chris rock star in this remake of warren beatty heaven can wait ( itself a remake of the 1941 film here come mr. jordan ) and a comedy about a man who die before his time and before he can realize his dream and and his adventure in his new ( albeit temporary ) body . in the beatty version and the protagonist be a backup quarterback for the then los angeles ram . in rock hipper version and our lead character be a struggle young and decidedly low talent standup comedian . it very funny to see the razor sharp rock play a bad comedian . it kind of like see tom hank play a bad actor . lance barton dream be to play the legendary apollo theater on a non amateur night . but every time he try out his material and he boo off the stage lustily so much so that his nickname become booie . his joke be lame and his delivery painful . in short and lance be everything that the real chris rock isn not . lance be also a bike messenger and and he rid the street on his way to try out even more material when bam . he hit by a truck . ok and so maybe he be take from his body a tenth of a second early by a slightly incompetent angel ( eugene levy ) and but hey and he be go to get hit anyway . no dice and it appear lance isn not due in heaven until 2044. so what to do . mr. king ( chazz palminteri ) and the manager of heaven and reluctantly agree to find a new body for the not quite dead mr. barton . trouble be and the body they find be of a greedy and old white man . turn out this fella ( a mr. wellington ) own all kind of thing he the 15th rich man in the country . what luck . you can imagine how lance will turn thing around . but of course and while in the body of the affluent mr. wellington and lance fall for a gorgeous hospital worker ( regina king ) . we male know how tough it be to find a female give our own body and but try win one over while youre an dumpy and old white guy . and it even worse when she not impressed by your money . this be rock first shoot at a lead role and and in my opinion he perform admirably . there still a lot of the standup comedian in him and and of course and if he ever want to get diverse role and he might have to stop incorporate standup routine into the script but this isn not really a bad thing . rock personality his drive and his delivery and his demeanor and and his passion be what fuel this film . he clearly have a lot of fun in the role and and he seem bent on make sure you have fun watch him .