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Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 46 Ratings

  • Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti, Vince Vaughn
  • Summary: 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.) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 31
  2. Negative: 9 out of 31
  1. 75
    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.
  2. 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.
  3. 50
    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.
  4. Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    38
    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.

See all 31 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 26
  2. Negative: 11 out of 26
  1. StanB.
    10
    Great holiday movie. The scrooges who are looking for another "It's a Wonderful Life" need to look elsewhere.
  2. RebeccaP.
    8
    I loved this movie! It was predictable, but really gave out a good meaning of Christmas! I watched this with my 10 year old daughter and she was laughing the whole time! I did not think it was that funny, but she sure did! Bring your children to this, and enjoy a heart warming movie! Anyone who disliked this story that was there opinion, but this is mine! I know you will all have different opinions, but the best thing i look for while watching a movie with my family, is seeing my children happy! that is what Christmas is all about! My son who is 14 said it was good! I was happy to hear that cause since he is a teenager, he doesn't like going any where with us, but we all personally enjoyed it! Expand
  3. ChadS.
    7
    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. Expand
  4. MattD
    4
    I enjoyed this slightly more than I expected, but overall this is exactly what I feared - "Elf" with less heart and less humor.

See all 26 User Reviews

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