Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Fred Claus

Trailers (Opens 11/9)
Every Holiday season a new movie comes along to revolutionize the way you think about things you never think about. This year, that movie is Fred Claus.

You have heard the plot before. This is the brother you never knew about, and now that you know, nothing will be the same. I like to call it the Rain Man formula. It goes something like this:
1.) Team up two well-established actors: Dustin Hoffman with Tom Cruise or Paul Giamatti with Vince Vaughn.
2.) Give the secret brother a special talent: Card counting or being absolutely hilarious.
3.) Have them struggle to understand each other: Winning money and dancing together or having hilarious snow ball fights where people get hit in the face.
These three things all add up to movie gold! I walked away from Rain Man and I actually thought Dustin Hoffman was autistic. You will walk away from Fred Claus and actually think Vince Vaughn is retarded.

On to the trailer…..

It opens with a voiceover that announces that Christmas is the time to rekindle the love between family members. This hits me in kind of a softspot because it makes me think of the Christmas that my Uncle came over, drank too much eggnog and tried to go home for the night with one of my cousins.

Santa and Fred go on to have some cute banter about their mother and Rudolph. This part reminds me a little bit of a Vagisil commercial because I don’t really care. Where is the humor? Where is the excitement? Ah, here it is, in the not-at-all-exploiting-midgets scene where Vince Vaughn has his face repeatedly pounded into the snow by ninja-secret-service-elves:

Fred goes on to ruin Christmas for kids around the world (another plot that has never been examined), but perseveres to save it for none other than the children of the world.

Along the way we have elves dancing


Hot girls in Santa costumes fainting

Kevin Spacey trying to cancel Christmas


Kathy Bates acting as an eccentric mother (ring any sleigh bells anyone?)

and general tom- foolery.

At the end of the trailer WB tries to appeal to the Wedding Crashers fans by telling the audience that it is directed by the same people. Yup, basically it is Wedding Crashers if you took out the bad language, sex, weddings, and funny parts.

Ah, but don’t worry Vince Vaughn, they made a Santa Claus 1, 2, and 3 with Tim Allen, so your franchise is just beginning!



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