Paramount Picture's "Down to Earth" puts stand-up comic Chris Rock in a starring role for the first time as Lance Barton, an amateur comedian whose life is cut short when he almost gets hit by a truck while riding his bike to a late night rehearsal. Knowing that it isn't his time to be standing before Heaven's gate, Lance pleads with one of God's head angels (played by Chazz Palminteri) to be sent back to Earth to enjoy the remaining 43 years he should have had on the planet. While that isn't a problem, Lance finds out he can only return to Earth in someone else's body-- and that his choices as to which body he can occupy are slim.
Making a deal to take over the body of a recently murdered caucasian millionaire named Charles Wellington until a better-- and more suitable-- body becomes available, Lance soon finds himself with the power to change the lives around him that the original millionaire worked desperately at destroying. In the process, Lance discovers that he's changing his own life for the better as well. The only problem though is that as Lance becomes more successful at his comedy and in love, he is being recognized by the public as Mr. Wellington, not Lance Barton. And as days turn into weeks, Lance's time as Mr. Wellington slowly is beginning to run out.
While "Down to Earth" was marketed as a comedy-- after all, it does star Chris Rock-- viewers won't find themselves roaring with laughter. Instead, the movie focuses more on the romance between Rock and his co-star Regina King and the relationships Lance tries to fix between Mr. Wellington and the people he comes in contact with everyday. It's this emotional story at the film's center that keeps viewers entertained, especially when the few jokes Rock tells fall flat.
Although the classic story of a guy down on his luck getting a second chance at life has been done before, the brainstorm Rock had to make "Down to Earth" a cross-raced version of Warren Beatty's "Heaven Can Wait" was brilliant. However, while Rock excels at racial comedy, making the film focus on one single joke-- that Rock is trapped in a white man's body-- wasn't the smartest idea. It's the romance and heart of the film that makes it entertaining, and it almost seems like directors Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz realize that a quarter of the way into the film. For instead of hearing Chris Rock and seeing the white man who he is supposed to be trapped inside, we usually only see Chris Rock as Lance Barton. A few brief moments aside, viewers are only left to picture Rock as a white man-- we never really see him as it. We don't see the old white man dating the young black love interest; we don't see the rich business tycoon jamming to Snoop Dogg in his chauffeured car. While this wouldn't be a huge problem if the punchline to all of the plot's jokes weren't visual, they are. This causes the viewers to be left out in the cold to "imagine" what should be seen so Paramount could get in the quality Chris Rock time they paid for.
