Fred Claus

Vince Vaughn plays the same guy he always plays, the smart-alecky, fast-talking, seemingly insincere hustler who ultimately turns out to be a lovable lug beneath the bravado in Fred Claus. Only this time he does it surrounded by elves and toys with jaunty Christmas music .


And the thing is, the central nugget of an idea behind the movie isn't bad.
Fred Claus, who's spent a lifetime seething in the shadow of his loving, generous younger brother, Nicholas (Giamatti), better known as Santa. Mom (Bates) always liked Nick better.

Fred, however, is thoroughly contemporary. He's a repo man who's not above squabbling with little girls over their personal belongings. Early on, he pretends to be a Salvation Army volunteer just to pilfer dollar bills from the kindhearted holiday shoppers wandering Chicago's streets. (He then gets chased down Michigan Avenue by a dozen angry Santas and ends up being arrested, a foreshadowing of further wacky antics to come.)


Fred arrives at the shiny, shopping mall-style North Pole, much to the dismay of Nick's wife, Annette (Richardson), who thinks he's good for nothing and immediately stirs things up just as Spacey's stern, bespectacled character, Clyde Northcutt, shows up to evaluate the operation's productivity with an eye to shutting the place down.