By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * )
In 1978 Warren Beatty won four Oscar nominations for writing, directing and acting in one of that year's best pictures, Heaven Can Wait (which was itself a remake of a 1941 picture, Here Comes Mr Jordan).
Earlier this year Chris Rock and friends decided
to revisit the movie and deliver their own interpretation. It is unlikely the Academy will take much interest.
Lance Barton (Rock) is a lousy wannabe stand-up comic. Not even his manager Whitney (Frankie Faison) is laughing. When Lance Ñ a bicycle courier in daily life Ñ is flattened by a truck, he goes to heaven and learns from an angel (Eugene Levy) that there's been a mistake. He was taken before his time.
The head angel (Chazz Palminteri) agrees to send him back to Earth for the rest of his life but only one body is available and it's that of Mr Wellington, an elderly white millionaire.
He takes it, but back on Earth Lance finds that his wife (Jennifer Coolidge) is having an affair with his assistant, Sklar (Greg Germann), who is stealing his money. Lance, aka Mr Wellington, falls in love with a young African-American beauty, Sontee (Regina King).
If you haven't seen Beatty's movie, chances are you'll get a summer evening's giggle out of this one, though there's a bit much sex/nudity/blue language if the youngsters are still up. If you have, you're more likely to ask yourself how one funny actor (Chris Rock) and two funny directors (Chris and Paul Weitz of the American Pies) could make such a hash of it.
Rental video, DVD: Today
* DVD features: Commentary; Easter eggs; deleted footage; original theatrical trailer.
