Cheaper by the Dozen is a family-comedy film based on the 1948 semi-autobiography novel of the same name. The movie also serves as a remake of both the 1950 and 2003 films of the same name. It's produced by Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Studios, 21 Laps Entertainment, and Khalabo Ink Society and distributed by Disney+. Cheaper by the Dozen is written by Kenya Barris and Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry and directed by Gail Lerner.
The story is two parents live their children from their previous marriages. Now they have to deal with their large group of children, while at the same time manage their family breakfast business.
Initial Reaction
My main reason for want to see this is because I liked the movies with Steve Martin in them. They weren't masterpieces by any stretch of the word, but they had a charm to them. So I was curious how this one was gonna be.
Cons
One huge problem with the movie is they somehow missed the premise. First, there's not twelve kids, there's ten. So the dozen part of the title makes no sense. Second, the family isn't biological, it's a blended family. So this movie isn't Cheaper by the Dozen it's Yours, Mine and Ours. How did they screw up something so basic and easy to understand, I'll never know. Then we have the overall look. The cinematography, and all that is so cheap. Nothing about the movie said cinematic. If anything I felt like I was looking at a TV sitcom, then a movie. What also made the movie an unbearable viewing experience was the humor. I chuckled once. Just once. But before and after that chuckle, it was nothing but cringe. All you get is your typical running into things, people predictable getting hurt, and the dogs' names being puns to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.....that's not me trying to get a cheap laugh, that's actually in the movie. I was getting so annoyed/tried of the poor attempts at humor, that I actually turned it off, watched a movie that's actually funny, and then came back. That's how bad it was. Then there's the fact that I can definitely see this movie being considered outdated. The filmmakers tried so hard to make this movie seem hip and cool, because that actually do make references. Like how one of the characters mentioned how much they love Tiktok. I said it before this gonna be outdated, this whole movie. I give a month before then. Now onto the other big issue with this newer version of Cheaper by the Dozen and that is it's being political. Yeah there's a lot of stuff in this movie that touches on the stuff I roll my eyes at whenever I see it on the news, Twitter, and etc. And nobody (expect for the people who've made that their entire personality) wants to see that. I don't care if it's left-wing, right-wing, somewhere in between, nobody wants to feel like they're listening to someone on their soapbox. The reason why we liked the Steve Martin movies, was because when the filmmakers made those, they were just making a fun family movie, and in a way, they succeed. This one doesn't.
Middle Ground
I've got nothing.
Pros
I still got nothing.
Wow, this felt like a chore to get through. It missed the premise, it looks like a b-movie, but even that feels like I'm giving it a compliment, the attempts at humor were painful, because of some of the references and other attempts at being trendy the movies gonna be outdated before it even comes close to being a year old, and being political, social, whatever the proper word is, isn't helping matters either. If anything, it's gonna turn people away.
My final rating is Destroy It!
So yeah, stick with the Steve Martin movies, or maybe go check out the 1950 film. But that's all for me. Come back on Thursday, Mar 24th, for my Underrated Films review of Man on Fire. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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