Maybe The Santa
Clause
movies scorched the earth for future Santa comedy because Fred
Claus isn’t as
funny or original as it should have been.
Vince Vaughn stars as Fred
Claus – Santa’s older brother who constantly
struggles with life in the shadow
of his more famous, saintly and beloved brother.
He lives his life working as a repo man dreaming up
scams to make a few
extra bucks to start his own Off Track Betting parlor in Chicago.
However, he needs more money fast to make that dream
come true, and brother
Santa could use a little extra help up at the North Pole this time of
year, so
Fred is off to help, but will he make a mess of things at a critical
time for
Santa?
Fred
Claus is
not
offensive. It’s
not stupid. It will
not cause you to go running out of
the theater screaming, while holding your hands over your ears and eyes. It’s just blah.
Director David Dobkin and
writers Jessie Nelson and Dan Fogelman need to have some fun and take
the
handcuffs off everyone on screen. Fred
Claus is a safe movie with plenty of
physical comedy and funny faces to appeal
to kids, but only rarely gets smarter for adults.
We get some sparks of life when Dobkin and
crew focus on the sibling rivalry between the two brothers (which feels
untapped), and have a ten minute period featuring family therapy, and a
sibling
support group that gets some laughs, but they never let those ideas and
themes
dominate the movie.
Instead, Fred
Claus
tries to
hit on a few overly familiar stories like Santa being all nervous about
an
efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) who could shut down the North Pole, an
elf
with confidence problems (John Michael Higgins) who wants to impress
the woman of
his dreams (Elizabeth “The Woman of My Dreams”
Banks), some funny jokes about
Vaughn being too big for the elf-sized portions of the North Pole and
more. It’s
almost like Dobkin and crew are afraid
to go with the original premise of a dysfunctional Claus family (which
should
be the most loving and wonderful family on earth) and feel the need to
prop it
up and fill it up with stuff we can get in any other movie. It is too safe.
Sadly, Vaughn is trying very
hard to liven up the proceedings, but doesn’t have the
material to make it
happen. He has the
right manic, motor
mouthed delivery we know and love, but the wrong dialogue. He has the right surprised
and cocky reactions,
but not the right inspirations for those reactions.
Then, Giamatti has some fun as Santa, but
rarely gets to be the crazy brother.
This movie is about peeling away the Santa mystique
and showing a guy
who is just like you and me, but Giamatti is stuck being too Santa and
too milquetoast
However, what truly
sets Fred
Claus
back is the use of traditional sized actors in the roles of
elves. John Michael
Higgins and Ludacris
play two prominent roles, but they are shrunken via computer to look
like they
are elf size. It
looks horrible on the
screen as you can tell they have been inserted into the frame after the
fact. They
don’t move quite the same as the other
actors in the scene. The
lighting is a
bit different than on other actors in the scenes.
Most disappointing is that some may think
Ludacris is Tony Cox from Bad Santa,
but that misconception is cleared up when
you realize Ludacris is not funny.
Fred
Claus has some laughs,
but not enough for a comedy.
1 Waffle
(Out of 4)
Fred
Claus is
rated PG for mild language and some rude humor.
Copyright
2007 - WaffleMovies.com
