By all accounts, it wasn’t that funny the first time.
But Hollywood loves a moneymaker, and the first Cheaper By The Dozen in 2003 — actually an updated remake of the 1970 film starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy — apparently raked in about $190 million at the box office.
So Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt are back, reviving their roles as superbreeders Tom and Kate Baker in Cheaper By The Dozen 2, shot in and around Toronto earlier this summer.
This time, however, the couple’s 12 children are either growing up too fast or leaving home. The oldest pregnant daughter Nora (Piper Perabo) is moving to Houston with her annoying husband (Jonathan Bennett), who is prone to feeding her organic food or reading to their unborn child when he isn’t on his cellphone, while humourless second-eldest daughter Lorraine (Hilary Duff) is going to study fashion in New York City.
The Bakers’ empty nest syndrome leads them to organize one last family summer vacation trip together at a beloved cabin on Lake Winnetka, Wisconsin.
But once the brood arrives, reality sets in as their rustic, paint-peeling cabin with a falling-apart dock clearly isn’t what it once was. Its dilapidated state is only reinforced by the palatial estate across the lake called The Boulders.
Living inside the ridiculously large compound are obnoxious developer Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy), his much-younger fourth wife Sarina (Carmen Electra) and his well-educated, over-achieving eight children, who he forces to read and write for two hours every day.
The well-organized Murtaugh clan is in stark contrast to the Baker’s dozen, who spend their first minutes inside their cabin chasing a rat they’ve nicknamed The Chiseler.
Turns out too, that Martin and Levy are childhood rivals, which only fuels the long-standing family competition on the lake known as the Labour Day Cup.
Unfortunately, this family comedy doesn’t live up to its promising premise due to an unfunny script by Sam Harper, whose credits include the first Cheaper movie and Just Married, and sloppy direction from Adam Shankman, who helmed the Martin/Levy comedy Bringing Down The House.
It seems like Shankman lost control of Martin and Levy, who are normally two of the most consistently funny men on screen.
Only Hunt manages to keep her dignity intact, and some of the younger children provide much needed comic relief, whether they’re setting off fireworks at the Murtaugh's stuffy private club, or following a trail of animal droppings.
“Cool, we get to follow the poo!” exclaims one of the Baker’s mischievous twin boys (played by Shane and Brent Kinsman).
That sounds more exciting than this movie.
BOTTOM LINE
Kids in the 8-12 range will probably enjoy the slapstick comedy but Steve Martin and Eugene Levy’s pratfalls grow tiresome pretty quickly for the teenaged set and older. However, Bonnie Hunt is good in every scene she’s in.
