{"id":8647,"date":"2024-11-24T10:38:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8647"},"modified":"2024-11-24T10:38:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:38:24","slug":"fred-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/24\/fred-claus\/","title":{"rendered":"Fred Claus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Fred Claus<\/strong> (2007)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language, some rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Dobkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan Fogelman and Jessie Nelson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christophe Beck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 9, 2007 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, John Michael Higgins, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, Kevin Spacey, Trevor Peacock, Elizabeth Banks, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jeremy Swift, Elizabeth Berrington.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $72M (US)\/$97.8M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Maybe somebody should make a documentary called Santa Claus: The Man You Thought You Knew. There\u2019s a lot we don\u2019t know about jolly old St. Nick. For instance, he has an older brother named Fred. He\u2019s the subject of the comedy Fred Claus<\/strong>, an amusing piece of holiday cheer from David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Come to think of it, I don\u2019t think \u201ccheer\u201d is the right word to describe Fred Claus<\/strong>. Can you really call a film dealing with a dysfunctional family cheery? The Claus family isn\u2019t all ho, ho, ho happy. Fred (Vaughn, Wedding Crashers) walked away a long time ago because he got tired of living in the shadow of baby brother Nick (Giamatti, Sideways). I mean, how do you compete with a guy who delivers toys to all the children of the world in a single night? It\u2019s no wonder Mother Claus (Bates, Misery) favors her second born, constantly asking Fred why he can\u2019t be more like Nick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I suppose a little background is in order here. Fred has been jealous of Nick ever since they were children back in the Middle Ages. He was always doing something kind and generous. When he\u2019s made a saint, he\u2019s gifted with immortality along with the rest of his family. At some point, Fred leaves to make a life for himself. Our story begins after that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s present day and Nick is now known throughout the world by many names, the most popular one being Santa Claus. Fred, on the other hand, is the anti-Santa. He takes things from people (he\u2019s a repo man). He\u2019s a selfish and (mostly) heartless schemer who gets arrested after attempting to raise money for an off-track betting parlor by soliciting donations for charity on a busy street corner. The sight of Fred being pursued by a gang of irate Salvation Army Santas is one of the movie\u2019s best bits.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fred, in the doghouse with girlfriend Wanda (Weisz, The Mummy) for whiffing on their anniversary again, has no choice but to call Nick to bail him out. While he\u2019s at it, he asks Nick to lend him the money he needs to get his new venture started. Encouraged by Mrs. Claus (Richardson, Sleepy Hollow) to practice tough love, he tells Fred he\u2019ll help him out if he agrees to come to the North Pole and work for the money.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So it is that Fred heads off to his brother\u2019s place for the holidays. It\u2019s first class all the way with Nick\u2019s head elf Willie (Higgins, Best in Show) picking him up in the sleigh. Fred is assigned the arduous task of reviewing files to determine if children are naughty or nice. Given his tendency to half-ass everything, fate couldn\u2019t have picked a worse time for a family reunion. Anal retentive efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt (Spacey, The Usual Suspects) is there to assess Santa\u2019s operation and see if it\u2019s worth keeping open. He wants to see it shut down permanently. For now, it\u2019s in three-strike limbo (as in three strikes and you\u2019re out) which causes more stress for Nick who\u2019s already dealing with familial tensions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Some aspects of Fred Claus<\/strong> are pretty clever like how the workshop is depicted in a business-like way with talk about efficiency, productivity and meeting quotas. At the same time, it\u2019s a magical place where an enormous snow globe serves as a super-computer. All you have to do is say a name and it shows you what that person is up to. There\u2019s also an up-to-the-minute scoreboard that keeps track of the top ten naughty children. While the elves work, a DJ (rapper Ludacris) keeps things lively elf-style by playing \u201cHere Comes Santa Claus\u201d on an endless loop.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The workshop-as-workplace scenario isn\u2019t the only modernized thing in Fred Claus<\/strong>. Support groups have become popular in the past 100 years so it makes perfect sense to have Fred attend a Siblings Anonymous meeting alongside Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton and Stephen Baldwin who has a lot of hostility towards Alec. It\u2019s too bad Billy Carter wasn\u2019t around to take part (he passed in 1988); it would have interesting to hear from him. In any event, it\u2019s the best part of Fred Claus<\/strong>. I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing a spin-off centered on this idea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By way of showing Fred has something resembling a heart, he\u2019s friendly with Slam (Thompson, Role Models), a young orphan boy who wants a puppy for Christmas. Sadly, he can\u2019t prevent the kid from being taken away by Family Services. It would have been nice if Dobkin and the writers (Jessie Nelson and Dan Fogelman) developed it more.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not that big a fan of Vaughn and Fred Claus<\/strong> does nothing to change that. He\u2019s okay, but he gives basically the same performance he gives in his other films. Giamatti is an odd choice to play Santa, but he doesn\u2019t do too badly. In fact, he\u2019s pretty good. He depicts St. Nick as a stressed sort carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Here\u2019s a guy who stress-eats his way through life while trying to live up to everybody\u2019s expectations. It\u2019s a unique interpretation of the legendary figure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Spacey nails it as the antagonist, but why wouldn\u2019t he? He excels at playing nasty, weaselly bastards. Anyone who saw him in the underappreciated black comedy Swimming with Sharks will attest to this. Bates is decent as Mother Claus, forever criticizing Fred out of love or so she thinks. Weisz does a nice job as the girlfriend who\u2019s had it with Fred\u2019s BS. Richardson has some good scenes as no-nonsense Mrs. Claus. Who knew Santa\u2019s wife was such a toughie?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t say Fred Claus<\/strong> is a funny movie. I\u2019d say it\u2019s amusing and pleasant. Therein lies the problem. It should have had a sharper edge with all the stuff about Santa\u2019s dysfunctional family. The closest it comes is an intervention session where they all express their concerns about Fred\u2019s behavior. It fares a little better with its approach to Santa\u2019s operation. To its credit, Fred Claus<\/strong> is never mean-spirited or gross. It tries to be nice and largely succeeds. However, this is one of those rare instances where it would have been better to be a little naughty.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fred Claus (2007)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language, some rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Dobkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan Fogelman and Jessie Nelson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Christophe Beck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 9, 2007 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, John Michael Higgins, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, Kevin Spacey, Trevor Peacock, Elizabeth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-holiday-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Fred-Claus-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8647"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9049,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8647\/revisions\/9049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}