By
Mark Betancourt
Arizona Daily Wildcat
GRADE: B-
How much do Chris Rock fans owe the slim, smart-mouthed comedian for all that he has done for them? Would sitting through his newest movie, sappy as he is in it, qualify as showing him love? Let's just hope he appreciates it.
In "Down To Earth," Chris Rock plays Lance Barton, a wannabe stand-up comedian who accidentally gets sent to heaven. Sure, he got hit by a bus, but according to the divine authorities, he wasn't actually dead yet. Still, he ends up waiting in line to get into the big, blue-toned night club in the sky. Mr. King (Chazz Palminteri), the Bogart-esque manager of "Club Heaven," offers to put Lance back on earth in a new body, kind of as compensation.
The problem is that Lance really wants to play the Apollo (even though his comedy is so bad his friends call him "Boo-ey"), and he needs a body that can carry his routine. So when Mr. King shows him an older, white millionaire named Charles Wellington, recently murdered by his adulterous wife and secretary, Lance says no way.
But, as they say in "Aladdin," there's this girl. Suntee (Regina King), is the apple of Lance's eye, and when she shows up at the millionaire's mansion to protest his privatization of an urban hospital, Lance decides to take the body.
Zany escapades ensue. Lance starts buying the maids fur coats and throwing barbecues for all the sick hospital patients. "At first, it was just to impress you," Lance's WASP body tells Suntee on their miraculously forthcoming first date, "But even if I don't get with you, at least someone will be happy." Aww. Except, does Chris Rock look like the kind of guy who would get an "aww" from his audience? Don't they usually howl with laughter when his foul mouth spews sharp, witty comedy at them at a mile a minute?
Not in "Down To Earth." Rock says about five swear words, and his black-oriented comedy is restricted to jokes that middle-aged white women seem to find hilarious. Make no mistake though, the man is funny. He has a way of postponing punch lines with such mischievous glee that people start laughing long before they even know what he's talking about. He's got some good ones in this movie, but keeping it clean seems to sacrifice Rock's edge.
It's got a sweet hip-hop/rap soundtrack. It's occasionally very funny. "Down To Earth" takes the teeth out of one of the more talented stand-up acts around, but we forgive him. It's not the sort of movie you can look up to, it's more like watching a play your kids put on and clapping for their sake.
