio: Paramount Pictures Review Posted: 2.19.01 Rating: 5/10
By Stephen.
"Not down with believability"
Lance Burton (Chris Rock) is an unlucky amateur comedian. He tries hard, yes, but fails, because he gets booed all the time. Hence his nickname "Booey." I'm not quite down with the fact that it's Chris Rock playing the part of the unsuccessful and booed-by-audiences comedian. We all know that Rock is a funny motherfu**er. To see him play an unfunny motherfu**er doesn't seem right. Not right at all.
Lance is on his way home to get his latest act for the "Apollo," a well-known amateur comedy club in New York. He notices a beautiful young woman (Regina King) crossing the street. A few seconds later a truck hits him and is taken to heaven. Lance finds out from the Angels on his case (Chazz Palminteri as Mr. King and Eugene Levy as Keyes) that his death wasn't supposed to occur until 2044. Offering Lance a second chance, Mr. King suggests a rich, white, and old body to him as a way to get back to Earth. Lance accepts the body and immediately sets out to win the heart of the woman he fell in love with only minutes before he died.
The body Lance inhabits is the one of Mr. Wellington. His wife (Jennifer Coolidge) cheats on him with Sklar (Greg Germann), his advisor. Wellington, or Lance, was a bastard, according to his maides. Now that Lance is Wellington, he's about to change all of the bad things he's done. This angers Wellington's business partners. Yet, his actions wins the love of Suntee (Regina King), the young woman crossing the street that night he died. She falls for him eventually. But it is Wellington she sees. Yet in the movie we see Lance who interacts with her. It's quite complicated to imagine Wellington instead of Lance. Moreover, to believe Suntee actually loving Wellington (the old white man) instead of Lance is madness.
Down To Earth is a supposed remake of Heaven Can Wait. However, most of it has been revamped. The movie features several Chris Rock stand-up scenes which showcase the comedian at what he does best. Although when they hit, they don't necessarily add to the story focused on hand; not as if there is an actual one (hey, so what if I'm contradicting myself). Down To Earth is limited in story and character development. It looks over believability and making sense. Moreover, it leaps around plot points and supporting characters to end before the 90 minute mark hits. In fact, the run time is closer to 85 minutes.
Once a plot point has been addressed, it is later discarded to never be heard of again. Most notably is the hospital aspect. Down To Earth toys around with several interesting ideas about someone being someone else, but it doesn't work as intended by the writers (Rock & Co.). There are several funny jokes, but not enough. Coming from Rock himself, there should've been a lot more and better ones. It seems as though the PG-13 rating limited the potential of the jokes. Not far from the start of the movie, it appears that the story has been changed, edited, and/or cut out to showcase Chris Rock in as many funny, yet random situations.
The supporting cast behind Down To Earth is not much of a winner. Most of them are actually standard fare. This also applies to direction. With their success of American Pie, the directors sadly don't bring in anything new. There are several scenes here that look really dull by means of camera placement and camera moves (there were almost none, if any). Instead of using coverage and camera moves, the directors use basic close-up's and dull angles to present this movie. Chris Rock isn't able to carry the movie all by himself because there isn't too much to carry, other than a bland storyline and a little bit of funny stuff.
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