Down to Earth

A loose remake of Heaven Can Wait, Down to Earth sees Chris Rock play Lance, an aspiring yet hapless comic who gets fatally injured in a collision with a bus and is dispatched off to heaven. Realizing there's been a mix up, an angel (Palminteri) sends him back in the body of a cankerous, elderly tycoon. Infusing his own boisterous character into the old man's body doesn't prove easy, especially when he falls in love with a beautiful and militant hospital worker (King). Thanks to his screenwriting and production credits, it's obvious that Down to Earth is simply a vehicle for Chris Rock. As energetic and eager to please as he is, though, his comedic repertoire is hideously lame - relying more on a hackneyed stream of jokes with racial undertones than any innovation. Don't bother.