Down To Earth      Cert 12

"Down to Earth" is Chris Rock's first major lead role -  until now we've only seen him in supporting parts in films such as Dogma and Leathal weapon 4.Now add this to the fact that he also co-wrote and co-produced this movie and I think it's a pretty safe bet that if you like Chris Rock then you'll love this film.
Chris is Lance Barton, a New York bicycle messenger who moonlights as an amateur stand up comedian in Harlem's famed Apollo Theatre where he is continuely booed off the stage.
When he finds out that the Apollo is only going to hold one more amateur night because it's closing, Lance thinks life can't get much worse until he's killed in a freak road accident and finds himself in Heaven.
It turns out that due to a clerical error, Lance has been summoned upstairs forty three years too early so trying to rectify the mistake, the head angel Mr. King played by Chazz Palminteri and his assistant Mr. Keyes played by Eugene Levy return Lance to earth in the body of the recently murdered, white billionaire, Charles Wellington.
This is where Lance falls in love with Sontee, a social activist campaigning against Wellington's business practices. It is Rock's ensuing antics which give us the main thrust of the film.  He is determind to win over Sontee and make her see past what he looks like to the real man beneath. The course of true love, however, never does run smooth and just when you think things are going fine Mr. King and Mr. Keyes put in another appearance.
Down to Earth is the remake of the 1978 Warren Beatty film "Heaven Can Wait" - an excellent movie which was both moving and funny so this version has a lot to live up to. Sadly, I don't think Rock or the script are as good as the original. The theme of judging people for who they are on the inside instead of what they look like is undeniably right and has been said in many movies many times before but as Rock  himself  says,  "Maybe the racial element in the film says it more on the nose than ever  before."  And it's sad but true  he's made this element the one joke of the whole film which tends to wear a bit thin after an hour and a half.
Having said that, however, Down to Earth is a family film with a certificate twelve and while the jokes won't make you fall off your seat laughing, it's worth watching out for Mark Addy of Full Monty fame who plays the butler.