November25

Holiday Edition BMN: Fred Claus

When you’re packing up and heading to eat turkey with the family, it must be holiday season. Unfortunately, it must be tradition season as well. And in my family, at least for Thanksgiving, it’s quickly becoming tradition to go see a bad movie after we’re stuffed to the gills (case in point 2005, case in point 2006).

This year’s stinker was something that I predicted we would be seeing, two weeks before Thanksgiving. Ashlee didn’t believe me. She’s extremely sad that I wasn’t wrong, because we saw one of her favorite actors in a truly bad movie – “Fred Claus,”

Vince Vaughn in a bad movie? Can it be true? As Rotten Tomatoes puts it:

“A slew of talent is wasted in this contrived Christmas film.”

It’s very true. Just look at the cast:

• Vince Vaughn – hilarious ad-libber
• Paul Giamatti – Oscar-nominated actor
• Rachel Weisz – Oscar-winner
• Kathy Bates – Oscar-winner
• Kevin Spacey – Two-time Oscar-winner
• Elizabeth Banks – Parker Posey lookalike
• Ludacris – Uh, nevermind

But really, how can you lose with that cast? Here’s how.

Vince Vaughn doesn’t equal PG-family comedy gold
Vaughn was his usual rambling self, but needed to be his usual cussing rambling self. He was the focal point here and as Santa’s brother, had a lot of pent up anger. Vaughn is funniest when he’s a sarcastic cussing a-hole. Don’t censor him.

Fish outta water jokes only go so far
Raise your hand if you’ve seen a tall person in a small bed? Or how about the one where a tall man has to pee in a small yernal? Been there, done that. How else can you be lame?

Sound effects
When your movie is lacking in over-the-top kid humor, the one thing that should magically fix it is crappy sound effects used very sparingly. To see what kind of sound effects I refer to, check out the main movie page.

Secret Service-like ninja elves
Do I need to say more?

So yes, another year, another tradition fulfilled. Here’s looking to Christmas.

+ original post date: November 25, 2007 03:35 PM
+ categories: Bad Movie Night, Family/Friends, Holidays, NaBloPoMo