Fred Claus (2007)

I have seen 8 films in the last 72 hours and I can tell you now this one was worth the money.

When I first saw the one sheet with Vaughn and Giamatti together it made no difference to me who played Santa because it couldn't help but be a hit- then I saw the trailers- and the more I saw the trailers the less I wanted to see this film(despite being a Joel Silver Production). Pay no attention to the spoilers- this film was great!!

Fred Clause is blessed with a baby brother he loves but can not measure up in the eyes of his mother- Nick though saintly has his flaws too (even his wife is concerned about his eating habits) Fred is always on the shady side of a get rich quick scheme and when one of those schemes get him in jail- with no one else to call he calls Nick much to the dismay of his sister in law. Eventually the hundreds of years of sibling rivalry come to a boil and the trouble still isn't over. If the highlights you have seen of this movie leave you thinking it is a cookie cutter story about the cool brother helping out the square- think again. There are many gems amid the films unseen scenes- and anyone with a heart or funny bone will not be disappointed- this film was great.

Fmovies: Painfully bad Christmas film that has an equally painfully bad performance by Vince Vaughn, who is paying his usual frat boy self but this time for a children's movie but with out the wit or charm that is in his R rated films. Vaughn seems like he's on autopilot though most of the film and he keeps running into walls with his lackluster performance. After 30 minutes into the film, you would be in touch your inner scourge and say "Bahumbag" at how unfunny this film is and after another 30 minutes, you will want to walk out over how unbearable the film has gotten during that point. Out of all the actors involved in this mess, only Paul Giamatti and Rachel Weisz brings some life to there perspective paper thin roles and that's manly because they are both way too good of actors to be in this film. Paul Giamatti brings some depth and warmth to the character of Saint Nick himself but he's forced to Vaughn's level of juvenile behavior when they are doing their sad sibling infighting. You can see in Giamatti face that he's not having fun with his role and it painfully shows in certain parts of the film. Rachel Weisz brings a sense of fun and spirit to her role but she really does not have much of a character to work with and you can see in her face that she's well aware of that, so much so that she seems irritated in certain parts of the film. Fortunately for her, she's not in the film much at all and is able to save some face, unlike Giamatti, who looks like he's about to fire his agent by the end of the movie. The direction also feels uninspiring, like there is no feeling or flow to be had and this is a supposed to be a holiday movie but it ends up feeling like you are just staring at a fancy widow display that is being torn down.

I don't know what went wrong here but with only two actors involved (Giamatti and Weisz) trying their best to at least bring something to the table with a unfunny script they had to work with, spotty direction with no feeling for the subject at hand ( and this is a Christmas movie of all things) and a actor who just does not care about his performance (Vaughn), you have a very unevenly bad film that is very painful to watch.

I thought this movie was very funny. My sons were begging to go see it so on a whim we decided to take them tonight. Just got back home and the kids were so excited that they laughed about it all the way home. I also think the movie shows a lot about sibling rivalry and how over the years it can blow up and get worse without anyone really realizing that it is happening. There were a lot of funny moments and I noticed everyone in our packed theater was laughing in what seemed to me all the right areas. I think this movie also shows how childhood disappointments can have effects long into your future. Either way, it was a very entertaining way to spend 2 hours and I would see it again.

Fred Claus fmovies. My wife and I took our niece to the theater for this and it was a good time. Vince Vaughn plays the lead role of Fred, the grouchy and disgruntled brother of the real Santa Claus (Paul Giamatti). When things get tough one year up at the North Pole where Santa lives, he sends for his estranged brother to visit him and help out. It seems a nasty efficiency man (Kevin Spacey) is about to shut Santa's massive toy making operation down permanently if certain standards are not maintained, and this low-life is doing everything he can to make sure things never straighten out.

I usually don't like Kevin Spacey, but he was perfect for this part and I enjoyed the whole cast too, in fact. It's getting to the point where I'd go to see any movie with Paul Giamatti in it, and though you'd think he's not physically right for the role of Santa Claus, he makes it work. I found this funny and festive, with something to say about what hurt feelings and mistreatment can do to turn good people bad (ie; make nice people "naughty"). I especially got a kick out of a scene featuring a "Syblings Anonymous" type of meeting for disgruntled brothers, where some famous faces made cameos. There's good music featured throughout as well, and not all of it necessarily being Christmas tunes. *** out of ****

My partner and I loved this movie. We own a couple hundred Christmas movies and are only able to watch a small subset each year, but I think this will go into our "rotation" as a perennial favorite.

Vince Vaughn is his typical self - caustic but charming. Paul Giamatti is great as a jolly Santa Claus who's got just a little bit too much on his plate this year, what with family and productivity challenges . . .

Kathy Bates and Trevor Peacock make great parents for the Claus siblings, and Kevin Spacey is great is his pivotal role.

The special effects are also excellent: seamless and effective - the North Pole never looked better ;-)

In short, this is a fun and funny Christmas movie. See it!

I have to be honest, when this movie came out I wasn't very keen on seeing this movie, even though it had Vince in the lead whose comedy i really like, it was the whole premise of the movie which was putting me off and reading the reviews did not help either because they were not doing the movie any justice. Now finally after a good 8 or 9 months of the films theatrical release, I happened to get it on DVD and boy was I surprised. This film is not your average Vince Vaughn comedy film with lots of slick lines, it has a very few of those, I think this was marketed a little bit vaguely because it certainly is not a comedy but it is a good drama/family movie with quite a lot of heart and especially if you have a brother, watch this movie it wont change your life or anything but for those 2 hours it will make you feel good about yourself.