Fred Claus

views updated

Fred Claus ★ 2007 (PG)

Vaughn attempts to bring his familiar shtick to preteens and fails miserably in this story about Santa's repo man brother, who's looking to make a quick buck in order to start a restaurant. Santa (Giamatti) offers Fred (Vaughn) money if he comes back to the North Pole to help with the Christmas rush, and something that fails to resemble hilarity ensues. The laughs are few, and the considerable talents of Vaughn, Giamatti, and fellow cast members Spacey, Weisz, and Bates are frittered, as the pic seems to rely exclusively on Vaughn's trademark big mouth and cliched family-movie sap. 115m/C DVD . US Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz, John Michael Higgins, Kathy Bates, Trevor Peacock, Chris Bridges, Elizabeth Banks, Jeremy Swift, Elizabeth Berrington, Kevin Spacey; D: David Dobkin; W: Dan Fogelman; C: Remi Adefarasin; M: Christophe Beck.