It's like they took the most tiresome elements of 10 different holiday films and patched them together into one ugly quilt.
Comment
11/08/07
Fred Claus (2007)
21
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:134
Fresh:28
Rotten:106
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: A slew of talent is wasted in this contrived and overly sentimental Christmas film, which can't quite get the balance between slapstick humor and sentimental family moments.
Theatrical Release:30-11-2007
Synopsis: Sibling rivalry takes on a new dimension in director David Dobkin's (WEDDING CRASHERS, CLAY PIGEONS) third collaboration with actor Vince Vaughn, FRED CLAUS. Ever since his younger brother,... [More]
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Elizabeth Banks
Director: David Dobkin
Reviews for Fred Claus
Boasting one of the least imaginative idea-to-execution screenplays to come along in memory, all the film has is some ad libbing from Vince Vaughn to keep the film afloat from the ill-inspired direction of David Dobkin.
11/08/07
It's 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.
11/08/07
One wonders what made producer Joel Silver think this bizarre mix of incompatible genres would be a potential hit. Santa may have to skip his house for every winter holiday to come.
11/08/07
a fragile premise stuffed with hollow Christmas jokes
11/08/07
Even though Vaughn knows how to build a pretty good performance out of little more than exasperated eye-rolling, he's just coasting here, and his scenes with Giamatti have no weight and no energy.
11/08/07
Fred Claus doesn't know if it wants to be naughty or nice.
11/08/07
Fred Claus wants to be both naughty and nice -- and still get some sort of present.
11/08/07
Bah. Humbug.
11/08/07
This movie takes a good thing and runs it deep into the ground, leaving behind a frothy trail of sentimentality.
11/08/07
If you must haul the kids to yet another annual (per)version of A Christmas Carol, you could do a lot worse than this cheeky, modestly edgy caper from Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin and screenwriter Dan Fogelman.
11/08/07
Re-teaming with Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin, Vince Vaughn plays the eponymous character, Santa's crankier and considerably less charitable older brother, while doing all the riffing his PG straitjacket will allow.
11/08/07
An insipid Christmas comedy.
11/08/07
How many laughs can one movie try to squeeze out of Vaughn being attacked by elves? Sadly, it’s an awful lot.
11/08/07
Holiday comedy's no classic, but it's OK for kids.
11/08/07
Joins the unsavory ranks of holiday entertainment that isn't entertaining and has little holiday cheer. This is a sinful missed opportunity for all involved.
11/08/07
Vaughn is marvelous dancing with the elves, but plot digressions that take much too long to resolve and mangled special effects are a distraction and a nuisance.
11/08/07
Fred Claus seems a clever installment, not a seasonal classic, a buffet whose many nibbles you sample, move on and quickly forget.
11/08/07
Vaughn's con-man jive doesn't get much play in this one; he spends most of his time as a bitter creep, and the writing (by Dan Fogelman) isn't sharp enough to make the hipster-at-the-North-Pole theme pay off in any meaningful way.
11/08/07
Once [Fred] goes north the whole movie goes south.
11/08/07
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November 24, 2008:
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November 23, 2008:
Don't make the mistake of misreading this mean-spirited production as a kid-friendly Christmas flick. 
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November 22, 2008:
Vince Vaughn's famously rude Wedding Crasher gets macho with Ludacris as a m-igitalized feisty Santa elf, while huddling over the pint-sized urinals in the john with another, to clue him about North Pole dirty dancing and romance.
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