Down to Earth is a 2001 comedy directed by Chris and Paul Weitz and starring Chris Rock (who helped to write the screenplay along with Louis C.K.). The film is basically a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan and Heaven Can Wait.
Lance Barton (Rock) is a black struggling standup comic. He's run over by a truck due to a mistake made by an angel on Earth and accidentally goes to Heaven ahead of schedule. To fix their error, the angels offer him a new body. Lance decides to reincarnate in the body of a rich, middle-aged white man.
Some tropes found in the film include:
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Unlike the previous versions, this time the angel is actually waiting for Lance to take him to Heaven, raising the question of why he was there in the first place if Lance wasn't actually supposed to die. It's possible, though, that this is the standard operating procedure for people about to be plowed down by semis, as any collision between the two will end in something so gory it can't be shown in a PG-13 movie.
- Adaptation Name Change: All of the characters. Joe Pendleton becomes Lance Barton, Max Corkle becomes Whitney Daniels, Betty Logan becomes Sontee Jenkins, Mr. Jordan becomes Mr. King, Farnsworth becomes Wellington, etc.
- Asshole Victim: Charles Wellington III is indicated to have been nothing other than a Corrupt Corporate Executive all his life, to the point where everybody around him conspired to kill him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Once the angels determine his new body, Lance forgets his previous lives as Lance and Charles Wellington, Sontee and Whitney included, fully reincarnating as Joe Guy. However, both still wind up as a part of his new life and wind up caring about him as much as they did his previous selves.
- Closer to Earth: The (mostly black and/or working-class) domestic staff, vs. the upper-class white characters, all of whom are pretty evil.
- Council of Angels: Seemingly, God doesn't appear but Keyes and King do, who look like humans in blue suits. Lance even comments on how they look like certain actors. King does mention that he spoke to God about Lance's problem, who told him to give Lance a new body.
- Death of Personality: At the end, Lance gets a permanent body as Joe Guy and continues his career as a stand-up comic, but he will forget about his old lives after he spent so much time building up a relationship with Sontee. Luckily enough, King makes it clear that his soul will still be intact, so he partners up with Whitney and has a Maybe Ever After with Sontee even without any of his old memories.
- Dramedy: While the movie makes a lot of use out of the hilarity of Chris Rock reincarnating into the body of a rich asshole and appearing to act completely out of character to everybody around him, it also has its fair share of sad moments. Lance was not fated to die to begin with. While the angels do their best to fix the situation, because his body has already been destroyed, Lance will inevitably be forced to live a life that is not his own. He starts a relationship with Sontee, but then his body is killed in front of her because he was becoming too philanthropic for the other corrupt people in Wellington's company. He manages to convince his mentor Whitney that he is Lance in a new body, but he later has his memory wiped by the same angels and Whitney realizes his protegé underwent a Death of Personality.
- Fake Brit: In-universe, Wellington's butler Cisco uses an upper received pronunciation. When Lance in Wellington's body confronts him, he immediately figures out that Cisco is faking the accent and gets him to admit he's just a guy from upstate New York. Cisco is actually played by Mark Addy, a Brit born in North Yorkshire.
- Failing a Taxi: After being brought back to life for the second time, Chris Rock's character tries to hail a taxi to test if he was reincarnated as a black man. He fails to attract a single cab, much to his delight.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: The premise.
- N-Word Privileges: The main character tends to forget that he's a black man who's trapped in a white body. The first time he performs his regular comedy routine in his new body, the audience is shocked into silence. He later gets knocked out by a couple of black guys for singing N-word containing lyrics in public.
- Not Enough to Bury: Thankfully, we only get to hear King sum up the bloody pulp that was once Lance Barton's original body in just a few words: "Your body's gone, adios, sayonara. ¿Comprende?"
- Possessing a Dead Body: What Lance is essentially doing when he takes Wellington's dead body which seems to start it up again and heal any damage. He does it again with Joe Guy when Wellington is killed.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Chris Rock plays a stand-up comedian who dies and whose soul is put into the body of a wealthy middle-aged white guy. So, now you got a typical caucasian board member acting and talking like, well, Chris Rock. To everyone but him, he looks like a typical example of this trope. He even gets punched out once by a pair of black guys for singing along to "Ruff Ryders' Anthem" in a public place, and the audience's reaction when he goes to a comedy club at a black neighborhood and starts to deliver his usual routine is priceless. Then there is an attempt by the white guy's wife (played by Jennifer Coolidge) to act "street" to get his attention.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Lampshaded. After the main character does this to his Love Interest, they discuss how a couple's first kiss is always one of these.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Forget about trying to return to your body before it's burned if your premature death was the result of a road accident involving a semitruck—unlike in the films it remakes, Down to Earth acknowledges that such a body would be as totaled as the bike it was riding.King: Here's the story. Your body's gone, adios, sayonara. ¿Comprende?
- Trumplica: Charles Wellington III, has the hair, figure, business empire and is married to a much younger wife. Lance Barton stepping into his skin causes Charles' apparent personality to do a complete 180° a change that everyone notices.
- Wealthy Philanthropist: What Charles Wellington III is when Lance takes over his body, it gets him killed again.
- White Dude, Black Dude: Chris Rock as a black comedian suddenly reincarnated in the body of a wealthy old white man. This proves to be an obstacle when he tries to win audiences over with his trademark racially-based comedy.
