MOVIE REVIEW : SOME BROAD HUMOR FROM THE FAT BOYS

Never mind that you can see exactly what’s going to happen in “Disorderlies” (Citywide) even before its premise is formally set up because it’s fun anyway. It’s a good-natured comedy with humor as broad as the waistlines of its stars, the Fat Boys, who comprise one of the hottest rap groups in music today.

Anthony Geary, the Emmy-winning former star of “General Hospital,” plays a smarmy compulsive gambler so deeply in debt he’s eager to speed up the demise of his ailing rich uncle Ralph Bellamy with the help of his obsequious valet Tony Plana. He figures that as orderlies caring for Bellamy the Fat Boys--Mark Morales, Damon Wimbley and Darren Robinson--will be so incompetent that they’re sure to make a fatal mistake. It scarcely takes a clairvoyant to tell you that the Boys’s klutziness and good cheer will in fact give Bellamy a new lease on life.

It’s too bad that writers Mark Feldberg and Mitchell Klebanoff didn’t think up more Three Stooges-type antics for the Fat Boys, who seem at ease before the camera, and it’s even more puzzling that the boys perform only one big number. Bellamy gets into the spirit of the occasion, and he and the Fat Boys play off each other very well. (The irony is that the trim, vigorous Bellamy at 83 is in far better condition than his co-stars). Director Michael Schultz, however, makes sure that “Disorderlies” is a lively, pleasant diversion, but it’s exceedingly thin, the Fat Boys’ mountainous girth notwithstanding.

‘DISORDERLIES’ A Warner Brothers presentation. Executive producers Charles Stettler, Joseph E. Zynczak. Producers Michael Schultz, George Jackson, Michael Jaffe. Director Michael Schultz. Screenplay Mark Feldberg, Mitchell Klebanoff. Associate producers Gloria Schultz, Coral Hawthorne. Camera Rolf Kesterman. Music The Art of Noise. Production designer George Costello. Costumes Susie De Santo. Film editor Ned Humphreys. With The Fat Boys, Ralph Bellamy, Anthony Geary, Tony Plana, Marco Rodriguez, Troy Beyer.

Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

MPAA rating: PG (Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.)