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What could have possessed David Dobkin and Vince Vaughn, the director and star team of the riotously silly Wedding Crashers, to create such an unfunny, sentimental and tame comedy like Fred Claus? With its PG rating and only mildly suggestive rude humor, this film barely got chuckles out of my viewing audience. And what is so funny about the name Fred? Fred Flintstone, Fred Rogers, Fredo Corleone… funny?

In Fred Claus, Vince Vaughn plays another of his likable, stereotypical Chicago bachelors who has a new scheme every other day and a lovely girlfriend, (this time played by Rachel Weisz) who can’t seem to reject his nonsense and find someone more honest and dependable. Quick back story, Fred Claus is a tale of sibling rivalry and jealousy. Vaughn is Fred Claus, the bitter older brother of Nick “Santa”. His parents only favored and encouraged in his corpulent brother’s philanthropic enterprises and never in Fred’s. When Fred gets into financial difficulties, he places a mercy call to the North Pole and Nick reluctantly offers him a short seasonal job to help cover a loan.

Where this initially seems like an interesting premise and twist on the tradition Christmas story, Dobkin and writer Dan Fogelman’s narrative never captures a funny rhythm. Scenes fall flat: Santa’s ninja body guard elves attack Fred when he arrives, a rollicking sibling fight on a out-of-control snow mobile and Fred buried in a mountain of files of children’s Christmas wishes all seem lame. Sentimentality kicks in too when Fred tries saving a cynical, orphaned Chicago boy and grant him his Christmas wish of a puppy. The only funny bits occur in a Siblings Anonymous therapy session where Fred listens to the even worse experiences of Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton and Steven Baldwin, who anguish over their brothers, Sylvester, Bill and Alec.

And talk about wasting creative acting talent of past Oscar winners and nominees. Paul Giamatti, is trapped in the completely one dimensionally bland performance as Santa. Kevin Spacey’s Clyde, the mean spirited efficiency expert who plans to hand Santa a pink slip for gross managerial inefficiencies, is a stock comic book villain. Miranda Richardson and Kathy Bates, who appear as Santa’s dutiful spouse and mother respectively, are barely noticed. Fred Claus is no holiday treat.