After dying before his time, an aspiring black comic gets a second shot at life - by being placed in the body of a wealthy white businessman.After dying before his time, an aspiring black comic gets a second shot at life - by being placed in the body of a wealthy white businessman.After dying before his time, an aspiring black comic gets a second shot at life - by being placed in the body of a wealthy white businessman.
- Awards
- 3 nominations total
Kedar Brown
- Heckler
- (as Kedar)
Adam Dannheisser
- Doorman
- (as Adam Dannheiser)
Featured reviews
From the other reviews you may already learned that this film is the second remake of 1941's HERE COMES MR. JORDAN which was remade in 1978 as HEAVEN CAN WAIT which is one of the few remakes that's better than the original. But the story takes a big nose dive with this recent remake which is more of a starring vehicle for Chris Rock than any attempt to do a decent remake of a good story. The supportting cast (Regina King (JERRY MAGUIRE), Chaz Palmenteri (A BRONX TALE) and Eugene Levy (AMERICAN PIE)) do their best to rise above this lameness but they're just reminders of their wasted talents. Another thing that p***es me off about this movie is that the filmmakers had some idea that the average moviegoer is so stupid that they had to keep being reminded that Rock's soul is inhabited in the body of a middle aged white man by switching back and forth between the two. The makers of JORDAN and HEAVEN had enough confidence in the intelligence of the audience to not to have to explain that angle to them. Another point is with Rock, who along with Pryor, Carlin, Foxx, Cosby and Kennison, is probably the best stand-up comic ever and has had a few good film moments (NURSE BETTY, NEW JACK CITY and I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA) but this film doesn't help his case (I know this movie made a lot of money. So what.) I just hope his movie career doesn't go the same path as Adam Sandler, another once funny person who now makes sucky movies. Do yourself a favor and rent HEAVEN or maybe even JORDAN and skip this turd.
This is a cute but unfortunately mild and tepid movie. There are some (very few) exceptionally funny lines. Chris Rock does two short spots on stage. Both are very funny. That's it.
The romance is cute but not entertaining enough to care about the characters. Chris is very stiff throughout the whole movie except when he is on stage those 2 rare and short times.
Chris Rock just didn't rock in this one. 5/10.
The romance is cute but not entertaining enough to care about the characters. Chris is very stiff throughout the whole movie except when he is on stage those 2 rare and short times.
Chris Rock just didn't rock in this one. 5/10.
- Zafoid
Down to Earth is a sporadically funny movie starring Chris Rock. I thought the idea was creative (even though it is basically a remake of Heaven Can Wait). Rock is hilarious at times and so are some of the others. However, something is missing and I'm not sure what it is. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the film and happen to be a big Chris Rock fan. It just needed a little more. You can probably wait until video to see it.
We rented it and I wasn't expecting much in the first place. . It just looked like it would be another one of the endless comedies that come out every year. This one should not have been on the big screen, nor should it have gone straight to video. It was horrible!! I like Chris Rock, his stand up is hilarious, and I loved him as Nat X on Saturday Night Live, and he was good in New Jack City. But if he's going to be an actor, then do some acting. .not that it was bad, but the material was terrible.
The story was as predictable as can be. . The worst parts were when they tried to get the audience emotionally involved, they tried to get us to care about these characters. WTF? We don't want "Steel Magnolias" or "Beaches", we want Chris Rock to be funny! He wasn't. . it was LAME. Common sense would dictate that we, the audience, should see rock as the white man, and hear him as the white man, doing the stand up. THAT would have been funny.
Anyway, this was pretty damn bad. 5/10 at best.. NOT funny, just a waste of time, but thank god it was pretty short.
The story was as predictable as can be. . The worst parts were when they tried to get the audience emotionally involved, they tried to get us to care about these characters. WTF? We don't want "Steel Magnolias" or "Beaches", we want Chris Rock to be funny! He wasn't. . it was LAME. Common sense would dictate that we, the audience, should see rock as the white man, and hear him as the white man, doing the stand up. THAT would have been funny.
Anyway, this was pretty damn bad. 5/10 at best.. NOT funny, just a waste of time, but thank god it was pretty short.
This movie is a remake of two movies that were a lot better. The last one, Heaven Can Wait, was great, I suggest you see that one. This one is not so great. The last third of the movie is not so bad and Chris Rock starts to show some of the comic fun that got him to where he is today. However, I don't know what happened to the first two parts of this movie. It plays like some really bad "B" movie where people sound like they are in some bad TV sit-com. The situations are forced and it is like they are just trying to get the story over so they can start the real movie. It all seems real fake and the editing is just bad. I don't know how they could release this movie like that. Anyway, the last part isn't to bad, so wait for the video and see it then.
Did you know
- TriviaChris Rock was inspired to remake Le ciel peut attendre (1978) after he heard that Muhammad Ali originally pursued to star in that movie. Rock then thought that Richard Pryor would have been great in the role and changed the main character into an African-American comedian.
- GoofsIn the scene where Lance and Sontee are eating hot dogs, Sontee puts the hot dog in her mouth, then when the camera angle changes, she's bringing a whole hot dog to her mouth.
- Quotes
Lance Barton: I had a hard enough time trying to get this girl as a rich white man. Do you know how hard it's gonna be to try to get her as a broke black man?
- SoundtracksEverything Is Everything
Written & Arranged by Lauryn Hill
With additional lyrical contribution by Johari Newton
Performed by Lauryn Hill
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing
- How long is Down to Earth?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $49,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $64,186,502
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $17,268,883
- Feb 18, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $71,186,502
- Runtime
- 1h 27m(87 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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