Rotund guard secures low-budget belly laughs

In keeping with its mall setting, "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" is one of those low-rent movies that should be offered at bargain prices.

As such, it would be OK as a time-wasting throwaway that urges us, yet again, to pull for the underdog.

It is impossible not to laugh at Kevin James, the movies' latest fat-guy comic, as he slides across the floor, slinks around corners and hurls himself through the air while imagining himself as a cool law enforcement officer.

Jack Black, Seth Rogen and now Kevin James. There is no encouragement for movie clowns to go on a diet.

Blart, the fictional title character, is a single dad whose wife deserted him years ago. He wants to be a state trooper but is stuck riding a Segway around a New Jersey mall as a security officer. When high-tech criminals invade the mall on skateboards, he takes them on.

It's a one-joke premise that is amateurishly filmed. A chase starts in the mall and suddenly ends up on the roof. The inexplicable editing, which jumps from place to place, suggests there was an effort to limit the length to 90 minutes. We're grateful.

Notably, Shirley Knight, who starred as Heavenly in the film version of Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1962) with Paul Newman, plays Blart's mother here. Time marches on.

James is the latest FOAS (friend of Adam Sandler) to star in a low-budgeted outing from the Sandler production company.

He played in "Hitch" (2005) with Will Smith and the awful "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" (2007) with Sandler. On TV, he stars in "The King of Queens," which many people have successfully avoided.

At his best, he might aspire to the girth of Jackie Gleason or the sadness of Buster Keaton, but the mindless slapstick of an Adam Sandler is more his speed.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com