Grade: C-

Verdict: Hey hey hey, just go away.

By PHIL KLOER
Cox News Service

There comes a time in some Christmas breaks when you just really, really have to get out of the house, even if it means taking the kids with you. And if the mall sounds appalling and you've seen the other family films playing, there's always "Fat Albert," a tame, inoffensive little comedy that's never heinous enough to stink up the theater completely, even though it rarely rises above mediocrity.

That's OK, control your quivering anticipation.

Albert, of course, is a character created by Bill Cosby, who co-wrote and co-produced this movie (over a long, messy production schedule) and who has a couple of nice cameos. A version of one of Cosby's childhood friends, Albert started out as a character on Cosby's comedy albums in the '60s, then became a fairly popular Saturday morning cartoon show from 1972-'84, and has now been dragged into a live action movie.

With all due respect to Cosby, Fat Albert just didn't have that much funny in him to last 40 years spanning three media. I saw it at a screening with lots of kids, and it seemed to hold their attention, but they never really laughed much.

The gimmick is that Albert and his friends (Weird Harold, Mushmouth, etc.) start out animated inside their old series, then come through the TV set and into the real world. They have a series of incidents (adventures would be much too strong a word) and eventually have to go back into the TV as cartoons. It's barely 45 minutes of material stretched out to 90.

For those who remember the cartoon, the actors all do a fine job as live versions, led by former Atlanta actor Kenan Thompson (Nickelodeon's "All That" and "Kenan and Kel"). But the jokes about these '70s characters being unfamiliar with modern contraptions like cell phones and laptops whiz right over kids' heads, and aren't pointed enough to hit with adults.

In "Fat Albert's" favor, it steers clear of anything that might offend, so it's very family friendly; it's one of the "softest" PG ratings ever given. Cosby believes in wholesome, pro-social entertainment, and good for him. "Fat Albert" is long on wholesome, but pretty thin on entertainment.