The Unseen Movie Review: Fred Claus

By Robert Dixter Nov 9, 2007, 15:22 GMT

A holiday release about Santa’s bitter older brother who is forced to re-locate to the North Pole ...more

Nobody in film right now has a quicker wit or is a great improviser than Vince Vaughn.  His comedic wit is faster than Brett Ratner hitting on his leading lady. 

The only person that even comes close is Robin Williams but he’s too busy making dark indie films or crappy family films.  Watch Wedding Crashers and Old School again and tell me Vince doesn’t steal the spotlight from the main story.  Even watching him berate his news team in Anchorman cracks me up.  It’ s almost as if the sleeping giant from Swingers finally woke up and realized that a) there’s money to be made in comedies and b) people will still think you’re a good actor even if you’re not “stretching”.  He stopped making Return to Paradise, Clay Pigeons and Psycho and started being funny again. 

Now Vince is launching a big budget holiday film (it seems the holiday season starts in early November now, but that’s cool) called Fred Claus about Santa’s brother.  The idea seems pretty funny to me and plays right into Vince’s charm.  It allows him to cut loose and be funny and I’m sure there will be a lot of little people around.  Was this a union thing?  Why does Santa only employ little people?  Snagging Paul Giamatti as Santa just rounds out the perfect casting for this film.

For those of you who have read this column before you know there’s always a complaint.  It seems I can’t get to writing without complaining (go blame my parents for that one) and here it is, this film is rated PG.  Vince’s greatest comedies have always been rated R and that’s been great because it allows him to cut loose no holds barred.  Check out The Break Up again which was PG-13, I think you’ll agree it’s pushing an R rating for language alone.  So does a PG rating mean a controlled and tame Vince Vaughn?  That’s like telling Britney to put on underwear if she’s going out.  Clearly the film is intended to be more of a family picture than the male college crowd that made Old School a hit.  But Vince has spent the past 4 years building a loyal following that has certain expectations from him.  Will he lose the followers in order to bring in the happy family holiday crowd?  I hope not.  I hope Vince is not too watered down in this film, even though holiday films by definition are watered down sappy movies.

Then there’s the streak argument.  Nothing lasts forever and Vince has been riding a pretty decent streak for the past 4 years starring in hit after hit after hit.  At what point does it run out?  Usually when a studio agrees to pay you $20 million up front like they did with Jim Carrey in Cable Guy.  If Vince can ride Fred Claus to $100 million box office he will truly prove that he is the hottest comedic actor right now.