Steve Martin as Tom ‘Dad’ Baker
Bonnie Hunt as Kate ‘Mom’ Baker
Piper Perabo as Nora Baker
Tom Welling as Charlie Baker
Hilary Duff as Lorraine Baker
Kevin Schmidt as Henry Baker
Alyson Stoner as Sarah Baker
Jacob Smith as Jake Baker
Forrest Landis as Mark Baker
Liliana Mumy as Jessica Baker
Morgan York as Kim Baker
Blake Woodruff as Mike Baker
Brent Kinsman as Nigel Baker
Shane Kinsman as Kyle Baker
Eugene Levy as Jimmy Murtaugh
Carmen Electra as Sarina Murtaugh
Jaime King as Anne Murtaugh
Alexander Conti as Kenneth Murtaugh
Review:
The Baker clan is slowly splintering and moving off on their own ways as the many Baker children grow up and start lives of their own. In a final attempt to hold onto the past before it’s gone forever, Tom Baker (Steve Martin) takes the family for a final family vacation in Wisconsin, where he soon finds himself up against his old rival, Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy).
“Cheaper by the Dozen 2” is so incredibly bland and by the numbers it’s painful to watch. Unlike the first – which had something of a story – “Cheaper by the Dozen 2” is just a collection of unfunny moment after unfunny moment that are both uninteresting and most damning of all, unfunny. There are several different stories going on simultaneously – too many, so that when any one of them finally reaches it’s climax it’s hard to impossible to care.
Martin does his normal family movie routine, and just about everyone else is on autopilot as well. Even the usually brilliant Eugene Levy is dully, badly miscast as the world’s coolest dad. Bonnie Hunt gets a few moments to let her sarcastic brilliance shine, but it’s not enough. It’s nice to see Sarina (Carmen Electra) – Jimmy’s trophy wife – played as an intelligent woman who actually cares about her husband and stepchildren, instead of the brainless, heartless bimbo such characters are usually played as, but it’s small consolation for the rest of the film’s problems.
“Cheaper by the Dozen 2” commits the worst of all film sins; it’s dull, dull, dull.
“Cheaper by the Dozen 2” is rated PG for some crude humor and mild language.
