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Cheaper by the Dozen 2 Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG (for some crude humor and mild language) Genre: Comedy, Family Theater release: December 21, 2005 by the Dozen 2 Directed by: Adam Shankman Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes Cast: (Tom Baker), (Kate Baker), (Nora Baker), Tim Welling (Charlie Baker), (Lorraine Baker), Eugene Levy (Jimmy Murtaugh), (Sarina Murtaugh) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Parenthood is not an adventure for the weak-hearted, and Steve Martin has had great success with movies that celebrate that reality with a potent mix of screwball comedy and bitter-sweet heart. Parenthood (1989) was a classic, the Father of the Bride films (1991, 1995) yanked laughter, tears, and ticket dollars from many a movie patron, and 2003's highly successful (if not critically-acclaimed) Cheaper by the Dozen was a respectable addition to the Martin canon. Cheaper by the Dozen 2, unfortunately, is the exception that proves the rule—great comedic talent (Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Eugene Levy), a bevy of cute kids, and a funny set-up can't camouflage a less-than-stellar story. Cheaper 2 has a script as tired as, well, your average parent.

Steve Martin fires up his family for the Labor Day Cup competition

The premise is promising enough. Tom Baker (Martin) and his wife Kate (Bonnie Hunt) are facing the very early stages of Empty Nest Syndrome. Daughter Lorraine (Hilary Duff) is graduating from high school and planning a move to New York to take on a fashion internship. Oldest daughter Nora (Piper Perabo) is married, expecting the first Baker grandchild, and moving to Houston. (Sadly, Nora's old beau Hank, played in the first Cheaper to great comedic effect by Ashton Kutcher, is nowhere to be seen.) Even with eldest son Charlie (Tom Welling) out of the house, there are still nine more kids at home, but Tom is having a hard time letting go of any of his brood. Pining for the old times, he plans a late summer family vacation at a Lake Winnetka—the site of many previous happy family gatherings. The entire clan signs on, and after an oddly slow start to the film, the Baker family and the movie itself get on the road.

The Bakers arrive to find the "Big House" they've always rented in a state of disrepair. On the other side of the lake, Tom's old nemesis Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy) has built the "Boulders," a summer home as ostentatious as Jimmy himself. Soon, Tom discovers that Jimmy now owns most of the lake, has married a young new wife (Carmen Electra), and has groomed his eight over-achieving children to "reflect the best aspects of his gene pool." Despite Tom's promise to his family to not resume a competitive feud with Jimmy, the two men are soon embroiled in heated contests over everything from who is the best tennis player to who is the best father. The rivalry becomes an obsession, leading both men to first amuse and then alienate their families.

Carmen Electra and Eugene Levy play the parents of the Murtaugh family, the Bakers' big rivals

Tom and Jimmy eventually agree to settle their feud at the Labor Day Cup—a family vs. family epic conflict involving sack races and egg tosses. Can Tom regain the respect of his brood enough to get them to participate? Will they win? Will the Baker grandchild arrive in the middle of it all? How many times will the unidentified old man in the wheelchair get inadvertently pushed into the lake? These are the sorts of questions that Cheaper by the Dozen 2 sets out to answer.

At times, Cheaper 2 has a madcap feel reminiscent of Meatballs or any of the Chevy Chase Vacation movies. But the jokes seem overly familiar and worn out, and there are moments when Martin's mugging and zany physical comedy feel a little desperate. The film suffers from erratic pacing, with the silliness pausing for lengthy Moments of Family Warmth. The movie's messages are great—the importance of family, of kindness to one another, of loyalty even when a member of the tribe is at less than his best—but the script relies on such conventional formulas that potentially heart-rending moments lose their way in all the sap. There are laughs to be sure, and poignant scenes as well, but they are fewer and farther between than they could or should be, given the talent involved.

The rivalry between arch-nemeses Tom Baker (Martin) and Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy) never ends

Carmen Electra is a nice surprise, making Jimmy's new spouse Sarina more than the expected trophy wife and giving her character an empathetic vulnerability and warmth. Young Alyson Stoner is a standout in scenes exploring preteen tomboy Sarah's first crush. Bonnie Hunt is wonderfully understated and truly funny—especially in a scene where she is forced to wear one of Sarina's more revealing sweaters and endure the ogling of her own family. And there is a nice tenderness in the relationship between Hunt's Kate and Martin's Tom. In fact, the entire cast is uniformly strong, but with fourteen Bakers (plus a son-in-law and an over-exuberant dog) and ten Murtaughs, all that talent is diffused. Often, Cheaper 2 is forced to rely on references back to the first movie in order to establish or remind us of any character development, making the storytelling feel more than a little lazy.

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