Fred Claus

Fred Claus

Directed by David Dobkin (PG)

Santa and his unsaintly older brother reunite on Christmas.

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Fred Claus is a Christmas story with less heart than Ebenezer Scrooge, said Kirk Honeycutt in the The Hollywood Reporter. Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti are brothers Fred and Santa Claus. The Clauses are “polar opposites: Santa gives; Fred, a repo man, takes away. Santa is cheerful; Fred hates the world.” Fred is a deadbeat who travels to the North Pole to ask his saintly younger brother for money. Their reunion plays out like “The Odd Couple with a Christmas backdrop.” They join a stellar lineup of supporting characters, including Kathy Bates, Kevin Spacey, and Rachel Weisz, but nearly every actor seems miscast. Vaughn “looks like he wandered in from another movie” and “Giamatti gets lost in his fat suit.” Vaughn might be everybody’s “favorite wise-ass,” but he and his smart mouth don’t belong in Toyland, said Michelle Orange in the The Village Voice. He attempts to bring his “6-foot-5 attitude problem” to the kids’ table, but his humor plays better to a more mature crowd. Laughs came easy for director David Dobkin and Vaughn when they paired up on Wedding Crashers, said Loey Lockerby in The Kansas City Star. Struggling to work their “frat-boy instincts into a PG-rated movie,” they make watching Fred Claus feel like “flipping channels between Animal House and The Polar Express.”