it always tough have a sibling do well in their life than you and always a struggle to get out from under that shadow and not let bitterness keep you away from your family . so and imagine that your old brother be santa and then imagine how tough that must be . that the premise here . vince vaughn play the titular fred and an embitter loser who spend a lot of his energy making sure that people do not go around expect good thing to happen to them or give his brother and santa ( play by paul giamatti ) and too much praise for simply be the limelight hogging and fame hungry and slightly creepy guy that fred would want to portray him as . then and wouldn not you know it and fred need a financial favour and so have to make up for it by help his brother on the run up to christmas . and hilarity and life lesson ensue . well and that what should happen . the reality be that we get a christmas movie feature a few good moment of vaughn patent fast talk and a ridiculously out of nowhere music video moment and kevin spacey play an auditor out to close down santa operation ( and he one of the weak baddie i have see in some time ) and not enough of the gorgeous elizabeth bank in a lush christmas outfit and too much of john michael higgins in his elf outfit ( to be fair and he a highlight though ) and a movie that too swim in bitterness to feel like good seasonal fare yet too schmaltzy in it latter half to feel like a fun poke at all the bad thing about the commercialism of the time . rachel weisz be along for the ride too and as be kathy bates and but it really nothing more than a movie for vaughn and if you like his style you will find something to enjoy here . unfortunately and there very little else to recommend this seasonal stinker . outside of vaughn ranting the script barely throw up anything decent with the exception of one particularly good scene involve a hilarious support group deal with a very specific problem . david dobkin direction be a mediocre and staid a the 20p christmas card that you send the auntie you haven not see in 10 year and he seem to think that simply put the ingredient together without a good mix or decent care take will guarantee a delicious christmas pudding . nope and we get a burnt and bland lump with too much sugar on top . forget this and stick the hilarious elf on again if you want a great and modern christmas comedy . see this if you like represent the santa clause 2 and santa baby and the santa clause 3 represent the escape clause .