Cheaper by the Dozen is a 2003 American family comedy film directed by Shawn Levy, and stars Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. The film was released on December 25, 2003 by 20th Century Fox to negative reviews, but was a box-office success, ultimately grossing just over $190 million worldwide.
Video Cheaper by the Dozen (2003 film)
Plot
Tom Baker is a football coach at a small rural college in Midland, Michigan, where he met his future wife Kate and together, they had 12 kids (Nora, Charlie, Loraine, Henry, Sarah, Jake, Mark, fraternal twins Jessica and Kim, Mike, and identical twins Kyle and Nigel). Kate has written her story into a book and hopes to send it to her friend to publish the book. Tom unexpectedly receives an offer from his old friend and football teammate Shake McGuire to coach at his alma mater in his hometown of Evanston, Illinois. Tom accepts the offer, and he and Kate begin making plans on moving back to Evanston. The kids find out and demand the move be put to a vote, even though Tom says it won't have any power. He loses the vote, even after he and Kate join, but goes ahead with the move anyway, claiming there will be more money and that they will be a "happier and stronger family". The atmosphere at the Bakers' new house is tense and the situation at school is even worse.
At the new house, the Bakers have their eldest daughter Nora visit them, bringing her boyfriend Hank (whom the kids dislike due to his arrogance and hatred of children). The younger kids soak Hank's boxers in meat, and unleash the family dog Gunner on him. And Norah storms out. Tom scolds the younger kids for their naughty prank.
Later, the Bakers meet next-door neighbors the Shenk family consisting of Bill, Tina and their only son Dylan. After a series of mishaps, Dylan invites the younger kids to his birthday party. Shortly afterwards, Kate tells Tom that she's leaving on a book tour, leaving Tom in charge of the kids. Tom finds this almost impossible to handle. He tries to hire a nanny, but nobody is willing to work with 12 kids. Trying to balance his job as a father and a football coach, he brings his football players home with him, but that doesn't seem to help much either. When things get completely out of control, Tom grounds the kids from attending Dylan's birthday party. While his back is turned however, the kids attend the party anyway.
At Dylan's party, Jake tells him to go get the football they got for Dylan so they can play with it. When he does, he knocks some of the presents over, and the Brazilian mud viper they also got for him escapes. The resulting panic causes Tom to realize the kids have gone, and to enlist the players to round them up. He tries to take Sarah out of the bounce house, but during the chaos, a helium tank falls on the bounce house, causing it to overinflate, then explode, sending Tom and several kids flying through the air. While the football players catch Sarah and the other kids, Tom lands on top of Dylan, breaking his arm and he is taken to the hospital.
When her book is ready to pick up for publication, Kate is required to do a national book tour to promote it. Tom thinks that he can handle everything in the family's household while Kate is away, so he decides to hire the family's oldest child, Nora, and her self-absorbed boyfriend, Hank, to manage the children. When Nora and Hank arrive, the children plan to make Hank the target of their prank by soaking his underwear in meat and assisting the Bakers' pet dog, Gunner, to attack him by chewing his bottom, prompting him to refuse to assist in babysitting. As a result, Nora drives off with Hank, while Tom lectures them for their prank. After Kate departs for her book tour, Tom realizes that he cannot handle the children on his own after a chaotic night. In reply to this revelation, Tom tries to hire a housekeeper, but nobody is willing to work with a family as large as the Bakers, so Tom decides to bring the football players from work into the family's house for game practicing in the living room to prepare for the Saturday night football game as the children perform chores and their household games. However, the children start causing trouble at school. Kate overhears from the children about the chaos and cancels the book tour to take charge of the situation. Kate's publisher decides to create an additional promotion for her book by inviting Oprah Winfrey to tape a segment about the Bakers in their home instead.
Despite much coaching from Kate, the Bakers are not able to demonstrate the loving, strongly bonded family that Kate described in her book. When Mark becomes upset that his pet frog has died, a heated fight erupts moments before the segment starts, leading the cameramen to call Winfrey to cancel it. Mark runs away from home, prompting the Bakers to find him. When Norah tells Hank that her brother is missing, Hank is too busy watching his commercial to help, making Nora realize that Hank is nothing but a pompous jerk and storms out on her own.
During the search Tom indulges a hunch that Mark is trying to run back to the Bakers' old home, and eventually finds Mark on an Amtrak train departing from Evanston, Illinois to Midland. Reuniting with the rest of their family, the Bakers begin to address their issues with each other, and Tom ultimately resigns from his position at his alma mater with Shake.
Maps Cheaper by the Dozen (2003 film)
Cast
The film's director Shawn Levy makes a cameo as a reporter
Sequel
A sequel, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, was released in the United States on December 21, 2005.
Soundtrack
Other compositions used in the movie are "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams and Carl Orff's "O Fortuna", among others.
Reception
Critical reception
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 24% approval rating based on reviews from 118 critics, with an average score of 4.5 out of 10, and the site's consensus reading: "In this family of twelve children, much chaos ensues, but little hilarity." On Metacritic, which determines a normalized rating from mainstream critics, the film received a score of 46 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Despite initial reactions, the film was given "Two Thumbs Up" from Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper on their television show, and became a box office hit. The film opened at #2 ranking in US$27,557,647 in its first opening weekend and, despite being kept from the top spot by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, went on to gross $190,212,113 worldwide. Ashton Kutcher was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his performance in this, Just Married, and My Boss's Daughter.
Awards and nominations
Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on April 6, 2004.
References
External links
- "Official Website". Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2009-08-22. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- Cheaper by the Dozen on IMDb
- Cheaper by the Dozen at Rotten Tomatoes
- Cheaper by the Dozen at AllMovie
- Movie stills
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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