Cheaper by the Dozen

Cheaper by the Dozen

This remake of the beloved classic follows the raucous exploits of a blended family of 12, the Bakers, as they navigate a hectic home life while simultaneously managing their family business.

  • Released: 2022-03-18
  • Runtime: 107 minutes
  • Genre: Comedy, Family
  • Stars: Gabrielle Union, Zach Braff, Erika Christensen, Timon Kyle Durrett, Journee Brown, Andre Robinson, Caylee Blosenski, Aryan Simhadri, Leo A. Perry, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Christian Cote, Sebastian Cote, Luke Prael, Kylie Rogers, Brittany Daniel, Cynthia Daniel, Simeon Othello Daise, Alijah Francis, Cynthia Murell, Kyrie Mcalpin, Nicole Kornet, Carlos Santos, Bryce Adam Brown, Lauren Gaw, Nancy Harding, Sierra Swartz, David St. James, Abby Elliott, Jake T. Getman, Matthew Bellows, June Diane Raphael, Lola Raie, Erika Medina, Karen Armstrong, John O'Brien, Annie Tezuka, Christina Anthony, Rafael Cabrera, Ron Funches, Jacob Sandler, David VIllar, Niam Saharan, Elias Murphy, Annalyn Black, Logan Sigston, LaTonya Swann, Yorelis Apolinario, Emilie Bezler, Taylor Thomas, Mykell Wilson, Jacob Marc Dimenstein, Joe Slaughter, Asiel Hardison, Mark Jirgis, Bryan Kreutz, Teddy Day, Mathew Trent Hunnicutt
  • Director: Gail Lerner
 Comments
  • arrivingthoughts - 6 February 2023
    Entertaining, but drowns in its ambitious storytelling
    If you are looking for an entertaining movie to watch with the family or use as background noise, this film works. It has some sweet moments and is watchable, but from a critical standpoint, this movie is very flawed. The biggest issue is that this film has too many subplots and not enough time to adequately tell those stories or develop the characters.

    The film tries to address racism, classism, Paul expanding the restaurant, life as a multicultural blended family, and the events going on in some of the kids' lives after the move. This results in some of the family getting lots of screen time while others barely get any, and we hardly know some kids' names or anything about their personalities.

    Also, some of the monologues about racism in the film feel shoehorned into places where they didn't fit, and change the tone abruptly from comedy to after-school special. While there is a time and place for social issue discussion in cinema, these felt tacked on as though the writers used the characters as a mouthpiece for their own opinions. The speeches also seem to come out of nowhere, with no big event in the film prompting the discussions.

    This story becomes hard to follow because of all the material the filmmakers packed in while failing to flesh out the details. This comes up particularly in Paul's scenes about expanding the restaurant. It's difficult to understand how some of the business meetings came about because so much of the backstory is missing.

    If this film had narrowed its focus, it would've been much better. Having a clear story is something that the 2003 version of the film got right, and it's unfortunate that the reboot couldn't do the same. The film gets swallowed up by its own ambition to tell too big a story into little time.
  • tj-86109 - 24 July 2022
    Mixed message
    OMGoodness, they try so hard to make us believe the mother is being treated poorly when the only woman in the new neighborhood that treats her unkindly also treats everyone else the same way; she an ditzy idiot. It turns out she adopts Asian children and the mom tries to put her down because she gave birth to hers. Thank God for families that adopt any children. If they wanted to make ditzy look worse, they should have had her pull out some stock photos of a poverty shelter that she donated $5 to. The mother and her ex are the ones with a big chip and treats many of the characters in the movie as potential racist. If I saw a family that big I would be looking too, I don't care what race they are. I'm a paraplegic and when I see someone staring I'll pop a wheelie or something cool and watch them smile 90% of the time. Anyone notice that in about every public scene there are mixed race couples jotting around happily. Then just because the dad is white he can't understand how his black children feel, that he raised. Poorly betrayed.