Film reviews

Cheaper By The Dozen, Dir; Shawn Levy, Cert; PG

So what's the crack? Twelve children, one's left home (if Catholicism is involved, have they ever seen Monty Phython's 'Meaning Of Life'? Or perhaps it was this that was the inspiration). Where was I, ah yes, Steve Martin, the Baker family, all 14 of them, and of course the dog and the toad! You heard me correctly, the toad and something else, you've got it, this is a typical Martin movie, Parenthood, Father of the Bride come immediately to mind, Bowfinger being the possible exception, although this was probably rescued by Murphy's humorous streak. Madcap appears the order of the day and Steve's rubber faced antics should not pass by without a mention.

It would appear that this is a remake of a 1950 film by the same name, a novel by Frank B. Gilbeth Jnr. being the idea behind both. Of course I would assume that this has been updated, and it would seem made somewhat more interesting, but I felt had taken the film's of the late John Hughes very much to heart, but we're going to the cinema, do we really want such a blatant message trust down our throats - a family, with both parents trying to further their careers, whilst (not) managing to raise said family.

Yes you guessed it a very formulaic movie, in fact one note I notice I made whilst watching the film is 'brain dead', in hindsight this is a little harsh. Certainly it won't take any great sense of mental ability to watch this film, but placed in the right context this is an altogether amusing and fairly un obnoxious family movie, but perhaps not quite a film for the more independent members of that family. 6/10

Nick James

Odeon Online