Fred Claus Reviewed

Fred Claus is the story of Nicholas Claus' (Paul Giamatti) older brother Fred (Vince Vaughn). It tells how the two brothers grew up and even though Fred was the older brother, he constantly lived in the shadow of Nick. We all know what Nick grew up to be, but what about his older brother? Well, he grew to be a well-intentioned, misguided Repo-man looking for his one big break. And that break is going to be a new casino, and all he needs is $50,000 to get it started. He schemes a plan to make some quick cash which gets the local Santa union riled up, lands him in jail and also in hot water with his girlfriend (Rachel Weisz). Out of desperation, he calls his brother Nick to bail him out and also hits him up for the 50 large. Nick agrees, but it seems he's in a bit of a bind himself and tells Fred he can have the money if he comes to the North Pole to help out during the Christmas Crunch time. There are more good kids asking for more toys than ever before and Nick is afraid they might not make it on time. To make matters worse, an efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt (Kevin Spacey) will be evaluating Santa's Toy Shop, and he's got a grudge against Nick. Clyde has already put the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny on notice and would love nothing more than to shut them down and streamline their Toy Shop down to the South Pole.
Vaughn's character was completely predictable; however, just like his girlfriend Wanda (Weisz), we just can't help but love him. His quick, sarcastic wit keeps us chuckling. He's basically a nice guy, just needs something to prompt him to dig down deep to be the great man he's destined to be. Giamatti is great as Santa Claus and I applaud the original take on the story: he takes his generosity and jolly demeanor and becomes a holiday figure as his career. The story is original, seeing Santa through the eyes of his jaded older brother, however it is a Vaughn movie, so the sequence is the same as every other Vaughn movie: good guy, witty sarcasm, has one big scheme that will make everything alright, that falls through, a life lesson must be learned, and a happy ending is sure to follow. Spacey was great as the vengeful Efficiency Expert, but then again, Spacey is great in everything. Unfortunately, when there was about 30 minutes left in the movie, you could already tell exactly what was going to happen: you knew what Fred's moral conscience would force him to do, you knew why Clyde was so angry with Santa and what Santa would do to turn it around, and you knew what would happen with Christmas and with every relationship hanging in the balance.
As far as Christmas movies go, I give them credit for originality in story. The set was amazing. Santa's Toy Shop was something out of a modern Norm Rockwell variety. Probably one of the most original scenes, a scene I haven't seen in a Christmas movie before was Christmas morning at the North Pole where the elves all gather to watch the kids opening their Christmas presents. It did tend to get a bit goofy at times - certain sound effects were completely unnecessary and as silly as the "biff", "bang", "booms" of the old Batman TV series; and there was a brother's support group with Frank Stalone, Stephen Baldwin and Roger Clinton that was good for a slight chuckle, but really wasn't necessary. So I was delightfully surprised, but not blown away by this movie. Then again, it's not really intended to be one of those movies. I don't see this being a new Christmas Classic and I don't see it joining my DVD collection, but I did enjoy it more than I thought I would.
So kudos to Vaughn and Giamatti. And what is the next movie that will either blow me away or leave me wanting a refund? We shall see . . .