Heaven's Touch

I believe even its auteur Shaun Costello would agree that HEAVEN'S TOUCH does not measure up to his best work. It's basically a polished version of the farces he cranked out in the '70s as 1-day wonders, but its polish has diluted the verve and lively qualities of the cheap antecedents.

It's a riff on Warren Beatty's HEAVEN CAN WAIT but without writer Buck Henry's inventiveness. Costello makes the same structural mistake as that famous film, namely when hero Michael Knight is given the opportunity by angelic guide Veronica Hart (non-sex role) to live on after death in other men's bodies, he looks exactly the same throughout, just like Warren Beatty did. (Obviously he should look like the inhabited body's person, as that is what all the other characters see and what we the audience should see.)

Complications from this charade are predictable and unfunny, despite good performances by Sharon Kane and Ron Jeremy as schemers who want the guy Knight takes over to die (from strenuous sex) and leave them his money. They're so anxious they even hire Carlotta (Kelly Nichols), a suspected husband-killer, to kill their mark with sex for the tidy paycheck of $1 million.

Knight, whose big cock became familiar from appearing in the late '80s in many videos especially those directed by Joe Sarno, gets to do a lot of humping, but has no facility for comedy. Even the basic premise of him being sturdy while plotters think he's a frail old guy about to kick the bucket makes no sense because Knight died from sex in the first place to set the creaky plot rolling.

Oddest element of the movie, and likely its only enduring feature, is Costello's decision to use foggy day shots of NY's Twin Towers for transitions between scenes, even ending the picture with a zoom-in on the Ground Zero landmarks. Who knew this could add poignancy to an otherwise yawner of a porn comedy?