saw this yesterday.

Its alright; not what it coulda been. The script was a funnier read the film turned out to be; Vaughn overacts too much.

C

I'll have my review up in a couple of minutes.

Here it is - Fred Claus

I thought it was cute. It had some great funny moments, and the Christmas Spirit.

B+

it wasn't too bad. could have been funnier.

B-

yeah surprising not completely horrible. B-

good message with not enough humor.

Nothing special, but I enjoyed it. No, it's not as funny as it could have been, but it does have some good laughs (the Siblings Annonymous scene is easily the highlight). I also enjoyed seeing the pairing of Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti as brothers, as well as how much fun Kevin Spacey seemed to be having in his role.

Grade: B

The funniest part of the movie was the inclusion of Elizabeth Banks. I mean I love Banks, but wtf was she doing in this movie? Maybe if there was any other normal people in the North Pole, but no. Thousands of elves and... one super hot blonde chick! She didn't even have lines or development, she was just there popping up out of nowhere and looking around blankly with huge knockers. There's one shot where all the elves stand together, and Banks is sticking out of the crowd, and I swear I almost lost it. It was maybe the only intentional joke they made that I laughed at.

The movie itself was pretty bad. I think it's a case of overwriting, or maybe the director not utilizing the script properly. It seemed like every conversation was a long ramble and rant in Vince Vaughn style, they wanted to create witty back and forths but everything fell on its face. It felt like 80% the movie was random bickering and fights. Who wants to see that on Christmas again?

As for Vaughn, this is the point where he overloaded on his schtick. He never talked normal in this movie... ever. Giamatti wasn't bad, but he didn't feel like Santa Clause. He felt like Giamatti in a fatsuit and beard. On the flipside I actually really liked Kevin Spacey's performance, though I'm a big fan of Spacey so I may be biased, I can never dislike something he does. I liked Weisz too actually, she was charming. The movie didn't deserve those two though, the efforts are mostly wasted.

I tried to suspend my disbelief for the climax but it was just too much. Other than the obvious "How does every kid on the planet get their present personally delivered in 10 hours, and how does it all fit in a single bag" question, there's a point where he has 1 hour left and he literally does New York, Sidney, Paris, and god knows what other continents in that time. It's just too much. The set-up for Fred taking the job is also lazy, it was just kind of like "Oh, there's a hidden rule that only a Claus can deliver presents. Isn't that convienient for our predictable redemption plot!"

There was also a bit too much green screen going on here. I guess a lot of the money went to Vaughn's paycheque, because the movie looked kind of cheap. Even some stuff like Ludacris' superimposed head and Willie dancing looked horrible, let alone Fred on the sled.

And mostly, the movie isn't funny. It's just not. The Siblings anonymus scene is probably the closest thing to it, but otherwise, it falls on its face. Just another forgettable, missed oppurtunity of a Christmas film.

D+

For a mindless family Christmas flick, it was pretty good. I certainly enjoyed it more than I had expected to. I remember when I first saw the teaser trailer and poster and thought "This is gonna suck". But the theatrical trailer made me think maybe I'd actually enjoy it... and I did.

Sure, there were problems with the green-screening of Willie and Ludacris. Sure, some of the stuff was cliche or deus ex machina... But I still enjoyed it. Then again, I'm also one of those who got a kick out of all three Santa Clause movies, so who knows. I'm just a sucker for fun, relatively clean Christmas movies.

I loved some of the metaphors used for the innuendo, and I was especially pleased that Willie ended up with Charlene, because I was expecting the predictable subplot of Willie being in love with Charlene, but Charlene and Fred hit it off, and Willie catches them kissing or something, gets mad, then when Fred needs help at the end, he has to give some inspiring speech of apology to Willie for taking his girl... LOL

But thankfully, they didn't do that! Fred actually stayed with his girlfriend, and Willie conquered his physical limitations and got the hot girl that he'd fallen for.

I'm giving this a A-/B+. A- for the story, which was pretty fun (and I especially enjoyed the "prologue" showing Fred and Nick's childhood) and for not going the predictable route I was expecting; B+ for some shoddy green-screening and a couple of unexplained things (like the whole presents in one bag/getting them delivered in 10 hours--there was no explanation like "magic" or what-not like in the Santa Clause movies).

Oh, and I LOVED the whole bit with Kevin Spacey's character and the Superman cape. I was laughing my head off. Lex Luthor as Superman! LOL

Joy

FRED CLAUS: 6/10 (C+)



I thought this was a real mixed bag. I expected to really enjoy it and for it to get my in the Christmas spirit, but I was quite disappointed. This wasn't an awful film, but it was far from a great one. It started out decently but once our main character makes his way down to the North Pole and once Kevin Spacey gets involved, it starts to get a bit off track. The whole subplot with Spacey should have been eliminated completely and the film should have focused on the relationship between Fred and Nick. The best things about the film were Elizabeth Banks and Rachel Weisz and both actresses were incredibly underused. Also, this film felt like three hours long. I seriously thought it would never end. It's somewhat cute, but I'd wait for Holiday Season '08 and give it a rent.