Fred Claus (2007)

Fred Claus, Santa's bitter older brother, is forced to move to the North Pole to help Santa and the elves prepare for Christmas in exchange for cash.

Director:

David Dobkin

Writers:

Dan Fogelman (screenplay), Jessie Nelson (story)

Stars:

Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth Banks

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vince Vaughn	...	Fred Claus
Paul Giamatti	...	Nick 'Santa' Claus
John Michael Higgins	...	Willie
Miranda Richardson	...	Annette Claus
Rachel Weisz	...	Wanda
Kathy Bates	...	Mother Claus
Trevor Peacock	...	Papa Claus
Ludacris	...	DJ Donnie (as Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges)
Elizabeth Banks	...	Charlene
Jeremy Swift	...	Bob Elf
Elizabeth Berrington	...	Linda Elf
Kevin Spacey	...	Clyde
Rio Hackford	...	Leon
Bobb'e J. Thompson	...	Samuel 'Slam' Gibbons
Allan Corduner	...	Dr. Goldfarb

Storyline

During childhood, Fred Claus suffered his younger brother Nick's saintliness. Jump ahead: Fred is a fast-talking, genial but self-centered guy in Chicago looking for $50,000 to open an off-track-betting shop. When one scam goes awry, he calls Nick at the North Pole for a loan: Nick will give him the money only if Fred comes up to help a few days with the Christmas rush. After his girlfriend dumps him, Fred heads north. Santa's facing an audit from an efficiency expert, and it's not pleasant. Fred's job is to review charts and determine who's naughty and who's nice. Is there any fraternal feeling left, can either learn from the other, and what about Santa getting fired?

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Plot Keywords:

close up of eyes | north pole | efficiency expert | christmas | cape the garment | 

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Taglines:

Everybody has that one relative who can't help but cause problems over the holidays. Even Santa.

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for mild language and some rude humor

Details

Official Sites:

Official UK DVD & Blu Ray site Warner Bros [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 November 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Vince Vaughn/David Dobkin Project

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,515,473, 2 November 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$72,006,777

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$97,838,349

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.,Silver Pictures,David Dobkin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Release prints were shipped to some theaters under the fake title "Brotherly Love".

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Goofs

After Northcutt kills the power, and Fred and Willy are "flying blind", Willy consults a map and says they're near "longitude 38.25..." and shouts for Fred to "take a left!" When Fred takes the left turn, they're in Tokyo. The Longitude of Tokyo is 139 degrees, 46 minutes East. 38.25 East is the Longitude of Matui, Tanzania.

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Quotes

Fred Claus: You're gonna get hooked on that thing. I can see it now. Sixteen thousand bags of Cheetos later, you'll wake up, you're thirty-five, you're overweight, you're crying about your life in front of the soaps. I just did you a favor. You get outside, play around, make some friends, play kick the can, do some athletic stuff, go to school, you're comfortable enough to play sports, you get a partial scholarship, you got any ethnic in your background, any ethnicity in your background? I bet you do. It's...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The opening logos are covered in snow and Christmas tree lights.

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Connections

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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Soundtracks

Kids Miss the Old Life
from Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
Written by Christophe Beck
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

User Reviews

Very Underrated movie

I have to be honest, when this movie came out I wasn't very keen on seeing this movie, even though it had Vince in the lead whose comedy i really like, it was the whole premise of the movie which was putting me off and reading the reviews did not help either because they were not doing the movie any justice. Now finally after a good 8 or 9 months of the films theatrical release, I happened to get it on DVD and boy was I surprised. This film is not your average Vince Vaughn comedy film with lots of slick lines, it has a very few of those, I think this was marketed a little bit vaguely because it certainly is not a comedy but it is a good drama/family movie with quite a lot of heart and especially if you have a brother, watch this movie it wont change your life or anything but for those 2 hours it will make you feel good about yourself.