Down to Earth

After eye-catching supporting roles in Lethal Weapon 4 and Dogma, stand-up comic Chris Rock falls from grace in his first star vehicle. What possessed the edgy, subversive Rock to re-make Warren Beatty's corny celestial comedy, Heaven Can Wait, is a puzzler. Prematurely whisked off to Heaven, the glitzy Pearly Gates nightclub fronted by Italian wise guy Mr King (Palminteri), bike messenger and would-be stand-up Lance Barton (Rock) is given a second chance in a new body. He returns to Earth as Charles Wellington, a white, middle-aged business magnate recently murdered by his scheming wife and weasely personal assistant. Except that Rock still looks to us, the audience, like a slim, cool black man. It's only the characters in the film who see him as a corpulent, balding and terminally unhip white man. Confused? He sure is. And we are too. Apart from odd flashes, Rock never appears in his white incarnation. So all the best jokes go for nothing.