Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Heaven Can Wait is not a remake of the 1943 Heaven Can Wait, but it is a remake of 1941's Here Comes Mr. Jordan, starring Robert Montgomery and Claude Rains, so if you want to see the original, make sure you rent the right movie. Both films have the same story: a young man is taken prematurely up to Heaven, but since it was a mistake and he wasn't supposed to die for decades, the angel Mr. Jordan sends him back to Earth in another man's body. For the sake of the audience's confusion, the actor stays the same, but it's made clear that everyone else in the movie sees him as the other "new" man. If you think about it, it's really not fair. He may have an extension of life, but he's placed in another man's surroundings, with another man's reputation, house, and wife.Warren Beatty stars in the remake, and while he's more likable and gorgeous than Robert Montgomery, there's still the question hanging above everyone's heads in the movie: Why was this remade? Since the changes are so minimal from the original, and since there are so many other "God made a mistake" movies out there, why was it necessary to make such a direct remake? The two women in Warren's "new" life are Dyan Cannon and Julie Christie, but neither are very easy to root for. Dyan is clearly the villain, and Julie is an outrageous, obnoxious protester, but if you're only in it for the eye candy, you could do a lot worse. James Mason plays the angel Mr. Jordan, and while he adds enormous class and maturity to the film, he's not sufficiently different from Claude Rains to have justified a remake.

This movie has the WORST ending of any movie I have ever seen, period. It totally ruins what was up until then a charming and entertaining fantasy movie and makes you want to throw a shoe at your TV for all the time you wasted watching what went before. There is no other way to explain this than to describe the ending, so again , , , SPOILERS BELOW!The ENTIRE movie centers around the effort to find a new body for the consciousness of Joe Pendleton (played by Warren Beatty), a QB for the LA Rams whose consciousness was mistakenly removed from his body many years too soon by a rookie angel who wrongfully assumed that he was about to be killed in an accident. The head angel, played by the great James Mason, takes over and finds the body of a freshly murdered millionaire to host Joe's consciousness temporarily, until a permanent replacement body is found. Eventually, the millionaire is murdered again, and Joe's consciousness is once again left without a home. However, Joe's backup QB for the Rams, Tom, "conveniently" dies during the Super Bowl, and head angel invites Joe's consciousness to inhabit Tom's body before anyone realizes that Tom is dead. Joe's consciousness inside Tom's body leads the Rams to a comeback victory, and is the Super Bowl hero.So far, so good.Then, the viewer gets a giant punch to the gut. The head angel informs Joe that he must return to his duties, and that after he leaves, Joe will have no memories of his life as Joe, or of his time in the body of the millionaire that he temporarily inhabited. He will just become Tom. The End.Huh?!?!? We just spent almost two hours watching a journey to find a permanent home for Joe's consciousness. And at the end . . . Joe's consciousness is totally obliterated for no good reason that is explained to anyone! Heck, if Joe had just died in the accident at the start at least his consciousness would now be in heaven. But after two hours of this movie, it is as if Joe never existed. And if the Tom, the backup QB, really dies and his consciousness is in heaven, then how can Tom's consciousness also still be alive in Tom's body, since the consciousness in Tom's body is now "just Tom," with no more traces of Joe remaining. What was the point of everything that happened in the movie?Answer: Zero. Which, if you are smart, is how much time you will waste watching this abomination.

Great movie. Warren and the cast are so funny. I bought this film many years ago and still enjoy watching it. The story is so funny and Cannon's reactions are priceless. Who would have thought that she would become a crazy religious nut in real life. Life is short. Make yours count. You get one chance only. Peace and Harmony for all mankind. May nature bless all of us now and forever. Religion is a business - nothing more. Jeezzzz Louise. How many more lines do I need? This is silly requiring more and more lines. Enough already. Life is short. Life is precious. Life is fleeting. Live is what you make it. If you're lost in religious darkness, seek help from a professional. There are many mental health professionals that can help. Nature bless you.

In general for the most part I'm not a fan of remakes. But considering that this is a remake of "Here Comes Mr.Jordan" which is one of my all time favorites I like this movie a lot. Both movies are quite wonderful in their own ways. In this movie they chose to update it and made him a football player instead of a fighter and that works very well. They also expanded more showing him with the board and taking an active role in that and his simple comparisons to football are quite charming and have a certain wisdom to them. The casting in both movies are wonderful. But this movie some of the lesser roles were made bigger and cast better. Julie Christie really steals my heart in this movie. Evelyn Keyes was very good in the original movie but Julie Christie really took the role much deeper and is quite wonderful. Charles Groden and Diane Cannon as Tony Abbott and Mrs Farnsworth were also much funnier and stronger than the original actors. Both movies are quite excellent and I recommend watching both of them. I still prefer Here Comes Mr Jordan for it's light touch, charm and innocence, plus I love Robert Mongomery. But this is by far one of the best remakes of a great movie that I've seen. It's really worth seeing and goes beyond just being a remake and became it's own movie.