Vince Vaughn decides to take a brave step in the shoes of all the past greats. He follows in the “memorable” steps of Tim Allen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and of course Chevy Chase, in making a little Christmas movie and it almost worked. Their movies may have crashed and burned, but he walks carefully between a cheesy holiday film and a good comedy using his standard charisma and great improvisations to make a decent film. You also have Kevin Spacey and Paul Giamatti along for the ride to give a little star power for this old story of fighting brothers who find the real meaning of Christmas. In this film, even the most annoying person still deserves more than a lump of a coal.

The plot is focused around the lives of Nicolas Claus, better known as Santa (Giamatti), and Fred (Vaughn). Fred has grown tired of his brother’s goody two shoes attitude and his mother’s (Bates) constant nagging that he be more like Nick. He becomes a kind of anti-Santa in the form of a repo man while also involving himself in some shady deals. Of course, Nicholas stays as a true optimist who really is dedicated to being Santa and the responsibility of rewarding every single child who tries to be good.

Their lives mix when Fred is arrested in the middle of the Christmas season. He dressed up as Santa Claus and took donations and put them right in his pocket. He is forced to call Nicholas to make bail, but his brother decides that he needs to work off the debt through labour at the workshop. He just happens to arrive at the same time as Clyde Northcut (Spacey). This character desperately wants to shut down the North Pole and what he sees as an inefficient workshop. Nicholas needs all the help he can get from his little helpers, led by Willie (Higgins) to get past all of his challenges, but Fred just keeps getting in the way. It seems that this may be the last Christmas that Santa can pull together.

The movie focuses on the infighting between the two brothers, which actually serves as a nice distraction from the usual Christmas story. Giamatti does a great job playing a whole new type of Santa. This version has to deal with his weight problems, an annoying wife, and his terrible brother. This change of pace for an on screen Santa was a great change of pace that the genre desperately needed. On the other side of the spectrum, you have Vaughn playing his usual character. He is the arrogant but still loveable friend who has a joke for any occasion. Vaughn steals just about every scene that he is in, but some of the best scenes are when Giamatti and Vaughn play off of each other. This new duo works surprisingly well, even if they’ve had stronger roles in the past. All in all, the two play good parts that add a breath of fresh air to the stale genre of the Christmas film.

Kevin Spacey plays the classic villain by getting in touch with his inner Scrooge. I won’t spoil the motive for his attempts to ruin Christmas, since that is one of the best surprises of the movie, but rest assured that it makes a great counter to the usual Christmas conventions that fill up the big finale. This film also surprised me by having some great little scenes. Vaughn could have easily been in an Elvis biopic with his performances in the musical numbers, which included a full act to “Rubberneckin.” And yes, there were elves involved. What more could you really want. Vaughn even used his “unique” build to full effect with the elves interactions. Seeing a six-foot man teaching an elf to dance and flirt is certainly memorable.

Well, it isn’t going to be a classic and the plots get a little complicated, but it has the laughs of The Wedding Crashers without the flaws present in The Santa Clause or Jingle All The Way. It also has a nice little message about all children deserving a second chance, which is much needed when you can barely watch anything without plenty of judgment against the next generation. If you want a good Christmas movie for the family to enjoy, then this is it. It definitely could have been a lot worse.