Product Description

Genre: Christmas
Rating: PG
Release Date: 25-NOV-2008
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #831 in DVD
• Brand: VAUGHN,VINCE
• Released on: 2008-11-25
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 116 minutes

Features

• This is a story you?ve never heard before, a hilarious and heartwarming comedy about Fred Claus, Santa?s brother ? and complete opposite. After growing up in saintly Nick?s shadow, Fred becomes a grouch who?s lost his belief in Christmas. Then, one magical December, Fred flies north (first via reindeer) to find brother Nick is in trouble: a scheming efficiency expert is out to shut down Christmas

Amazon.com
Vince Vaughn is enormously enjoyable as the titular Fred Claus, disgruntled older brother of the better-known St. Nicholas himself, i.e., the North Pole’s very own Santa (Paul Giamatti). A garrulous hustler running from the emotional fallout of the ultimate sibling rivalry, poor Fred keeps trying to find happiness through one failed scheme after another, pushing away the people who care about him most. When brother Santa puts the squeeze on him to help out in the toy factory atop the world, Fred turns the place into one big, raucous party. Unfortunately, he’s unaware that Santa and Mrs. Claus (Miranda Richardson) are under tight scrutiny from an oversight committee (represented by a calculating Kevin Spacey) and could be shut down. The film, directed by David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers), gleams and twinkles the way a holiday movie should, and has plenty of fun material for youngsters, including a wacky chase scene in which Fred goes on the run from a half-dozen, angry Salvation Army Santas. But Fred Claus is also supposed to appeal to hip adults with a taste for ironic farce, and on that score the movie feels like a succession of Saturday Night Live skits more than an organic whole. Still, Vaughn holds everything together with a smart, insightful performance that looks deep into his character’s torment--with more than a few laughs. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

A good Christmas 2007 movie
For the month or so as well as the past year or two, Hollywood has been releasing a string of disappointing or downright bad Christmas movies (The Golden Compass, Happy Feet, Deck the Halls). Thankfully, Fred Claus was a pleasant surprise.

I agree with some of the reviews. This is not the funniest Christmas movie that I have seen. Then again, it does not really need to be. Vaughn is funny overall. He was funnier than he was in 'The Break-Up' (not hard to do). It is generally a good story with a fair amount of good laughs along with a good, semi-touching story.

The other thing I do when I see a Christmas movie is ask "Do I want to add this to my movie collection when it comes out on DVD?" My answer is definitely yes.

In summary, it is fairly good movie. It is worth seeing. You decide after that if it is good enough to add to the home Christmas movie collection.

Judge for yourself
I read many reviews from both Amazon and other print sources and the overwhelming reaction to Fred Claus was one of disappointment and worse. This won't be the first nor last time I am glad I looked into something for myself instead of trusting others. I don't know if it is my own sordid, pathetic personal life history or what, but this movie touched me and I left the movie emotionally moved and struck by how something advertised as your typical holiday comedy fare (read: stupid and infantile) could have delivered such a blow to my heart.
Vince Vaughn, who is the Bill Murray of his generation, delivers an endearing performance, Paul Giamatti is, as always, brilliant, and the rest of the cast is very good. The plot is simple enough but the undercurrent of family relationships and how they can influence people throughout their life hit me hard. One last positive - the soundtrack is a wonderful mix of seasonal favorites old and new with the bonus of a haunting Silent Night by Sinead O'Connor (which just sent me over the teary edge) and the Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World medley by the Hawaiian singer whose name I can neither remember nor spell.
Fred Claus will not make you throw out It's A Wonderful Life or even Rudolph the Reindeer, but it is heartwarming and deserves to be judged before dismissed as yet another warmed over holiday leftover.

Quirky Happy Christmas Film
Vince Vaughn makes an excellent jaded older brother of Santa Claus. Only Vince Vaughn can play such a sarcastic character and pull-off also having a heart of gold. It's similar to his character in Dodgeball, but with a little more bite. His clever wit alone makes this film worth seeing. Paul Giamatti makes an excellent St. Nick - a seemingly perfect and nice Santa Claus who is also very human (imagine a chubby Claus maniacally driving a snowmobile through Santa's village). The film is fresh for adults, while still being cute, and has a happy ending full of all the Christmas cheese one expects from a Christmas film. Overall the film is very satisfying. The true estimate of a good film lies in the number of watches it has, and this film has several.