Cheaper by the Dozen 2

Steve Martin's entertaining vehicle with young people and agreeable actors . The film deals about a happy family , the father (Steve Martin) is a notorious coach and the mother (Bonnie Hunt) is a writer and with twelve sons (Tom Welling, Piper Perabo, Hilary Duff..) . In the first part dealt with Tom who received a new offer as a trainer of a famous football team and she obtained her dream for the publishing the book titled : ¨Cheaper by the dozen¨. With the new job , they had to change from a small city to the big town . This second installment is set two years after the events in the previous film concerns The Bakers, this time the Baker family begins to undergo many changes, starting with Lorraine (Hilary Duff) and her desire to study in New York. Their oldest daughter Nora (Piper Perabo) is now married to Bud McNulty (Jonathan Bennett) and heavily pregnant. They intend to move to Houston because of Bud's new job promotion . While on vacation, find themselves competing with a rival family of eight children whose stiff father is Jimmy (Eugene Levy) , an old contender to Tom . Steve Martin ought to keep the familiar order involving in his own home while at the same time training the team to win the rival family . And along the way , the protagonist suffer numerous jokes and misfortunes in charge of the brothers . This Christmas The More... The Scarier! Growing pains? They've got twelve of them!This Christmas, you better watch out! This Christmas You Better Watch Out! Same Big Family... Even Bigger Adventure.

The picture is pretty entertaining and amusing , the film contains bemusing scenes and continuous laughters and various chuckles with lots of fun . It's a new version of the classic film with similar title featured by Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy . Although this movie is loosely based on a book by that title "Cheaper By The Dozen" about a real-life family, the book was written by one of the sons, Frank B. Gilbreth Jr., along with his sister, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. Although this film is based on that same book that inspired the 1950 film , the only element it retains from the original is the idea of there being 12 children in one family. Even the names of the characters are changed. The picture belongs to numerous family sub-genre whose maxim representation is ¨Yours , mine and ours¨ with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball and recently remade with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo . As trivia , to add the following one : when the "Cheaper by the Dozen" movies were made, neither Steve Martin nor Bonnie Hunt, who played the parents of 12 children, had ever had a child in real life . Based on the real life Gilbreth family, in fact the name Gilbreth appears sometimes throughout the film . As Gilbreth family on whom the film was based had 6 boys and 6 girls ; also, they did not have any twins . All the children were single births and the father regretted this because he felt multiple births to be more efficient . Steve Martin , as always , plays as excessive manner , making an authentic recital , if you like Martin's crazy interpretation , you'll enjoy this one . However , Tim Allen, Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks were considered for the role of Tom Baker. Besides , there appears as sons , known and young actors as Tom Welling (Smallville) , Hilary Duff (LizzyMcGuire) , Piper Perabo (Bar Coyote) and other kiddies as Taylor Lautner , Alyson Stoner , Jonathan Bennett, Jacob Smith , Liliana Mumy ,Morgan York , among others . The yarn was well realized , though without originality , and and with the same equipment was shot the first part . The motion picture was professionally directed by Adam Shankman : Hocus Pocus 2 , The pacifier, Rock of ages , Bedtime Stories , Wedding plans , Hairspray , A Walk to Remember. The flick will appeal to family films enthusiasts and Steve Martin fans.

'Cheaper by the Dozen 2' is pretty much the typical family comedy that has nothing new to offer. That does not mean that the film is absent of entertainment. It pretty much follows the usual formula with the regular ingredients. The slapstick and jokes are expected but still amusing. There are some funny adult jokes too. The film has heart and that's what works for it. Shankman and his cast and crew must have had a great time (as was also apparent on the DVD extras). Steve Martin and Eugene Levy are good. Martin has played the comedic family dad perhaps more than a dozen times and he has become quite skilled at it. The extremely talented Bonnie Hunt is criminally underused but she has an effective presence, nonetheless. Carmen Electra is a surprise. She plays a hot mom but not the clichéd one, rather one that is compassionate, gentle and caring. Electra does a good job and proves that she can do more than being just an airhead or a seductress. Piper Perabo is also underused. Jaime King is very pretty. Hilary Duff plays sort of a spoilt brat (which is a change from her sweet pretty girl image) but her acting is quite bad and she needs to eat. The child actors were all fun to watch. Overall, it's all goofy family fun and quite enjoyable when watching with the family.

As a teenage girl, and a fan of the first movie, I found the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen to be above my expectations. Usually, movie sequels are a disappointment, I have found, as was with Shrek 2, for example, but I found that Cheaper by the Dozen 2 was hilarious and a really good movie outlining the importance of family and family values. Yes, it was slightly predictable, as these movies often are, but I found that was strongly over-ridden by the comedy and 'slap-stick' that happened throughout the film to make it so entertaining. All the family had matured since that first film and it was interesting to see what the children had grown up to be like, and how much they had changed since the first film. I recommend this movie to fans of the first film, or anyone who just wants to see a light-hearted, 'feel-good' and all-over great movie.

This movie is as stereotypical as a family comedy can get in fact we have seen so many similar roles from Steve Martin in family comedies that one cannot honestly expect much from such films and indeed i went into this movie(as the company demanded i see a pg rated film) expecting as much.

The good part about the whole thing is that family comedies follow fool proof formulas and as such it is rare to find a bad one. So we have the summer release the 2 hot teens, one hot mom (carmen Electra looked spectacular), the overzealous and protective dad, the childhood romance etc etc you get what I'm saying right.

The acting of this movie is good with special mention for Steve Martin who is a regular comedy dad and even though brings nothing new to the film at least insures you never get bored. Eugene Levy also does a good job playing the eccentric dad of the rival family. Carmen Electra i realised is actually a good actress and looks great in this movie. However former preteen-queen Hilary duff looked way to thin and quite ugly.

The jokes of the film mostly squeaky clean although there is some much appreciated jokes for the adults that are so needed in this film. Particularly funny is the scene where the dog spoils the elaborate lunch, the take on another famous creature movie was hilarious. The film is filled with funny moments that will make you smile maybe force a half laugh but no scene is fall out your seat funny.

The film also serves the regular family fare with ease but almost every scene looks run of the mill and there is nothing new to add to film in the family-comedy-drama department. Being from India i found the father following his child on a date quite funny and something which i can actually picture someone who i know doing.

The movie is absolute run of the mill affair and loosed out on the novelty value that the first one enjoyed. However it serves the regular enjoyable family fare.

Watch it only if the company (family, going with friend and his girl friend for the first movie hehe) requires that you watch such a film.

With the first film being a hit you can imagine that 20th Century Fox couldn't move fast enough to make a sequel before all the kids grew up.

Perhaps not as good as the first, but certainly still a lot of fun, with the Steve Martin vs Eugene Levy element working well.

It's a little bit thin in places, and you can tell that Hillary Duff and Tom Welling weren't around as much as it appears, but on the whole this is a typically decent sequel.

Obviously time ran out and they couldn't make a third, perhaps it's best.