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This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

"Heaven Can Wait" is a remake of the 1941 fantasy/comedy classic "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", starring Robert Montgomery as pugilist Joe Pendleton along with Claude Rains as the titular Mr. Jordan. This time around, Warren Beatty takes on the Joe Pendleton role, now a Los Angeles Rams quarterback instead of a boxer.The story is put in motion when Pendleton is yanked out of his body by an overzealous angel before he's meant to die. By the time the error is discovered it's too late for Pendleton to be placed back into his own body so he must accept an alternate host among individuals who are about to die. When he does finally settle on a body he quickly resumes his goal of attempting to become the starting quarterback for the Rams but he must also contend with his predecessor's murderous wife and shady business dealings.Being pretty faithfully based on "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", it's no surprise that "Heaven Can Wait" has a somewhat old-fashioned feel. However, that's a good thing. The clever plot of the original was kept mostly intact while bringing the characters and the comedy up to date. Overall, I find the remake to be funnier and just different enough from the original to keep it fresh. I still give the original a slight edge in narrative construction, though.The cast of the original made for a high standard to match but I think that the remake met and possibly even exceeded it. Beatty made an engaging lead of a totally different sort than Robert Montgomery and being teamed with Julie Christie again was the icing on the cake. The supporting cast was also superb with multiple standouts including James Mason, Jack Warden, Charles Grodin, Dyan Cannon & Buck Henry.Lavished with nine Oscar nominations, "Heaven Can Wait" is a movie that shows attention to detail in all areas. In the end, the film's only Oscar win was for art direction/set decoration, though the tight writing and jaunty musical score could have just as easily been honoured as well (not to mention one or more of the actors).I'm a bit surprised at the movie's somewhat middling rating on this site but I suspect that's probably because it represents a throwback to an earlier era of film-making. If that sounds appealing to you, by all means check this movie out.

Warren Beatty is the only person to twice score Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Screenplay for the same film. He did it in 1978 with "Heaven Can Wait" and again in 1981 for "Reds." I can understand "Reds" -- after all, that was a big, historical epic that carried a mantle of importance if nothing else. But what on earth possessed the Academy to go so ga-ga over this slight and not even very good remake of "Here Comes Mr. Jordan?" I'm not a big fan of the original, so it's not like I was unfairly comparing this film to that one. On its own terms, "Heaven Can Wait" is moderately entertaining, but the screenplay is really muddled, and the ending is rushed and confusing. I don't care that they were boyfriend and girlfriend in real life, but Beatty and Julie Christie don't have any chemistry. And Dyan Cannon and Charles Grodin, as the film's comic relief, wear out their welcome early on with their one-note caricatures.The film inexplicably won an Oscar for Art Direction in a year that saw it go up against "The Wiz," which is a terrible movie but has terrific production design. In addition to that and Beatty's quartet of nominations, the film also received nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Jack Warden, as the James Gleason character, who's probably the best thing about the movie though that isn't saying much), Best Supporting Actress (Dyan Cannon, and you already know my thoughts about her), Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score.Grade: C

A remake of 'Here comes Mr Jordan', 'Heaven can wait' is a absolutely wonderful 1970's fantasy/comedy with a cast that really makes the movie. Warren Beatty in one of his best roles, is Joe Pendleton, a pro quarterback who unexpectedly dies while training for his football comeback. When he reaches the afterlife, he learns that there was a mistake and that he was taken too early. Unable to return to his old body, after it is cremated, a suitable replacement must be found. Entering the body of a wealthy industrialist murdered by his valet, Neil Farnsworth, Pendleton must decide what is really important to him, returning to football glory, or staying as Farnsworth to help a beautiful woman who comes to Farnsworth for help. The film is a treat. Beautifully shot, with soft lighting, and wonderfully acted by a GREAT cast including James Mason as the angel Mr Jordan, Charles Grodin as the murderous valet, Jack Warden, Dolph Sweet, Dyan Cannon, and the beautiful Julie Christie as Beatty's love interest. A filmed really tinged with sadness in its own way, but a beautiful love story, it should not be missed. Highly recommended.

Remake of Robert Montgomery classic "Here Comes Mister Jordan" (Mister Jordan was played by Claude Rains). Here, James Mason is just as good as Rains, if a trifle too smooth. Buck Henry's officious escort, however, is no comparison to Edward Everett Horton, who played the same part with much more vim in the original. Perhaps Henry or Beatty wanted a distinctly different type, but Henry does not come off well.The main story-line goes, in case you don't know: Warren Beatty plays a football player who, at a late age (Beatty was actually 40) finally earns his dream start for the LA Rams football team. Unfortunately a heavenly escort (Buck Henry) removes the football player's soul from his body just before an accident (which he was supposed to survive without injury). So much for free will. In this movie, it's all laid out for us, folks.Beatty's football player is owed a body, after his own is cremated. Mister Jordan, apparently head of this heavenly branch office, shows him several bodies from athletic types on the point of death, but Beatty's character finds fault with all of them.Finally, Mister Jordan brings him to a body on the point of death who is not, technically, an athlete, though he must have a good physique. He's a rich guy whose wife and private secretary are trying to bump him off. Beatty is about to refuse when he suddenly gets the hots for a character played by Julie Christie. So long as the arrangement is temporary, Beatty's character goes along with the gig until a better body can be found.James Mason is excellent, Buck Henry is annoying, Warren Beatty never for an instant makes you believe he's anything but Warren Beatty. Beatty has found his métier with this movie. Always more a movie star than an actor, Beatty did light stuff better than heavy stuff, sort of like a pre-Bond Roger Moore -- though Moore's enunciation was a lot better. Rumor has it Beatty wanted non-actor Muhammed Ali for the part. If that is true, we're probably better off. And the change from a boxer to a football player was good. Who watches boxing anymore? For the rest of the cast, Dyan Cannon is gorgeous, Charles Grodin is weaselly (what else can we want from them?) John Gielgud, who does not appear in this film, is supposed to have said of Ingrid Bergman, who does not appear in this movie, "She speaks five languages and can't act in any of them." One might make a similarly catty remark of Warren Beatty's ex-flame Julie Christie.In "Doctor Zhivago" a decade and a half earlier, Christie merely had to look good on camera while letting Freddie Young's camera-work and Maurice Jarre's music do the heavy lifting. In this movie, Christie's frizzy hairdo can't save her. Apparently Kate Jackson turned down the Christie part. If this is true, it shows that she (or, to be fair, perhaps her agent) had absolutely no head for how to keep her career going after the "Charlie's Angels" jump-start. Too bad. I think Jackson might have been good.The only down side to this movie is the heavily-labored sub-plot. Liberals don't know how to have fun. There always has to be a "message" and the message always has to promulgate liberal dogma. To add to Christie's insanely miserable hair, her character is a rabid environmentalist with some cock-and-bull story of the rich guy destroying something or messing something up with one of his subsidiaries. So, in order to boost unemployment, she is determined to shut him down and be the planet's savior. Hoo-ray.Beatty, brother of the notorious left-wing nut job Shirley MacLaine, co-wrote the screenplay with former comedienne Elaine May; and he apparently couldn't just let it be a cheery little comedy about a dead guy trying to get a rich wastrel's body in shape for the big game after falling for a hottie. No matter how extreme an environmentalist one is (never trust anything ending in -ist), why not just have a sense of fun with a movie once in a while, and let the planet go to Hell for one hundred minutes? Of course, Beatty's next film, "Reds," glorified the founding of one of the most murderous tyrannies in modern human history (hey, kids, lets put on a show glorifying the burning of the Reichstag!) Even considering the very existence of Christie and her character, it's a fun move. And that is all it is. It's no great classic -- but then, neither was the original. Beatty did his take thirty-seven years after the original. It's time for a twenty-first century incarnation.