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Fred Claus
Warner Bros. Pictures


4.5

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 38 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

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:	DVD: November 25, 2008 Theatrical: November 9, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	116 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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...

Premiere Laura Repstad

Silly, heartwarming, and fun.

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.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Deftly blending disrespect and good nature, Fred Claus is a gas.

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.

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.

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.

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Yet another ho-hum family comedy hits screens this weekend -- this one in peppermint holiday flavor.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Empire William Thomas

It creates a seasonal glow, but inconsistencies keep Fred Claus off the ‘Nice’ list this Christmas.

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film isn't just not funny, it is off-putting.

Variety Brian Lowry

Alternates between unpleasantness and Hallmark-sweet sappiness.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Fred Claus is belligerently unfunny.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

This is just plain bad - and it's a surprise.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

Fred Claus is sadly just an early lump of coal under the tree.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
Not the greatest Christmas movie of all time, but surprisingly entertaining. It manages to tow the line of being entertaining for adults while remaining suitable for children.

Sharon gave it a6:
The movie had a weak storyline but was pretty and interesting to look at. The flying sleigh was exciting and real looking and the snow village was beautiful. Vince Vaughan was very good. He just needed a better plot.

Jay H. gave it a5:
Fair Christmas family film, I don't see it destined to be a holiday classic, but it entertains to a degree. Kevin SApacey is wonderfully evil, and there are a couple of very memorable scenes.

Aaron N. gave it a1:
Would it be that sad for this to be comedy and not date? Cause that is where this movie comes by as...

Bentley gave it a1:
Wow, that was a horrible movie. Don't waste your dollars for an obviously-stupid plot and virtually no laughs.

Chad S. gave it a7:
When will it occur to Wanda(Rachel Weisz) that she's dating a man who is eternal, like a vampire? According to the narrator of the origin story, the Claus family stopped aging, and if the Santa Claus myth came of age during the nineteenth century, that makes Fred at least two centuries old. Shackled by the need to deliver a "family-friendly" movie, "Fred Claus" conceals the nefarious side of Nick(Paul Giamatti), who is a vampire in the business sense of the word(sucking the blood of the working class; the elves), and is probably having an affair with Charlene(Elizabeth Banks). When the two brothers engage in a tussle, you'll wish it was fisticuffs, and that edgy actors like Vince Vaughn and Giamatti had the freedom to hurl some expletives instead of snowballs at each other. Santa's toy factory and village is a forced labor camp. "Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus," as the song goes, sounds like a veiled threat. Santa instructs his DJ(Ludacris) to play this song repeatedly because it's used as a form of mind control. Against their will, the elves need to meet their yearly quota. In the Nazi labour camps, women were employed to organize the Jewish children. In this light, take a closer look at Charlene and her control over the "little people"("midget" is a slur, I'm told). Actually, "Fred.

Stan B. gave it a10:
Great holiday movie. The scrooges who are looking for another "It's a Wonderful Life" need to look elsewhere.

Fred Claus Warner Bros. Pictures

Fred Claus
Warner Bros. Pictures