In that story, there seems to be something quite different: a man named Fred Claus, the older brother Santa Marier, is forced to move to the Arctic to help his brother a few days. It may be quite different in that exciting region. Perhaps in the end they are trying to review the charts and clearly define the course of each.
There are some scattered big laughs and a sweet message here, so I'm giving it a mild recommendation.
Watertown Daily Times
May 20, 2008
Vaughn's act may be toned down a bit, but he still plays the same fast-talking, quip-spouting arrogant schmuck that he usually does, and it wears thin real fast.
As derivative and predictable as any of the holiday comedies of the past few years, providing audiences with at best a handful of laughs. Most of it is uninspired.
Rather than creating imaginative situations for Vaughn to explore, director David Dobkin merely asks that Vaughn be himself, as if his personality were big enough to wring humor out of a comic vacuum.
ComingSoon.net
March 22, 2011
Fred Claus will never go down in history as a holiday classic, or even one of Vaughn's better known films, but a sterling cast lifts up what could have been easy mediocrity.
Dobkin's film is lit up by a couple of genius scenes: first, a siblings support-group attended by Frank Stallone, Stephen Baldwin and Roger Clinton; second, a superb in-joke triggering Spacey's redemptive thaw-out, stoking a festive glow against the odds.
