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Cheaper by the Dozen
EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 65 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Family/Kids
Written by:
Craig Titley
Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. (book)
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (book)
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 2003
DVD: April 6, 2004
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for language and some thematic elements
Starring Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Piper Perabo, Tom Welling, Hilary Duff, Kevin Schmidt, Alyson Stoner, and Ashton Kutcher
A comedy about family, loyalty and priorities. (20th Century Fox)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Cheaper by the Dozen 2 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Martin and Hunt are exactly the right lively but not sticky authority figures to keep the house (and the comedy pace) bouncing.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
It's not just a feel-good holiday movie, though audiences, especially youngsters, will certainly walk out of it feeling good.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Equal parts fantasy and cautionary tale, a film that manages to be uplifting and off-putting simultaneously -- fortunately, more the former than the latter.
Read Full Review >Premiere Sara Brady
Cheaper entertains a broad audience by recalling an age of family filmmaking when that term wasnt synonymous with crap.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
Isn't without charm, or laughs. Director Shawn Levy's film features some of the best child actor casting since "The Little Rascals."
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ed Park
Solidifying his funnyman rep, Ashton Kutcher appears as oldest child Piper Perabo's model-actor boyfriend, a delightfully brainless narcissist.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Hank Sartin
Be forewarned: this comedy bears only the faintest resemblance to the classic book and film of the same name.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Something of a shambles -- a shambles about a shambles -- but bound for big success and deservedly so.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Soft, sentimental, and as unlike real family life as you can get.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Christine Dolen
If only director Shawn Levy and the screenwriters had gone for cute and interesting instead of dull and cloyingly sentimental.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Much of the film feels like watching "Home Alone" and "Mr. Mom" on 12 different TVs at once.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
An unobjectionable if uninspired updating of a classic family story for the minivan generation.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
This is a movie that knows its audience and realizes it doesn't need much of a story to hit that audience, literally, where it lives.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
This is a movie that knows its audience and realizes it doesn't need much of a story to hit that audience, literally, where it lives.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Martin puts a thankless gloss on the antic role he played in "Parenthood." As his wife, Hunt is the movie's saving grace.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Thanks to Martin and Hunt, who both have a seemingly casual flair for mining laughs from even the most generic lines of dialogue, Cheaper by the Dozen works better than it might have in less capable hands, but even they're challenged by some of the picture's forced mood swings.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Much as I adore Martin and Hunt, whose matching tongue-in-cheek delivery and finite patience make them seem more like siblings than spouses, their movie is indistinguishable from an Afterschool Special.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Makes one long for Martin's edgy work in films such as "The Spanish Prisoner."
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Resembles nothing more than an overstuffed, undernourished "Brady Bunch" episode, only not as funny.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Jon Strickland
Nobody here, especially Martin, looks as if he's having much fun, apart from a dizzy cameo by Ashton Kutcher as oldest daughter Piper Perabo's model-actor beau, riffing heavy-handedly on his pretty-boy image, and loving it.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Unfortunately knows no tone between schmaltzy/gooey and slapstick/gross-out. Pic is as far from the original pic and its autobiographical memoir source as it can be while retaining the same title.
Read Full Review >Empire Niall MacPherson
The film works best when it taps into the chaos generated by the kids, and there are a number of suitably anarchic Home Alone-style set-pieces.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
There is not a frame of "Cheaper" that doesn't feel contrived. It fails the most fundamental test of movie logic.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
Can be summed up by the fact that Ashton Kutcher, making a glorified cameo as a narcissistic model-slash-actor, is the best thing in it.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Nothing happens. At all. Ever. Remember when Steve Martin was funny? Apparently, neither does he.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A bubbling crockpot of farcical mush to warm the tummies of anyone who really and truly misses "The Brady Bunch," and I mean really and truly.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Everyone learns a lesson by movies end: Dont put work before family. Curiously, no one learns that all this could have been avoided with a good method of birth control.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
The same studio has aimed a remake at the same family market. Translation: The once-modest piece has been redesigned as a vehicle (a lumbering SUV) for Steve Martin, stripped of any vestigial charm, and then thrown into neutral, where its manic engine does nothing but roar loudly and pointlessly for the duration.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 65 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Brendan gave it a3:
Sure the kids might say "that was so funny!" But trust me when I say it is not. The "funny" scenes in the movie are taken right out of America's Funniest Home Videos but when transfered to the silver screen it leaves you waiting for the unbearable madness to stop. It is a film that everyone is sad and for no reason all of a sudden all the problems are gone and everyone is happy again for no reason. It's pointless and boring and just plain stupid even for kids. Some kids comedies can be smart and actually be enjoyable for the whole family (Bridge to Terrebithia, Big Fat Liar, Shrek). So when your in the theater watching it remember me when I say "I told you so."
Steve gave it a2:
For kids only. Worse than a bad sitcom.
Felicia P. gave it a10:
This movie was amazing! All the actors and actresses did an outstanding job. Jake Smith did one of the best jobs along with Alyson Stoner. Great job everyone.
Alexis A. gave it a10:
I just wish they gave Jacob Smith more lines. He barely said anything at all! And he is the only reason I liked it. Hillary Duff should not have been in the movie! If they took her and replaced her with someone else it would have been alot better. Even though I gave it a ten, it was only because they put Jacob in it.
mary gave it a10:
I liked that movie alot the only reason i liked it was cause of jacob i love you.
Cheyenne S. gave it a10:
I think cheaper by the dozen is the best movie ever i love jacob smith and tom welling i think they were costed perfcetly.
Jessica S. gave it a10:
It was the best movie ever my favorite charecter was Jake. I love Jacob Smith.
