Down to Earth (2001)-"PG-13"

Run Time:85 minutes

1 and 1/2 stars out of 4

The new film,Down to Earth (2001), from the directors of American Pie (1999), Chris & Paul Weitz, is nothing special. In the movie, Chris Rock plays Lance Barton, an unsuccessful standup comedian and a bike messenger by day. After a particularly bad standup failure at The Apollo, Lance gets hits by a truck and is taken to heaven, by the Angel of Death, Keyes (Eugene Levy). Once in Heaven, Lance finds out that the angels have made a mistake, and the mafia-like angel in charge, Mr. King (Chazz Palminteri) sends Lance back to Earth, but temporarily in the body of the 15th-wealthiest person in America, a formerly-greedy white man named Charles Wellington, until they can find a suitable young black man's body. Lance still appears like his old body to himself (and the audience), but all of the others characters see him as an aging white man. He tries to date an attractive young black woman, Sontee (Regina King), but she resists because of Wellignton's past evil deeds, committed before Lance inherited the body. That is the basic comedy line of the plot, and I will refrain from saying more to not spoil the movie. Basically, this film was bad. The camera shots were standard and boring, the comedy was bad, and Chris Rock seemed forced into his role. To keep the PG-13 rating, Rock left out his usual non-stop barrage of cuss words, and instead gave in to the feeble script. There are a few funny lines, and the film is actually funny for a few minutes when Lance does his final act at The Apollo, because you can tell Chris Rock feels natural doing the standup comedy. Overall, this film is nothing special, marginal at best, and a poor follow-up for the Weitz brothers after the surprisingly good American Pie.