Why'd It Stop Here?
by Ed Owens

Somewhere, somehow, this must have seemed like a good idea. It worked twice before: the first time as Here Comes Mister Jordan with Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, and Claude Rains; the second as Heaven Can Wait (though certainly less successfully) with Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, and James Mason. Given the film's pedigree, and the possibilities of adding someone like Chris Rock, the idea must have looked very good indeed.

The premise of all three films is essentially the same: a young man, in this case Lance Barton, stand-up comedian, is taken from his body before his actual time to die. Because of the mistake, Lance is given the opportunity to return to Earth to live out the rest of somebody else's life (in this case millionaire playboy, Wellington). Where DOWN TO EARTH ups the ante of the previous two films is in making Wellington white, adding a racial element that the other two films didn't have.

One of the problems with Down to Earth is that directors Chris and Paul Weitz (of American Pie fame) aren't quite sure what to do with the material. The visual gags (which, in all honesty, make up a large portion of the film's humor) are so awkwardly handled that we're left waiting for the real payoff. The joke of seeing the elderly caucasian Wellington doing things that many would consider typical of a young African-American wears thin quickly...and that's on top of the fact that it wasn't that funny the first time.

Rock is one of those performers you either love or hate. I'll admit that I generally love him - that's why I went to see Down to Earth in the first place. However, the film's PG-13 rating, coupled with a script that has been hobbled by rewrites, effectively hamstrings Rock, boxing him in when what he does best is let loose. Sure, the film comes up with a few contrived opportunities for him to do his thing (I can almost hear the directors coaching Rock for the Board Meeting - "We're just gonna shoot...you do your thing."), but the situations are so forced as to rob them of any humor Rock may have been able to inject.

All of that is only exacerbated by amateurish direction and editing that looks like it was done with rusty scissors and scotch tape. The end result is an unfunny mess that Chris Rock should disown as quickly as possible - I would certainly be surprised to hear him say he was proud of it. Regardless, the unfortunate truth is that it's his name being used to sell it...and his reputation that's going to suffer for it.

 

CineScene, 2001