After Wedding Crashers (2005), director David Dobkin and Vince Vaughn rejoin in this early holiday, family-fest movie. But unlike the crazy success of Wedding Crashers, Fred Claus is a simple and predictable story. As long as your expectations are low, I’d recommend this movie.

Fred reveals the truth about Santa Claus’ family. Sure, Santa is clearly a saint—but what about his family? The birth of Santa, also known as Nicholas Claus (Paul Giamatti from Sideways [2004]), is told through the eyes of his older brother Frederick (Vince Vaughn from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story [2004]), who genuinely shows love for his baby brother. But as they both grow up, their parents begin to clearly play favorites . . . toward Nicholas who’s love and kindness toward everyone overshadows any good deed that Frederick displays. After a while, Frederick harbors resentment toward his entire family, and develops into a moody, modern-day Grinch.

While Nicholas moves to the North Pole and devotes his entire life to the spirit of Christmas, Fred becomes almost the exact opposite, a repo man in Chicago who collects from overextended customers. He then resorts to crime when desperate for money to open a downtown casino. While in prison, Fred has no other option but to call his brother for bail. Nicholas agrees to pay Fred in exchange for helping him in the North Pole during the busy season.

I remember viewing the teaser trailer for Fred Claus a few weeks before the film opened. It truly looked like a promising story, seeing Vince Vaughn and a Santa-dressed Paul Giamatti bicker on the couch. They naturally looked like two normal brothers talking, only one happened to be Santa Claus. But the movie is so much different than the trailer. The story and the comedy just seemed forced.

There’s plenty of physical comedy for kids to enjoy, but maybe a little too much for adults. As I watched a dozen charity-collecting Santas chase after Fred in the middle of the Chicago streets, I knew this was going to be a ridiculous story. And the great casting is also wasted with a simple comedy like this one.

Golden Globe nominee Paul Giamatti plays Santa Claus, an appropriate role for Giamatti’s soft-hearted demeanor. But there aren’t enough of the actor’s eccentricities and famous facial expressions to make his representation of Santa Claus interesting. Maybe it’s the beard that’s concealing everything.

Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey is terrifically cast as the distrustful efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt who’s determined to shut Santa’s operation down. Spacey’s mischievous, but still strange maliciousness carries across to the audience well. But even with these great actors, their roles are limited. With a big budget film like this, Fred Claus should be better and funnier than this.

I’d say the funniest part was the “Recovering Siblings” group meeting that Fred attended to express his frustration with constantly living in the shadow of his famous brother. Cameos in this scene of “recovering siblings” were hilarious—Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton and Stephen Baldwin. What they have to say is truly eye-opening.

Kristin’s Grade: C-
Director: David Dobkin
Screenwriters: Dan Fogelman and Jessie Nelson
Genre: Comedy / Family
Running Time: 114 minutes
Rated: PG (for mild language and rude humor)