 DOWN
TO EARTH
 
Down
to Earth is
"the brothers' " Heaven Can Wait if you will.
Sure the story's one of those big old heaping helpings of been-
done- till- it's- charcoal- black- suet- roasting in the designer
Hollywood rehash oven. But they were clever.
They used the riotous Chris Rock as he's best. Standup comedy.
They intertwined the stale script with a few professionally
delivered comedy routines of one of America's greatest comics.
Down
to Earth's story goes... Lance (Chris Rock) is a wanna be
comic. His dream is simple, not getting booed off at the legendary
Apollo stage. However he delivers pure stock comedy and inevitably
is swept off in a hostile sea of vicious heckling.
Then
he goes and gets killed. Problem is heaven's made an error.
Seems Lance wasn't due for another 40 plus years. Oops-a-lilie!
The grim reaper, named Keys ( Eugene-nice
suit dude-Levy), is in hot water up there! See he's the idiot
who "took" Lance before his time. No prob his superior
one Mr. King  (Chazz
"just getting cuter with age, baby" Pimentotini) is
gonna do a little fixin', make like nuthin' happened, see. So
he takes Lance shopping for a new carcass. Hmm.
They decide upon a rotund older chap of the Caucasian persuasion
(James "boom-boom" Gandolfini). Well, Lance decides
on the body, as this fine young thang Suntee (a pretty Regina
King) is involved with the aged evil business man in a battle
over a Brooklyn hospitalhis company is privatizing. Lance figures
at least he can be near her...
In
an unbelievable turn of events Suntee and the aging white guy
(we see Rock 95% of the time and the white guy when we need
to be reminded of the miss-match ethnic differences for the
punch-lines) start on a love affair...sure!
Well,
Mr. King shows up with Keys and explains it is now time for
"Lance" to head into a new younger body. One he will
live out his days in. A more comfortable color coordinated body
with similar interests and beliefs etc. A black guy okay. But
Lance has just asked Suntee to wed. NO he cant go now...
Chow.
Will
Suntee and the new Lance ever get together? What do you think?
It was nice to see Chazz Palminteri
( a pet steak, er, actor here at Blunt Review) He's all mafia-ed
up as a nice good fella runnin' the big easy in the sky
 Rock's
at home in front of an audience.And he gets into it in this
flick-a-roo. A funny, funny guy. The best premise of whole movie
was Rock's character inhabiting his host body; an extremely
stereo-typed- caricatured- white-53 year old- paunchy- country
club-Harvardesque-silverspoon mouthed- guy's body on loan from
heaven, and letting "him" do Rock's black based comedy
for an audience of mostly black folks! Leave it to Rock to touch
upon the irony of the humor. I cringe when I hear the "N"
word in songs by various rap stars. If I were to "sing
along" in my car with the windows down I'd probably be
shot— ya know what I'm sayin'? Well, Chris address' the
double standard of humor in this - subtle- but honest point
of view and in a couple of hysterical politically incorrect
scenes.
If your a fellow Chris Rock fan see this remake of a remake
of a remake just for him. Don't expect an Oscar winning
screenplay or anything remotely fresh and unique...Just
enjoy Rock's presence.
Snack Recommendation: Seedy hot dogs flown in from NYC
with that chili stuff poured atop.
Starring: Chris Rock , Regina King , Chazz Palminteri
, Eugene Levy, Frankie Faison ,Greg Germann (same character-again).
Jennifer Coolidge, and Mark Addy
Directed
by: Chris and Paul Weitz
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