Fred Claus
Decent Christmas comedy - simonconnolly
When Fred Claus needs a loan for a potentially successful business opportunity he turns to his generous brother Nicholas ie Santa Claus for the money. Santa tries some 'tough love' by agreeing to give him the money but only if Fred comes to the North Pole to help out for a few days. He reluctantly agrees and immediately wreaks havoc. He disrupts family dinner, slows elf productivity and in an impulsive act gives the bitter Clyde Northcut, who is inspecting the workshop's activity, reason to shut it down. Nick tells Fred he has ruined Christmas and it's not until Fred returns to New York that he realises what he's done. so he uses the investment money to get back to the North Pole, talk to the locals and try to save Christmas. It proves challenging as Clyde tries to stop him as time Christmas morning quickly looms. Fred Claus is a relatively entertaining, amusing and laid back comedy which is probably one of the best Christmas movie in years. Paul Giamatti stars as the big man, Santa that is. He was alright but really should've produced more laughs in his role. He scrapped through his performance but it wasn't too noticeable as he shared a lot of screen time with Vince Vaughn, who is quite the cheerful and funny. Vince performance was nothing new but still hilarious and I think he is a better supporting star rather than a leading man. He did a good job but I still think there are people who would've done better. Kevin Spacey was a great addition to the cast as bad guy Clyde Archibald Northcut. He had the nastiness of The Grinch, the coldness of Scrooge but by the end has the spirit and joy of Frosty. Spacey manages to bring a sense of class to every role, even this one in which he plays a kind of ridiculous and completely unbelievable character. He really is one of the best actors in the world at the moment and if he goes back to picking fantastic roles then this fact will be known to everyone. His classic films such as Seven, American Beauty and L.A Confidential are stunning movies but his current movies have been sub-par, namely Beyond The Sea, 21 and of course this. I don't mean to take anything away from his performance though. He was brilliant and was by far the best actor in this film. There is a scene in it which he shares with Paul Giamatti which I personally thought was outstanding and this was due mostly to Spacey's phenomenal acting in it. Elizabeth Banks seems to be popping up in everything lately, but I'm not complaining. However short her appearance she manages to make an impact and remain memorable and she is a very talented actress. She's also quite funny in some of her other films but unfortunately she didn't really get to show this aspect of her capability much. Rachel Weisz was also good but unmemorable. The film sees her share screen time with Giamatti for the first time since Confidence and they still don't really seem comfortable sharing scenes. Weisz has definitely come a long way since confidence though, she was awful in it. The people who play Nick and Fred's parents were quite poor. The mother just plays typical mother who favours one child and the father, as far as I can remember, did absolutely nothing. One great bit in the film was the support group for unflavoured brothers in which we see brilliant cameo appearances from Frank Stallone (as in Sylvester), Stephen Baldwin (Alec) and Roger Clinton (Bill). There's also a cameo from Ludacris as DJ Donny, the music man at the North Pole. His brief appearance as an elf was amusing but badly presented , as in the effects. So all in all this is a pretty average film. The best thing in the film was the cast performances, especially from Vaughn and Spacey. Good for getting yourself in the Christmas spirit but not for other enjoyment. Would recommend it but only for the cold winter nights in.
Review published on the 12 May 2009 19:37
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fantastic - niamho634
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