FRED CLAUS — ** — Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Spacey; rated PG (violence, vulgarity, mild profanity)

"Fred Claus" wants to be both naughty and nice — and still get some sort of present.

There are a couple of things here that are a little too rude and crude for a PG-rated film, and the movie's redemptive moments at the end don't seem particularly genuine.

And this comedy — which is more than a little reminiscent of Tim Allen's "Santa Clause" franchise — is nearly two hours, overstaying its welcome by at least 20 minutes.

Ultimately, your level of enjoyment of this so-so comedy may depend on how you feel about motor-mouthed Vince Vaughn. He stars as the title character, the black-sheep older brother of Nicholas Claus, aka Santa (Paul Giamatti).

Fred has recently run afoul of the law and has asked Santa to bail him out of jail — and to spot him $50,000 for a "business opportunity."

Surprisingly, Santa agrees, though the loan comes with a price — Fred must spend the Christmas holidays working for the toy-manufacturing operation at the North Pole. As you might expect, Fred slacks off and even organizes some elf misbehavior.

And as it turns out, his antics couldn't come at a worse time. An overzealous efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) has come to oversee, and perhaps close down, Santa's business if he doesn't like what he sees.

The brotherly squabbles between Vaughn and Giamatti fuel the movie's best moments, though a romance subplot involving Vaughn and Rachel Weisz does have some charm.

It doesn't help that director David Dobkins has overpopulated his film with too many characters. A subplot about the relationship between an elf (John Michael Higgins) and Santa's assistant (Elizabeth Banks) is cute but unnecessary. Likewise, a gag featuring a support group for underachieving siblings — Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton, Stephen Baldwin — doesn't really come to much.

That leaves precious little time for such talented people as Kathy Bates and Miranda Richardson, as Santa's mother and wife, respectively.

"Fred Claus" is rated PG for slapstick violence (pratfalls, brawling, snowball fights and vehicular mayhem), a few vulgar gags (including toilet humor and sexual references), and scattered mild profanity (mostly religiously based). Running time: 114 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com