Review of Fred Claus (2007) by Jeff B — 23 Aug 2010

Early on in this ho hum ho holiday comedy, the title character passes the time watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. And suddenly, John Q. Moviegoer wishes that they were watching the bald little kid with his scrappy tree and all of that cockle-warming booze instead of witnessing a neutered Vince Vaughn try out his sarcastic motor-mouth shtick with a PG-rating! For all of its good intentions and ambitions to be a high-grossing holiday classic, Fred misses many opportunities for solid laughs...though not for lack of trying. It simply Xeroxes the formula of better holiday movies so closely that even a melted Frosty could predict the ending.

The PG-rated Fred Claus, a deadbeat (Vaughn) moves in with his younger brother St. Nick (Giamatti) at the North Pole, only to find that he has wrecked Christmas and needs to redeem himself?much to the chagrin of a ruthless holiday executive (Kevin Spacey).

Dear Santa: Why would studio execs hire perpetually cantankerous Giamatti and foul-mouthed Frat Packer Vaughn and then slap the cuffs on them? Yes, yes, Hell yes, Virginia, the trail of coal continues: Fred has a British girlfriend...just for the sake of casting Rachel Weisz; Fred has an aw-shucks neighbor kid who climbs in through the fire escape, Urkel-style...just to show that the uncaring title character has a sympathetic side; and Santa lives in a village that looks like Thomas Kincade vomited gingerbread...just because. With puzzle pieces like these, the audience knows what they are getting under this tree long before the jolly old elf arrives.

Bottom line: Ho humbug.