Cheaper By The Dozen was released in 2003. (same year X2: X-Men United came out) it received negative reviews from critics and movie goers alike. Regardless of bad reception, the movie made enough revenue at the box office. A sequel, “Cheaper By The Dozen 2” was critically panned. Cancelling plans for a third movie. Shawn Levy (Night At The Museum Trilogy, Big Fat Liar, Real Steel) is producing the upcoming fourth season of “Stranger Things.” To prepare for the highly anticipated season, I wanna share my thoughts on Cheaper By The Dozen. He’s got experience working with child actors. A remake with Zac Braff is in the works will stream in the future on Disney Plus. One more thing, Shawn’s recent film, “Free Guy” is out.
Today’s review contains no SPOILERS. I’m giving some of you guys and gals a chance to see this gem. Keep in mind, this is a short review. It’s not a complex psychological thriller, just a simple family comedy. Is Cheaper By The Dozen as bad as critics claim? Let’s find out shall we?
More & Less Aspects
More: The Main Cast such as Steve Martin, Hilary Duff, Tom Welling, Piper Perabo, (the chick from Looper) Alyson Stoner (Isabella from Phineas And Ferb, also the little girl from Missy Elliot’s Work It music video) & Bonnie Hunt all did a good job for their respective performances.
Other Cast Members such as Richard Jenkins (the dad from Step Brothers) & Alan Ruck (Cameron from Ferris Buller’s Day Off) both did a solid job for their respective performances.
Shawn Levy did an ok job directing. He also makes a cameo appearance as a reporter.
Humor has some legit jokes ranging from visual gags to The Baker Family bantering each other.
My favorite line is, “You soak his underwear in meat.”
Cinematography never suffered from any technical issues.
The Baker Family are from Chicago. Christopher & Jonathan Nolan grew up there. They have duel citizenship in America & The UK.
At the 9:13 mark, there’s a lunchbox of Homer Simpson. Wait a tic, “The Simpsons: Hit And Run” also came out in 2003.
Seeing Ashton Kutcher being attacked by a dog via meat soaked in his underwear felt satisfying. I’ll pretend it’s payback for butchering “Two And A Half Men.” Can’t believe Jon Cryer became a sellout & Angus T. Jones quit the show over his religious views. The show without Charlie Sheen is a curse. Oh how the mighty have fallen!
A frog is a family pet. Speaking of which, frogs in “Ang Lee’s “Hulk” resulted in an explosive catastrophe.
Simple Plan’s “I’m Just A Kid” (not from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) is played when the kids go to school. The Cast did a viral video challenge on TikTok in a now and then montage with the song playing in the background.
Wayne Knight, (Newman from Seinfeld) Dax Shepard, Kelly Ripa & the late Regis Philbin make cameo appearances.
Jared Padalecki appears as a high school bully. This is before he made it big as Sam Winchester from “Supernatural.”
As a kid I never understood risqué jokes. Here’s one notable example, Lorraine calls Sarah a Butch. Not kidding fellas.
Bloopers are shown during The End Credits with The Cast having a good time on set.
Less: Product Placement (Pee Pee for short) featuring brands such as Gatorade, Nike, Skippy Peanut Butter, Capri-Sun, Goldfish, Pepsi.
I know they’re just kids, but nine of them are cause furniture damage, disobey their overwhelmed father’s rules, ignore the fact they don’t care about wrecking their new home and the worst offender of them all, ruining a birthday party. If I ever have a bunch of kids, I would keep it limited to two. Rowdy kids wrecking havoc in a house felt like “Daddy Day Care” all over again. If you wanna have kids, keep it limited. Having a dozen kids will make it incredibly difficult as a parent.
The Final Verdict: B, FOR BRIGHTFUL
I’m gonna be brutally honest, Cheaper By The Dozen is not a horrendous movie as I remember. As an adult, I still enjoy it. I have no idea why critics despise it. This isn’t Mike Myers’ god awful “The Cat In The Hat” or “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.” If you wanna introduce your kids, grandkids, nephews or nieces, I highly recommend this gem. I have a bad feeling Disney Plus’ upcoming remake is gonna sink to the bottom of the ocean.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 
“Cheaper by the Dozen” opened on Christmas Day 2003, and grossed $27,557,647 over its opening weekend (December 26-28, 2003); $35,397,241 including its Thursday Christmas Day gross of $7,839,594.
Over its first 11 days (when its target audience was still off from school), it grossed $85,620,095.
It ended up grossing a total of $138,614,544 in the United States and another $51,597,569 overseas, for a total of $190,212,113 worldwide, against a $40 million budget.
Not bad at all, considering its 24% “Rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and its 46/100 “mixed or average reviews” rating on Metacritic. Notably, on the positive side, Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film “Two Thumbs Up” on their TV show, with Ebert giving it 3 out of 4 stars in his newspaper review.
Audiences seemed to like the film at the time, as Cinemascore polling reported that audiences gave the film an A- grade (on a scale of A+ to F).
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