This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 8:20 am and is filed under Christmas Movies, Comedy, F, NEW ON VIDEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: David Dobkin
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Spacey, Kathy Bates, John Michael Higgins, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks.
David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers and Shanghai Knights) drives this Vince Vaughn vehicle. The story has an interesting premise, but mediocre execution relies heavily upon Vince’s delievery of a non-stop parade of snappy, mostly nasty, and sometimes funny jokes. There is a strong supporting cast, but, while Bates has some decent lines, Paul Giamatti is underused and Spacey, who could have been given some deliciously funny and evil dialog, is left to languish in mediocrity as a cardboard character.
Vince Vaughn is Fred Claus, a bitter, self absorbed man with a famous Saint for a brother. Guess which one? That’s right. Jolly, old St. Nick. Try and compete with that! You’d be bitter, wouldn’t you? Okay well maybe not, but Fred is a pretty bitter. We get hints to this when we watch him blast out machine gun salvos of anti-Xmas venom, destroy lawn decorations and brawl with an army of Salvation Santas. Soon, however, poor Fred desperately needs money for bail, and stuff and is forced to end his estrangement from his famous family by contacting Santa (Paul Giamatti in a fat suit) and ask for the kind of gift that has several zeroes and fits neatly into a wallet. Unfortunately, Santa wasn’t born yesterday and tells his erstwhile sibling that to get anything, Fred will have to visit him at the North Pole and help out with the world’s only real Christmas rush. Once there, Fred is befriended by a romantically-smitten elf, played by a digitally reduced John Michael Higgins, but Santa has other visitors too. These include the Claus boys’ parents (featuring Kathy Bates as Mom, whom Fred has been ducking) and a Scrooge-like ‘efficiency expert’ with the power and personality to shut down Christmas. It all sounds funnier than it is and unfolds with all the imagination of a tax form. There is a great scene however, where Fred visits a support group for those struggling wih having famous siblings. It is loaded with cameos by siblings of celebrities playing themselves and is good for some belly laughs.
This is movie-making by the numbers and isn’t bad, but is aimed at, and limited in its real appeal to, official and unofficial Vince Vaughn fan club members. It’s coming at you for Christmas, but it ain’t no gift. Fred Claus has a few laughs, but as many surprises as the average Monday morning commute. If a movie is going to be such an obvious formula film, then it should be funnier than this. In the end, it’s little more than a pleasant distraction. That’s enough for some, but, as for me, I’d rather just watch Scrooged again.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
bonnie hunt…
Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts !…