Down to Earth

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.

To enjoy any fantasy comedy, the viewer must be able to suspend disbelief. It is impossible to suspend disbelief for Down to Earth.

Why do we see Chris Rock as Chris Rock, when everyone around him sees him as Charles Wellington, rich, fat white man? Why? Because the producers thought they could make more money showcasing Rock, than having us see Rock as Wellington. It ruins much of the movie's attempted humor. For example, when Rock (as Wellington) uses the "N" word, black folks who hear him become furious, and we have to remember that he is supposedly this rich, fat white man.

The film does have some funny moments, and Regina King is attractive as the love interest. It could have been really good, though.

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.

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.

There were some funny moments in this movie, but overall I was unimpressed. I recognize that this movie is supposed to be a comedy, but it really fell short of being funny. Why did they have to bring Rock back as an old white man. The old white man really had nothing to do with the movie. Rock didn't act like an old white man. He didn't look like the old white man (at least not to the audience). He didn't even seem like he was an old white man. Yet no one really cared.

Now, I know that this is supposed to be funny, but all I really felt was embarrassed.

Chris, until you can become a real actor, go back to stand up.