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Grade: B-

Verdict: Cedric the Entertainer goes franchise hunting and comes up with a pretty good launching pad.

When Chevy Chase and his family take off for a ...

Scratch that.

I mean, when Cedric the Entertainer and his family take off on their "Johnson Family Vacation," the result is a surprisingly family-friendly comedy.

Best-known for working blue (read: potty-mouthed) onstage and in the "Barbershop" movies, the comic keeps things relatively clean in this spring break-timed movie. His character, Nate Johnson, comes off as a cross between Chase and Sherman Hemsley in "The Jeffersons."

It's summer and Nate is on the road with his estranged wife, Dorothy (Vanessa Williams), and their three kids -- rapper wannabe D.J. (Bow Wow), Beyoncé wannabe Nikki (Solange Knowles, in reality Beyoncé's little sister), and little Destiny (Gabby Soleil), who's pretty normal, if you discount her imaginary dog.

They're headed to Nate's annual family reunion in Missouri -- a three-day trek that proves as disastrous as Gilligan's three-hour tour. And waiting at the end of the road is Nate's super-competitive brother, Mack (Steve Harvey).

If you're in the mood for something sophisticated, something that makes you laugh with your brain instead of your gut, head for Jim Carrey's marvelous "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." But if you're more in the mood for some from-the-gut guffaws, "Johnson Family Vacation" jollies you along with a pleasant cast, the occasional good one-liner and the star's fathomless energy. If Ice Cube was the heart of the "Barbershop" movies, Cedric was the motor. Here, no matter how lame the gag, how pathetic the joke, Cedric sells it as if he was working with material written by "Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Larry David.

The underappreciated and still gorgeous Williams makes a fine foil, but she's too young to be relegated to disgruntled-wife roles so soon (though the same thing happened to her Chevy Chase counterpart, Beverly D'Angelo). The artist formerly known as Lil' Bow Wow acquits himself well in an undemanding role, and little Gabby is too cute for words.

"Johnson Family Vacation" asks its star to go in a different direction from his established persona -- which is probably intentional since Cedric also produced. Still, it's a little like watching the emasculation of Richard Pryor in the late '70s and early '80s: One minute he's doing edgy, Oscar-worthy work in "Lady Sings the Blues"; the next, he's trapped in the lobotomized antics of "The Toy."

Cedric the Entertainer hasn't soared as high as Pryor in his prime, so it's possible -- even likely -- he'll never be forced to sink so low. In times like this in Hollywood, that's a kind of blessing.

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