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Fred Claus
Warner Bros. Pictures

Fred Claus reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 42 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
4.2 out of 10
based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 34 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG for mild language and some rude humor

Starring Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Kevin Spacey, Kathy Bates, Rachel Weisz, John Michael Higgins, and Ludacris

Fred Claus has lived almost his entire life in his little brother's very large shadow. Fred tried, but he could never live up to the example set by the younger Nicholas, who was just a perfect...well...Saint. True to form, Nicholas grew up to be the model of giving, while Fred became the polar opposite: a repo man who then steals what he repossesses. Now Fred's dirty dealings have landed him in jail. Over Mrs. Claus' objections, Nicholas agrees to bail out his big brother on one condition: that he come to the North Pole and work off his debt making toys. The trouble is, Fred isn't exactly elf material--and with Christmas fast approaching, this one bad seed could jeopardize the jolliest holiday of the year. Has Fred finally pushed his little brother to the brink? This time, what Fred may have stolen is Christmas itself, and it's going to take more than Rudolph to set things right. (Warner Bros.)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Dan Fogelman (& story)
Jessie Nelson (story)
 
DIRECTED BY: David Dobkin  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: November 9, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Premiere Laura Repstad
Silly, heartwarming, and fun.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer
Overall the movie is a mess, with a mixed-up mythology at its core. It may not be a new holiday classic, but at least it's funny.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Fred Claus sells you something you didn't know you wanted: a Vince Vaughn Christmas movie. Vaughn is not the hook. Neither is the holiday. The script, by Dan Fogelman, is smarter than that.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
The sweetest thing about Fred Claus is that the message about filial love feels genuine. I wouldn't have expected that watching Giamatti tell Vaughn, "You're the best big brother anyone could ask for," would make me choke up, but it did.
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70
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Deftly blending disrespect and good nature, Fred Claus is a gas.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Sid Smith
Fred Claus seems a clever installment, not a seasonal classic, a buffet whose many nibbles you sample, move on and quickly forget.
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50
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie wants to be good-hearted but is somehow sort of grudging. It should have gone all the way. I think Fred Claus should have been meaner if he was going to be funnier, and Santa should have been up to something nefarious, instead of the jolly old ho-ho-ho routine.
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50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Fred Claus is less enchanting than the 2003 fairy tale, "Elf" (which was directed by Vaughn's good buddy, Jon Favreau), but no worse than the inexplicably popular Tim Allen series.
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50
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Leave it to Giamatti to bring gravitas to the fat guy in the red suit; he's naturally the straight man in the sibling duo, but whenever Fred Claus goes for the heartstrings, he's the only one capable of plucking in tune.
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50
USA Today Claudia Puig
Yet another ho-hum family comedy hits screens this weekend -- this one in peppermint holiday flavor.
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50
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Fred Claus does feature some very nicely groomed reindeer, a far cry from those patchy, depressed-looking creatures you see every holiday season at the petting zoo. They're prancing and dancing as fast as they can, but they can't pull Fred Claus from the rut it's in.
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50
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Neither here nor there, the film is “Elf” without the goofy jokes, Will Ferrell or heart, “Bad Santa” without the smut, Billy Bob Thornton or spleen.
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50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Like so many secular, big-studio Christmas comedies, this isn't naughty enough to be funny or nice enough to be uplifting; it's just an ugly sweater from a distant relative, thoughtlessly sent and destined to be thrown away.
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50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
As for Vaughn, he seems exhausted by his strenuous efforts to bring a few sparks of spontaneity to such an overcalculated Christmas product.
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50
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Freely mixing reality therapy, fairy tale and satire, Dobkin's film does not maintain a consistent tone. Is it a seriocomedy about brothers who need to work on unfinished business? Is it a holiday fable about a Scrooge who comes to surf the yuletide? Is it a satire in which an efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) puts pressure on St. Nick to outsource gift allocation and distribution?
Read Full Review
50
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The surprisingly puny haul comes from the jolly, usually sparkling comedy workshop of David Dobkin, who directed "Wedding Crashers," and Dan Fogelman, who wrote "Cars" -- two great movies that both make better stocking stuffers.
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50
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The movie has a terrible premise compounded by a lame script and the miscasting of its surfeit of talented stars. You have to wonder why Dobkin, whose last film was the hilariously raunchy "Wedding Crashers," would be attracted to this tame material.
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40
Time Richard Corliss
The movie is less ho-ho-ho than uh-oh, or oh-no. Emitting a stale odor from the first reel, Fred never engaged the audience of kids and adults that I saw it with.
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40
Empire William Thomas
It creates a seasonal glow, but inconsistencies keep Fred Claus off the ‘Nice’ list this Christmas.
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40
Village Voice Michelle Orange
The exceptional cast--Vaughn, Giamatti, Kathy Bates, Kevin Spacey, Rachel Weisz--is an embarrassment of riches for a script this thin and this beholden to family-fare protocol, with its mushy-minded moral and slick sentimentality.
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40
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The film isn't just not funny, it is off-putting.
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40
Variety Brian Lowry
Alternates between unpleasantness and Hallmark-sweet sappiness.
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38
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The story vacillates between broad, kid-friendly gags and a series of oddly sour riffs on the theme of adult sibling rivalry.
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38
Miami Herald Carla Meyer
A lackluster holiday-theme comedy featuring production design half a notch above a snow globe and a star who doesn't so much act as revive a well-worn persona.
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33
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Is there anything more pathetic than a movie that will do anything for a laugh or a tear that doesn't get any laughs or tears?
Read Full Review
33
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Few things are more dispiriting than a holiday movie straining to become a perennial. Such is the case with Fred Claus, an insipid Christmas comedy.
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30
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Vaughn's con-man jive doesn't get much play in this one; he spends most of his time as a bitter creep, and the writing (by Dan Fogelman) isn't sharp enough to make the hipster-at-the-North-Pole theme pay off in any meaningful way.
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30
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Fred Claus is belligerently unfunny.
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25
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
This is just plain bad - and it's a surprise.
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20
Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton
Fred Claus is sadly just an early lump of coal under the tree.
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12
New York Post Kyle Smith
Not like a lump of coal in your stocking. Coal is useful; you can burn it. This movie is more like a lump of something Blitzen left behind after eating a lot of Mexican food.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 4.2 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Anonymous gave it a1:
Terrible movie, storyline is stupid. Please, go see something other than Fred Claus.

Grim M. gave it a3:
This film only generated a few laughs and the rest was a so-so story that wasn't very interesting. The movie didn't capitalize on what makes Vince Vaughn hysterical in other comedy's like Dodgeball or Old School.

Lina gave it a0:
Horrible movie-boring-don't waste your money.

[Anonymous] gave it a5:
It was good, yet sad (my 8-year old daughter).

Matt D gave it a4:
I enjoyed this slightly more than I expected, but overall this is exactly what I feared - "Elf" with less heart and less humor.

Cory S. gave it a1:
Stupid for both kids and parents!We left the theatre after 25 min.

Brooke V. gave it a6:
I really enjoy Vince Vaughn's humor and I think it still had it's heartwarming touch. There were some parts that sort of annoyed me ( stupid sound effects) yet there were more that made me smile.

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