Fred has always lived in the shadow of his brother; Saint Nicholas, aka Santa Claus and is practically the exact opposite of his do-gooding brother. But when Fred is arrested after a disagreement with a large gang of charity-collecting Santa look-alikes and asks his brother to bail him out of jail, Santa agrees on the condition Fred visits and helps him in the North Pole. Consequently Fred will end up helping a little more than he bargained for.

At first I felt that this Christmas turkey was not going to get me into any festive spirit at all but alas, I fear I was a little hasty in determining my opinion. Although the introduction and at least first seventeen minutes of the film were beyond painful; the dialogue was poor, the gags lame and did I mention the dialogue was poor!? The concept was quite charming and relatively fresh though its structure was textbook. I did not warm to any of the characters at first, then slowly but surely I was drawn into the story, characters and ethical moral values it has to offer.

It’s a very simple Christmas tale and almost from the off the audience knows where it’s going but I feel the journey is worth taking nonetheless. There are some truly touching scenes and dare I say, the ‘Superman cape’ moment practically brought a tear to my eye.

There are a few rope-dependant special effects that look ridiculous, standing out a mile and as for some of the singing, dancing scenes… well… it doesn’t sit well on my memory. In fact there were a number of completely cringe-worthy moments that you just had to grin and bear.

Vince Vaughn was Vince Vaughn as he always is and there were some superb performances by supporting cast. Kevin Spacey was excellent as the manipulating miser and slightly more Scrooge-like than Fred character. There is a hilarious cameo by Steven Baldwin, in a sibling’s therapy group, where participants explain how they feel living in the shadow of another family member. That did have me cracking up.

It hadn’t occurred to me that perhaps we needed another Santa Claus type movie for Christmas but since a lot of the previous ones are rather outdated and the Tim Allen ones don’t bear thinking about, I am somewhat pleased that this film has been made, despite reluctantly going to see it in the first place.

The soundtrack was put to good use at times but WARNING, just about every Christmas song under the sun is in it, and some, repeated over and over. [Shudder]

Somewhere between Scrooged and Santa Claus The Movie, Fred Claus has the potential to be recognised as a decent Christmas movie for the whole family. If I was ten, I’d watch it again.

by Ian Cook