‘Claus’ naughty, not nice

In theaters

FRED CLAUS, directed by David Dobkin, written by Dan Fogelman, 114 minutes, rated PG.

The new David Dobkin movie, “Fred Claus,” serves audiences one lukewarm cup of holiday cheer.

It’s reindeer roadkill, a movie filled with stale jokes and rote storytelling that nevertheless attracted an A-list cast, three of whom have won Academy Awards, two of whom have been nominated for said awards, and all of whom might just be pod people because it’s difficult to believe that they agreed to do any of this.

Tell me, how do you suppose the film’s producers got Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Kathy Bates, Rachel Weisz and Kevin Spacey to sign onto this thing? Was it just the money they laid down (probably), or did the actors think that because Academy Award-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton pulled off “Bad Santa,” perhaps they also could do the same for “Fred Claus”? The movie, after all, stars Vince Vaughn in the lead. Maybe they thought it would be crude and kooky, but in a good way.

It isn’t.

Whatever the case, “Fred Claus” is day-old nog, with screenwriter Dan Fogelman taking the slimmest of premises and bloating it into a film that offers nearly two hours of comedic tedium. There are laughs here, but too many either are derivative or fall flat. Worse, you’ll find yourself waiting long stretches for each good joke to hit.

The film stars Vince Vaughn doing his best Vince Vaughn as Fred Claus, brother to Nicholas (Giamatti), aka Santa, whose fame and stature in the worldwide community has turned Fred into something of a grouch and a grinch.

He’s a schmuck of the first order, so embittered by the fame, adoration and sainthood his brother has achieved, he has gone the other way. Saddled with debt and stuck in jail, Fred finds himself in the sort of pinch that necessitates him going to the North Pole to help out the big guy for the big night of gift giving. This displeases his girlfriend (Weisz) and Mrs. Claus (Richardson), allows for his mother (Bates) to belittle him, smoothes the way for Kevin Spacey’s mean-spirited efficiency expert, Clyde, to try to undo him, and also allows for the two brothers to come to terms.

This is, after all, a family movie with redemption on its mind, which it unleashes in big piles of forced sentiment at the end.

To be fair to the movie, production values are appropriately garish, John Michael Higgins’ head does fine work while superimposed on a little person’s body, and there is one sly scene that hints at the sharp, inspired movie “Fred Claus” could have been. It involves appearances by Roger Clinton, Stephen Baldwin and Frank Stallone all bemoaning their fates at being siblings to more famous brothers. The scene has an edge, it’s funny and it comes close to the dark truth about brotherly rivalry that “Fred Claus” courts, but which it doesn’t have the guts to fully skewer and explore.

Grade: C-

On DVD and HD DVD

HAIRSPRAY, directed by Adam Shankman, written by Leslie Dixon, 115 minutes, rated PG.

Adam Shankman’s “Hairspray” is one of the year’s best comedies, which is a surprise given that Shankman directed “The Pacifier” and “Cheaper by the Dozen 2,” each of which put a flop in the box office’s flip.

Not so with “Hairspray.” Based on the hit Broadway show by way of John Water’s 1988 camp classic movie, the film is expertly conceived, fun and infectious. If you need a good laugh, this is your movie.

In the lead is newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, the impossibly perky, plus-sized Baltimore lass whose beaming naivete, as well as her bottomless openness and kindness, are about be challenged. The film is set in 1962, with the country still coming to terms with the ramifications of segregation and integration. Those are serious subjects to explore, so it’s to the movie’s credit that it manages to make you feel just how serious without sacrificing the film’s mischief and fun.

Chief demon in the proceedings is Michelle Pfeiffer’s Velma Von Tussle, a vicious television station manager (is there another kind?) who will stop at nothing to make sure that her miserable daughter, Amber (Brittany Snow), wins the upcoming Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant.

Velma also is working to rid her station’s hugely popular dance show, “The Corny Collins Show,” of its Negro Day, in which Baltimore’s black youth are given one day a month for their own televised dance show. As far as Velma sees it, keeping the station white also will keep it clean, and this whole Negro Day business hardly is doing the job.

So, yes, we despise her, so much so that when this racist gets hers, as you know she must when Tracy joins her black friends and Motormouth Maybell (Queen Latifah) in an effort to make “Negro Day every day,” it’s one undoing that’s deliciously handled and deserved.

Having seen the Broadway show with the original cast, it’s hard not to miss Harvey Fierstein as Tracy’s robust mother, Edna, a large-sized laundress hooked on food and saddled with self-esteem issues. Likewise for Divine, who was Edna in the original movie. But John Travolta, who assumes the foam padding this time around, can’t be dismissed.

His Edna is sweet, soft-spoken and shy, with the actor playing the part with barely a wink that it’s John Travolta under all that makeup. As such, for purists, this particular man in the fat suit might not suit, but for mainstream audiences, for whom the movie is targeted, Travolta likely will win over plenty.

Grade: A-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of BDN film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.