Plot
After dying before his time, an aspiring comic gets a second shot at life...by being reincarnated as a wealthy but un-likeable businessman.

Release Year: 2001

Rating: 5.1/10 (11,532 voted)

Critic's Score: 32/100

Director: Chris Weitz

Stars: Chris Rock, Regina King, Chazz Palminteri

Storyline
It seems everyone is trying to get into heaven; at least those whose time is up. For Lance Barton, a struggling comedian and bicycle messenger, it's the last thing on his mind. His due date upstairs is 50 years away. In the meantime, he's got big dreams to pursue on Earth, such as landing a slot at the final Amateur Night Contest at the famed Apollo Theatre. Lance's has one little problem though - he ain't that funny. Thanks to an over-cautious emissary from heaven, Mr. Keyes, he's going to get hit (literally) with a much bigger problem. Showing that even God has difficulty finding good help these days, the inept minion mistakenly plucks Lance from a traffic accident - before it takes place. Transporting him to the Pearly Gates, or more accurately, the velvet roped-lines of the hottest club around, the error is finally addressed by Mr. King, the streetwise, no-nonsense head angel who manages the place from his plush windowed office...

Writers: Elaine May, Warren Beatty

Cast:
Chris Rock - Lance Barton
Regina King - Sontee Jenkins
Chazz Palminteri - King
Eugene Levy - Keyes
Frankie Faison - Whitney Daniels
Mark Addy - Cisco
Greg Germann - Sklar
Jennifer Coolidge - Mrs. Wellington
Wanda Sykes - Wanda
John Cho - Phil Quon
Mario Joyner - Apollo M.C.
Bryetta Calloway - Gospel Singer
Martha Chaves - Rosa
Brian Rhodes - Charles Wellington, III
Herb Lovelle - Trashman

Taglines: A story of premature reincarnation.

Release Date: 16 February 2001

Filming Locations: New York City, New York, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $20,027,309 (USA) (18 February 2001) (2521 Screens)

Gross: $64,172,251 (USA) (3 June 2001)

Runtime: 87 min

Trivia:
Many of the comedy routines used in the movie were on Chris Rock's "Bigger and Blacker" album.

Goofs:
Continuity: During Wellington's speech to the board members, the glasses of the board member directly to his right jump back and forth between his hands and the table depending on the camera angle.

Quotes:
Lance Barton: You know, the first kiss is always in the middle of a sentence. It's always like, "Tomorrow I'm going to the zoo to see the monkeys and..."
[kiss]
Sontee Jenkins: Or it could be like..."Did you hear about that new war in Russia? I heard..."
[kiss]
Lance Barton: So I can call you, right? I mean, just to talk.

Rock rolls

Rating: 7/10

Chris Rock stars in this remake of Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (itself a remake of the 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan), a comedy about a man who dies before his time, before he can realize his dreams, and his adventures in his new (albeit temporary) body. In the Beatty version, the protagonist was a backup quarterback for the then-Los Angeles Rams. In Rock's hipper version, our lead character is a struggling young - and decidedly low-talent - standup comedian.

It's very funny to see the razor-sharp Rock playing a bad comedian. It's kind of like seeing Tom Hanks play a bad actor. Lance Barton's dream is to play the legendary Apollo Theater on a non-amateur night. But every time he tries out his material, he's booed off the stage lustily - so much so that his nickname becomes "Booie." His jokes are lame, his delivery painful. In short, Lance is everything that the real Chris Rock isn't.

Lance is also a bike messenger, and he's riding the streets on his way to try out even more material when BAM! He's hit by a truck. Ok, so maybe he was taken from his body a tenth of a second early by a slightly incompetent angel (Eugene Levy), but hey, he was going to get hit anyway. No dice, it appears Lance isn't due in Heaven until 2044. So what to do? Mr. King (Chazz Palminteri), the "manager" of Heaven, reluctantly agrees to find a new body for the not-quite-dead Mr. Barton. Trouble is, the body they find is of a greedy, old white man. Turns out this fella (a Mr. Wellington) owns all kinds of things - he's the 15th richest man in the country! What luck! You can imagine how Lance will turn things around.

But of course, while in the body of the affluent Mr. Wellington, Lance falls for a gorgeous hospital worker (Regina King). We males know how tough it is to find a female given our own body, but try winning one over while you're an dumpy, old white guy! And it's even worse when she's not impressed by your money.

This is Rock's first shot at a lead role, and in my opinion he performs admirably. There's still a lot of the standup comedian in him - and, of course, if he ever wants to get diverse roles, he might have to stop incorporating standup routines into the script - but this isn't really a bad thing. Rock's personality - his drive, his delivery, his demeanor, and his passion - are what fuel this film. He's clearly having a lot of fun in the role, and he seems bent on making sure you have fun watching him.

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