Movie Review by Perry Pannu:

Fred Claus
In Theatres Today

Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti star as the Claus brothers in this holiday flick. With Giamatti playing jolly old Saint Nick, you can guess which one was the underdog in the family. But as the narrator says at the beginning of the film, this isn’t a story about Santa, it’s a story about the lesser-known Fred.

There’s not a heck of a lot to say about the progression of the storylines. There are some that they leave for a while, but which are eventually resolved. What you should be watching out for are the brilliant cameos by Stephen Baldwin, Roger Clinton and Frank Stallone, who play themselves. Their humour is likely more to the taste of the grown-ups in the audience but if parents have to take their youngens to a PG movie, there should at least be something for them to look forward to.

Most impressive are the special effects that transformed Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges into an elf. I know everyone seems pint-sized when standing next to the giant of a man Vaughn (who towers at 6’5” or 1.96 m in real life), but Ludacris genuinely looked like an elf. Other big names include Kathy Bates as Mother Claus, Rachel Weisz as Fred’s girlfriend and, Kevin Spacey as ‘the bad guy.’ With one villainous role already under his belt (Lex Luthor in Superman Returns, Spacey may have found his true calling. Is this the beginning of a trend in roles for this experienced actor? We’ll just have to wait and see.

To be honest, you have to be in the right mood to see this film. If you go to the theatre expecting to see the Vaughn from Wedding Crashers, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. But if you buy a ticket expecting to see him just being his funny self, you’ll bound to love it. Grant him some leniency here folks. He’s in a ‘family friendly’ movie so the potty mouth isn’t there, and don’t be lookin’ to see a lot of skin. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t be funny. He still does that keeps-talking-to-make-things-better-but-overtalks-and-makes-things-worse thing that he does so well. I suggest that you don’t even unwrap your ‘Elf’ DVD this year and just take your whole family to see this movie when you feel like getting into the festive mood. On the whole, I’m glad there is another Christmas movie to choose from this season, but A Christmas Story is still my ultimate #1 Christmas movie pick.