Since it’s never to early to get sick of Christmas, we have the perennial “nasty” holiday movie Fred Claus, starring Vince Vaughan and Paul Giamatti opening this weekend.  If that doesn’t sound preachy or dialogue-heavy enough for you, Robert Redford brings us his take on the war against terrorists with Lions for Lambs, co-starring Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise.
----

Fred Claus is Santa’s deadbeat brother who needs a job and extra money. As played by Vince Vaughan, he also looks like he needs a nap.  Hey Vince, get some concealer for those baggy eyes! 

Jolly old Saint Nick, as played by Paul Giamatti, decides to make Fred work as an elf and earn his keep. How can Fred can be an elf, when he’s soooo tall, you might ask.  Don’t worry because the movie will spend two hours asking that question over and over again with the hope of comic effect.

Vaughan and Giamatti can play dark to maximum comic effect and director David Dobkin and Vaughan have proven commercially successful with Wedding Crashers.  It will be interesting to see them tackle family fare.

Fred Claus is rated PG for mild language and some rude humor.
----

Lions for Lambs tells the stories of characters directly impacted by an incident that occurs during battle in Afghanistan.  Tom Cruise stars and, yes, I know it’s easy to forget he is actually an actor after all of those tabloid hijinks. 

He plays a Republican senator who makes the case for military intervention to a veteran journalist, as played by the classic Meryl Streep.  There’s also another story of a professor, as played by director Robert Redford, who inadvertently convinces two of his students to sign up for duty.

The buzz on the film is that it’s so talky and self-contained that it feels more like a play than a movie.  But watching these three actors work in a minimal setting might be intense enough.

Lions for Lambs is rated R for some war violence and language.