Fred Claus came out last year in November and stars Vince Vaughn as the titular character.
The story follows an unknown relative of a certain jolly fat-man named Santa Claus, played by Paul Giamatti. This relative is his older brother, who has been in his younger brother's shadow for years.We learn that when Nicholas was born, he was immediately a giver and a saint. Fred began to resent his younger brother, as his mother often wished he would be more like him.
Fast-forward many, many years and Fred is still the black sheep of the family, while Christmas has totally taken off thanks to Nick.
In order to start up a company, Fred asks Nick for a loan - but to get the loan he has to go to the North Pole to visit and work off some of the debt.
This just happens to intertwine with the visit of Clyde Northcut (Kevin Spacey), a efficiency expert with a grudge.
Of course, as things start to pile up thanks to Fred and his bumbling ways - Christmas comes very close to being canceled. That is, of course, unless Fred can save the day.
I have two very different opinions about this film. First, because it is a Christmas film and obviously meant to have a lesson, I cut it a little slack. The entire story as a whole was very nice and very easy to watch.
I felt that all of the characters played their parts very well, and seeing Giamatti as Santa was pretty entertaining in itself.
I did have a few issues, though. The main one being the simple fact that a man (Santa) who spends his entire time doing things for the benefit of others for no reimbursement, would ever have an efficiency expert - or at least would ever listen to him. He isn't profiting from what he is doing, so there was no need. So, you really had to look past that.
Also, the main elf, Willie, is played by John Michael Higgins who just so happens to be a normal sized person. There were also a few others mixed in, like a DJ played by Ludacris. However, a few of the others were played by little people, or even children. What was the point of mixing that up? They should have went with the all of one to make things flow a little better.
And finally, this seems to happen in every Christmas film, but there is one 'elf' who happens to be regular size named Charlene, played by Elizabeth Banks. No real mention why she is regular size, she just is. Besides the main family and Northcut, everyone else was a small elf that was in the North Pole - so why was this one person normal size?
Just a few beefs, but it didn't really take a lot away from the film. I laughed out a few times and the story obviously held a lesson for the end.
Grade:
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