Note to self: never make promises. Especially ones that involve a time frame. Sorry for taking so long, but I have been incredibly lazy. Well, there was exams for a while, but for the past month or so I've just been sitting around not doing much. It's been quite enjoyable. So, anyway, you may have noticed that Christmas is coming up. Woohoo!! I love Christmas, and I'm not ashamed of it. Despite how commercial and crazy it has become. I love the food, the tree, the gathering of people to share presents with each other, the presents themselves. And of course, I absolutely adore Christmas movies. Although I do think that some are worse than others. Let's see where this one lies.
Fred Claus (Vince Vaughn) is Santa's (Paul Giamatti) lesser known older brother. Throughout the years, he has become resentful of what his brother has become, and the two siblings have grown apart. When Fred needs to borrow money, he and Santa come up with a deal where Fred will help out with the massive backlog of work at the North Pole then he will give him the money he needs. However, because of the work problems Santa has hired an efficiency expert, Clyde (Kevin Spacey) to help him with the holiday rush. But Clyde seems to have some ulterior motives as to why he is actually there.
Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way first. I don't think Vince Vaughn is a particularly good actor. Mainly because he's been the same character in everything I've seen him in, this included. I also don't really think that he's that funny either. All he does is talk so fast in the hopes that something he says is humorous. And he's the second worst part of this film. The worst part of this film is the atrocious special effects. I'm fairly certain that manipulating an actors face onto a dwarf's body is not the best way to create characters. Couldn't they just get actors that were dwarves to play the elves? No sense is made!
Anyway, back to Vince Vaughn, this isn't the worse thing I've seen in him but it isn't the best. It's just kinda in the middle. But the rest of the cast is pretty good, especially Paul Giamatti as a version of Santa who tries too hard to please everyone. He almost cripples himself to get everything done, and Paul Giamatti expresses the frustration he feels towards the situation that he has found himself in. Kevin Spacey is having fun being slimey and evil, and it's nice to see actors like Miranda Richardson and Trevor Peacock turn up in holiday movies. Though I wish both of them had bigger roles.
The film also has some different ideas that I haven't seen yet in a film surrounding the Christmas mythos, namely the whole 'naughty or nice' thing. It's nice to see a film admit that the world isn't black and white, and that kids behaviour is cannot simply be put into two groups without looking at their reasons or backgrounds. So, that part was interesting. But in terms of actual plot, the rest is very predictable. There's even a love interest in the form of Rachel Weisz. Yes, this film, despite some interesting themes and a good cast, is incredibly mediocre. Though I will say that the second half is so much better than the first half. I found the first half almost unwatchable, it was pure Vince Vaughn insufferability.
So, would I recommend this? Well, if you're doing something else this isn't bad background noise. That's about the best I can say for it. Although, to tell the truth I only wanted to watch because of Kevin Spacey. He's totally worth it, if you skip the rest of the film that he isn't in. Other than that, it's just kinda meh. I'd give it a skip if you like good comedy. Though if you like Vince Vaughn, you'll probably like this.
Yeah, that's about it for this review. I would give a rough estimate of when I'm next going to post, but we all know I'm not going to stick to any schedule. I'm a rebel like that. So, in case I don't write anything else before the end of the year, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz. Until next time, readers.
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